Ozanimate is a webhub keeping  students and practicioners up  to speed on everything in the Australian animation community. Showcasing great local work, plugging events, interviewing industry players and just generally keeping tabs on the whole scene, Ozanimate is doing it for the kids. One of the contributors, Alex Grigg, a 3D animator, is doing just fine down in Adelaide making things move for your viewing pleasure. We caught up with him to hear the ins and outs of Aussie animation.

When did you first start fiddling around with computers?

When I was 5 or 6 I guess. I didn’t really start doing anything creative with them until I was about 17 though.

How did you discover you wanted to be an animator?

That didn’t really come until I was about 2 years into my animation degree. I always liked drawing and film. I figured animation was somewhere between so I chose it as a degree. When I started the course I was working towards being a concept artist or storyboard artist, but when we started doing some more acting for animation classes I began to realise how powerful animation could be.

Are you a native South Australian?

I’m from central/north Queensland originally. I studied at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane.

How would you describe your transition out of college and into the industry? Was there a recruitment program for computer animators at the time, or did you have to find your own way?

It was a bit of weird transition really. But I guess it usually is. I had an opportunity to go overseas and do some English teaching for 6 months at the end of uni. While I was over there I kept working on my folio and doing lots of personal work. A friend I went to uni with was working at the People’s Republic of Animation in Adelaide and had shown my blog to the directors there. They seemed to like it and when they scored some funding for a short film they were working on they asked if I’d be interested in helping them with it. It was a dream first job, working on a great film called The Cat Piano. All the people working on the film were super talented and I learned a lot from them. Things have kind of just rolled from there.

Why have you chosen to live and work in Adelaide?

It was a bit of an accident to be honest. I happened to get a few bigger freelance jobs in a row here and before I knew it I was renting a room and buying a bookshelf. There is a really great animation community here which made it an easy decision to stay.

What are the benefits of being here for your career?

I think I get a lot more responsibility handed to me because the community here is so small and tight. Studios here are making some amazing work but there isn’t that many super experienced people around so they just throw people like me onto it, sink or swim style. I know being young and relatively inexperienced I wouldn’t get nearly as many opportunities in bigger places like Sydney.

How varied are the kind of projects you work on now?

Really varied actually, which is nice. Because I do 2D and 3D work I get to jump between projects that are very different. It varies between commercials, short films, TV series’, game cut scenes and illustration work.

Are you getting work that you love or are you still chasing the dream?

I love all the work I get to do at the moment but I don’t think there will ever be a point in time that I stop chasing something. It’s definitely a perk of the job.

Where does your inspiration come from?

Music is a big thing. I’d really like to be able to make images and films that people relate to in the same way I relate to music. Other than that I surf the web a lot, and love photography, illustration, film… friends and family are good for it too.

Do you find yourself animating characters that take qualities from your family and friends?

 
I think it’s impossible for the people around you not to seep into your work. A big part of animating is watching the people around you and taking notice of how the react with things. Most things I animate are a mixture of people I know and see often.

Who are you creative heroes?

I know every kid born in between 1980 and 2020 will probably respond with Spike Jonze but that guy is probably the reason I quit chemistry in high school and started doing this thing Im doing now. His work always floors me. He also has an amazing attitude about getting his work done. Looking back at the start of Spike’s career one of his biggest assets was simply his ability to act on his ideas regardless of how little he had at his disposal. Getting films made, starting magazines; guy could do anything. I think Australian director Nash Edgerton is inspiring for the same reason.
Apart from Mr Jonze and Nash, Stanley Kubrick, Brad Bird, Woody Allan, James Jean, Iggy Pop, Gareth Liddiard all come to mind.

How did you first become involved in Ozanimate?

My buddy/classmate Paul Lalo started the site a little over a year ago. I read the first few posts that he did and was really into the idea. I sent him a big list stuff that I thought would be cool to check out or feature on the site and he asked if I could help out on a more regular basis. It works well because we are from pretty different animation backgrounds. We’re also based on opposite sides of the country so we get exposed to lots of different material and people.

Tell us about the site.

I think the Australian animation industry is really exciting. When I was in Uni it seemed like another world, students on one side and the industry on the other. Then I started working, I realised that knowing what the hell is going on is almost as difficult as it was when I was a student. There simply wasn’t a centralised hub for people to come to. A lot of the time it’s hard to tell what is being made on our shores let alone who’s making it. On a simple level we’d like to help people keep track of that and help showcase work that we think might go unnoticed or be under appreciated. But to be honest the reason we spend so much of our time on it is because we want gather a community of Australians who are as passionate about animation as we are. I think it will be a really positive step.

What advice would you give someone who has just done the HSC and is considering animation as a career?

I actually spent a couple of days looking at this question and thinking of the best advice I could give. There is so much you’ll learn while you’re studying and it’s probably best to learn it in your own way. But these are a few key things that I think helped me get a foot hold in the industry.

I guess it’s a bit obvious but the first step is further study. Choosing a course that will give you options and let you explore as many different things as possible is probably good, especially if you’re coming straight from high school and aren’t completely sure what you want to pursue. As I mentioned I went to Queensland College of Art and did a Bachelor of Animation. It was cool because it is part of the Griffith Film School so we got to play with lots of cool stuff, and work with film students. There are plenty of courses out there that are pretty great. Oh and don’t stress if you don’t get into the course you want to first try. It’s much easier to change courses once you’ve started than your guidance councillor will lead you to believe.

Once you’re studying, aim high. Aim to be a leader in your field. When you’re in Uni don’t be fashioning your folio for what you think entry level jobs require, try and make your folio or reel better than a senior at the studio at the studio you’d like to work for. The reality is that you will fall short but you won’t make excuses for yourself. It will show in your work. Also don’t expect your school to hand you skills. You will learn more than half of what you need to know in your own time.

The other important step is learning to seek out, understand and embrace criticism of your work. It’s particularly important when you’re interested in animation because when you’re working it is something you are going to have to deal with daily. Try and get into the practice of asking people about how they feel about your work and then take as much as much on board as you can. At first it’s probably good to ask people whose work you admire because they will have some solutions to the problems they see. As you get better at understanding criticism you can ask anybody you like, your experience will tell you how to solve the problems (or even to ignore their criticisms).

www.ozanimate.com
www.alexgrigg.com

Tags: Alex Grigg, ozanimate, The Cat Piano