Kilogramme is an amazing animation studio based in the heart
of Manchester. I was extremely nervous when I called up the studio, however Jon
Turner, director at Kilogramme, was so lovely and friendly and organised a
visit. Kilogramme was the first studio I visited and I went with a fellow student
Anna Picariello, as she wanted to see them as well and for a boost of confidence.
When we arrived, we entered the lobby of an apartment building, and couldn’t
see a sign for kilogramme anywhere. We soon discovered that Google Maps had not
updated where the studio had moved to, so we had to call Jon who kindly met us
and took us to the studio.
Finally at the right studio, I met the team and everyone was
incredibly lovely but extremely busy with tight deadlines, so unfortunately I
wasn’t able to talk to anyone else in the studio.
Jon gave me feedback on my collaborative piece A History of Cake, the main critique mainly
being that the perspective was too flat which I also had a problem with, but
with time restrictions in the module, there wasn’t time to animate more interesting
camera directions. Jon agreed with our problem with the amount of time, he told
us that it is good to always find a solution that works just as well as the
original plan if you are struggling against deadlines. In addition he gave me feedback on my
character designs – good use of perspective and line. He told me to draw from
life as often as I could and buy How to
Draw Comics the “Marvel” Way, it is fantastic for drawing in perspective
and learning to make the composition of the frame more dynamic.
I told Jon how much I loved the studios work on the Big Chip Awards project and he was kind enough
to show me all the pre-development work! He explained about the storyboards,
how they make them with Adobe Flash, as it is then easier to make into an
animatic. I thought it was quite interesting through how they use Flash as
their storyboarding tool, I personally haven’t used Flash before but Jon said
that it is a required skill to work at Kilogramme. Even if I went into industry
and the job didn’t require flash, having the knowledge of the interface will
help with understanding other animation tools, much like Toon Boom Harmony or
TV Paint.
It was a short visit but I really enjoyed meeting everyone
at the studio and would love to keep in contact with them.
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| Big Chip Awards |
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| Ali character design sheet |
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