24/06/21 • News & Happenings

Transition Year work experience at Lighthouse Studios

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“Thanks to everyone at Lighthouse Studios who made work experience online possible. It was enlightening to [know] what working in animation is like and I’m grateful to have had an experience that I know not is not available to many.”

 

 

After a successful pilot run earlier this year, our second Transition Year Work Placement Programme took place in May.

The online programme ran for one week and was attended by 15 students from Kilkenny College, St Kieran’s College, Loreto Kilkenny and FCJ Bunclody.

During the programme students were given the opportunity to learn about character design, storyboarding, rigging, special effects and background design through a series of talks given by crew members. “I’d say my highlight was the talk on Background design,” said one student. “I just genuinely thought the artwork was amazing and it was interesting to see all the details you wouldn’t see at a first glance. After going deeper into the topic it made you appreciate the artwork more.”

As the crew at Lighthouse work primarily within Toon Boom, we also gave the students a demo of the software so that they could see how it worked, with one student commenting “I liked watching Toon Boom being used because it is new to me. Seeing the sketches to the finished product was great too because we could see how just a few sketches can be turned into a whole movie or series.”

Check out these excellent character turnarounds from (l-r) Eva Tallis, Anna Lynch, Adam Noonan and Hannah Hughes.

“I would just like to say a massive thank you to Kevin for putting this all together and to all the people who took time out of their busy days to talk to us live. I really enjoyed the whole week! It was much more beneficial than I could have predicted and has really given me an insight into what it takes to put an animation together.”

In addition to learning about the artistic roles within the industry, students were also given an insight into the inner workings of an animation studio. For some, this was the highlight of the week. “I really enjoyed the whole week but I would have to say the highlights for me were talking to Emilie Walmsley and learning about the role of a business psychologist from Kevin Quigley,” said one student. “I had a great interest in their line of work and I could really see myself being passionate about doing the work they do in the future.”

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the team at Lighthouse who took the time to share their passion for animation and provide the students with an insight into the industry. Special thanks to all the crew involved, and to every student who participated in the programme.

All enquiries about upcoming programmes should be directed to Learning and Development Specialist, Harry Harty, on [email protected]

 

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