I’m 23, my hometown is Reading, however I moved to Portsmouth after university. I’ve always had a passion of animation and motion design and it’s something I’ve wanted to pursue since I was a little kid. My love for animations was fuelled Disney and Studio Ghibli films and was the driving force for learning and developing my drawing skills so I could one day be an animator myself!

I studied Art and Design at A-level and then decided to pursue this further in higher education. I went to Middlesex University in London, where I studied for a BA in Animation. I learned a variety of animation skills whilst I was there, such as frame–by–frame animation, as well as aftereffects animation and a little bit of 3D.  

I’m currently a Junior Motion Designer with Silver, meaning I have found my feet in the creative industry. I have really enjoyed my time at Silver as I’ve been allowed to experiment and express ideas freely and use my creativity to produce 2D animations, which I never thought I could do to the extent I do now! It is also great having the rest of my team around me, because if I have an issue they are all very willing to help me out and show me the best way of achieving the right outcome, which has helped me learn so much more and improve future work.

One thing I love about my role is the outcome of the hard work you put in to video. Starting a 2–3-minute animation can be very daunting when creating assets and popping them into the programme you’re using. However, once you start to get into your work and finesse the details, it feels awesome to see the project come alive and begin seeing the payoff for all your hard work! For me, character animation is the biggest reward as seeing a character you created become imbued with life (well almost) and have its own personality is something special.

One thing I wish I knew before entering the creative industry is how hard it is to start off. A lot of people struggle to enter the creative industry for many reasons, companies want you to have a few years’ experience or a deep knowledge of certain software or applications you may not have covered at university. Sometimes it is worth applying for these jobs anyway because some companies will offer on-the-job training, just like Silver did for me. I had knowledge of the Adobe suite, but Silver allowed me to undertake smaller jobs I wasn’t originally familiar with to build confidence and now I have an in-depth knowledge of the programmes.  

Always make sure you are creating new content and keeping your work up to date. Doing this will help you gain a role within the industry as your work will improve as you learn. Making sure your portfolio is tailored to the part of the industry that you are applying for too as this will allow employers to see how your style and animation would bring value to their industry of work.  

A tip from Skye…

Make sure you reach out to a variety of people as knowing people in the industry will help with employability. Even if you don’t always get a reply, sometimes it is worth reaching out as you never know where it could lead to.