We just wanted to wish all our members and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This time last year we were glad to be seeing the back of 2020, but 2021 has brought its own ongoing challenges.
Through it, the industry is finding creative ways to thrive and many people are busier than ever – just differently than before.
Community and peer relationships hold increased importance and we hope that AWUK brings you all some of that. It certainly does to us.
Thank you all for supporting us and each other through volunteering, mentoring, being mentored, running events, attending events and representing us at them. Together we are encouraging and helping more women to join and remain in our wonderful industries.
We hope you all have some well deserved time off in whatever form that takes and look forward to seeing you all (hopefully maybe in person) in 2022.
With less than two weeks until we open the virtual doors on our first-ever virtual exhibition – Limitless – it’s time to introduce you to the rest of our talented lineup who will be showcasing their personal work.
Isobel Stenhouse is a concept and animation artist, currently working on a game at Supermassive Games. She has enjoyed an incredibly varied career in both art and production roles. Since mid-2020 she’s been teaching layout at weekends at The Cartoon Mill, and in March 2021 she completed a 3D-focused concept art course at Escape Studios. She mentors for Access VFX and gives industry talks on workplace wellbeing.
Emma Niemis is a London-based freelance fabricator for stop-motion animation, specialising in puppet and model making. She is a graduate of the Animation course at Norwich University of the Arts.
Magdalena Osinska is currently a director at Aardman Animations. Jasia is a personal project on which she has been working for the past few years and it’s a labour of love. It’s a real story set in fantasy, about a little orphaned girl going through hardships caused by a political situation, by a war. It’s about survival, being different and believing in dreams and love.
Amy Backwell is a London-based sculptor and painter, her wacky characters visually capture her whimsical and surrealist visions. Her work is about capturing the essence of these characters in exaggerated and absurdist situations. During the day, Amy works as the Emerging Talent Specialist for the Visual Effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). In her own time, she also loves composing classical music.
JoAnne Salmon is a storyboard artist at Pop Paper City Ltd. She has worked in the animation industry for 5 years in Bournemouth and has had various roles such as animator and concept artist. For as long as she can remember she has loved drawing and painting. Through painting, she felt so much freedom, creating worlds and express emotion through a paintbrush.
Natasha Tonkin is a London-based filmmaker and artist originally from Australia. Her paintings are evolving alongside my films, each informing the other. Her ambition is to bring them closer together and continue to explore inventive storytelling and image-making techniques.
As we get closer to the launch of the Limitless virtual exhibition in September, we wanted to share some of the brilliant exhibitors we have lined up who will be showcasing their personal work.
Stacy Bias is an activist, artist and animator living in London. She creates 2D animations with a special focus on storytelling for social change and creative research dissemination. Her practice is collaborative, self-reflective with regard to the ethics of representation, and guided by the principles of intersectional feminism.
Kim Noce is an Italian artist, filmmaker and animator resident in the UK. Her work has been screened in major international film festivals, displayed in art galleries, broadcasted on major TV channels, on streaming platforms and won several prizes around the world including Chicago Int. festival, LIAF, LSFF, IFFEST Document Art, Anima, Sopot and many more.
Jess Mountfield is a 2D and stop-motion animator and director working in London. She finds her artistic practice outside of this vital to both her mental health and her development. She is very excited to be working on a hybrid children’s book, which combines her original love of stop motion and physical puppets with her professional 2D work. Outside this, you’ll find her creating blankets, pottery, and felted sculptures.
As an animation director, Jennifer Zheng often finds herself staring into monitors. When screens blind she retreats into the physical: drawing, sewing, sculpting, pottering- creating. She mixes and cross-pollinates mediums, choosing whichever expresses herself best.
Helen Piercy is a creative educator and craftsperson. Her current practice centres on the belief of ‘Animism’ – the notion that all objects, places and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. Through exploration of character design, referencing traditional symbolism, her creations are realised through the medium of soft sculpture and brought to life using stop-motion techniques.
Anushka Naanayakara is a stop-motion director who explores emotion and stories through fabrics and textures. Her background in fine art, and graphic design also influences her vibrant visual style.
Stay tuned for part two of our introductions to the Limitless exhibitors!
“I believe that this is one of the best simulations of a real daily that I have ever seen”. High praise from Erica Vigilante, CG Supervisor at DNEG and AWUK Member, who was a guest reviewer at the recent Cave Academy Dailies.
The CAVE Academy Dailies programme is hosted by Jahirul Anim, Computer Animation and VFX Trainer and Consultant at CAVE. The programme or ‘Dailies’, as it’s referred to, is a free collaborative feedback programme which takes place online every Thursday evening between 6 PM-8 PM and replicates industry style dailies by bringing together students and professionals, such as Heads of Department and CG Supervisors, who analyse ‘daily’ submissions from trainees and provide important feedback to truly enhance students projects, knowledge and skills.
Using Zoom with screen-sharing and SyncSketch to do draw overs and annotations, the guest reviewers critique and give notes on between 5-10 submissions from trainees and students. Jahirul explains “ …we are here to educate and to help push the work and skills of students and professionals through discussion, drawovers and experience, just like in a real-world daily”.
AWUK member Erica Vigilante, gave her professional feedback on student submissions and, went on to say…”Being in dailies is always emotional because you see and contribute to a project evolution, but with CAVE dailies it is also a dream evolution, the students experience real growth that will lead them to their dream job, and that is a real fulfilment. For this reason, I consider it a special session and I think that what is proposed by the CAVE Academy is not common, the students of today will be the artists of tomorrow, and this experience will make them stand out from the crowd. I believe that this is one of the best simulations of a real daily that I have ever seen. Really proud to have the opportunity to be part of it and I hope to have the chance to see the students grow in the future”
Other Dailies guest reviewers have included AWUK members Sheila Wickens,VFX Supervisor, MPC Episodic and Binal Shah, Lead Animator, ILM (London) who attended sessions earlier this year. The intention is for AWUK members to collaborate with CAVE Academy Dailies well into the future with the next session coming up after the summer break in September with Kate Vaisey, VFX Producer, Netflix providing the feedback.
AWUK reveals a new mentorship programme for its members in the VFX and animation industries, pairing seasoned professionals with emerging female talent.
Animated Women UK is pleased to announce a mentorship programme in partnership with Disney UK & Ireland for its members.
This mentorship programme will focus on fostering connection and engagement with female veterans of the VFX and Animation industries, pairing them with the next generation of female talent.
AWUK members who are interested in participating in the mentorship programme will be asked to fill out a questionnaire describing their industry experience.
Powered through the Prospela professional network website, mentors will be paired with a mentee seeking advice and support.
Through the use of a chat channel on the Prospela website, mentors and mentees will be able to exchange communication when it suits them best and in their own time.
We have a great team of Mentors engaged and ready to start a meaningful mentorship with keen mentees. Could this be you? We hope so!
Louise Hussey, Co-Chair, VFX, Animated Women UK, commented: “AWUK is very excited to be offering a mentor scheme, and have been able to do so by Disney’s sponsorship. We love the way that this scheme, hosted by Prospela, and pioneered by Access VFX works. It enables communication through a digital platform that allows for Mentors to be able to respond as and when their schedules allow. In these times, support and help are welcomed by us all, so please do sign up!”
