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I first became interested in animation when I was introduced to Storyboarding at school when I was 14. I really enjoyed planning action and camera angles by drawing them out. A couple of months later while I was on a two weeks work experience at British Telecom I saw someone designing new products in 3D on the computer which looked pretty cool and started me thinking that this was something I could do too. Combined with my love of film and the release of Toy Story, I was hooked!
After trying a bit of everything from pre-production to particle effects and programming as part of my degree course at Teesside I decided that it was really character animation that I liked the most. The intensive one year course at Sheridan allowed me to concentrate on improving my animation skills, however my ability to model and rig also improved ten-fold. After all you can’t animate a character well when the rig keeps falling to bits! I also had to switch from using Softimage XSI to Maya which caused a few problems at first (especially with the keyboard shortcuts) but I picked it up fairly quickly and within a month was confident in Maya as well.
I have many interests outside the field of animation which I pursue with the same zeal and enthusiasm. For years I have played the bassoon and been a member of several different orchestras, wind quintets and jazz groups. The peak of which was touring Italy with Suffolk Youth Orchestra one summer. I also have a passion for travelling and have taken two years out of my studies, one before starting University and one before my Post-Graduate course, to work and backpack all over the world, including Singapore, Turkey, Australia, Uganda and Canada. While I was at University I took up white water kayaking and was the Club’s Treasurer for two years. This fuelled my appetite for extreme sports and I have also tried Scuba Diving, Snowboarding, Skydiving and Bungee Jumping. If it looks crazy I’ll give it a go!
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