Two weeks ago I was privileged to visit the Sticky Pictures animation studio in Sydney for a tour.
Sticky Pictures is an Australian animation company who specialises in children’s programs such as: Pearlie, The Dukes of Bröxstônia and Pirate Express, which is currently in development.
As some of you know, one of my passions is art and animation, however sometimes it can get disheartening sitting in my room all by myself being overwhelmed by such huge tasks, and not knowing whether I’m doing the right thing or not.
Therefor it was great being able to see how the professionals work within the animation industry.
At Sticky I met a lot of the team including Michael; one of the script writers who personally guided me around explaining their processes, Stu; one of the producers and script writers and Suren; one of the animators who sat down with me to critique my portfolio, as well as giving constructive advice on how I could get better.
At the time that I visited they were working on a new series called Pirate Express, which is cute cartoon about pirates mixed with Greek mythological influences.
The studio was set up with a bunch of computer stations with pirate reference materials around the room in timelines, planners and concept art hung up on the walls.
When I was there the animators were creating character and prop sheets for Pirate Express using Photoshop and Flash. These sheets are then used as reference (for the animators in Canada , whom they were working with this time). These sheets are then used so that the characters and props are consistent in colour and size, when the actual animating takes place. Michael then explained that because they are a small company, Sticky collaborates with other companies overseas in the UK and Canada, and delegates the work depending on the type of project they’re working on.
Over all I can say, it was a pretty cool adventure, and I’ll continue to work hard at improving my own art!
