Networking - Volunteering at Manchester Animation Festival

This week I spent time as a Guest Liason volunteer at Manchester Animation Festival. This is my third year attending the festival, but the first year I've spent as a volunteer rather than a delegate, so it was really interesting and insightful to see what kind of work goes on behind the scenes to help the festival run smoothly.

As a Guest Liason, I had a unique opportunity in that I had an excuse to be speaking to the guests, including professionals in my specialism. In particular, I struck up interesting conversations with Laura Vincent from Yamination and Paul "Gripper" Flannery from Gadzooks Animation. I also got to speak with Peter Lord and David Sproxton, which was a bit of an out-of-body experience as they are so iconic. I was also able to chat with Barry Purves, alongside other industry professionals. It really helped my understanding of how small an industry it is, and I am hugely grateful to Steve Henderson for introducing me to certain people.

I found the few days quite stressful when it was busy, and a little dull when it was quiet. That being said, I was so grateful for the opportunity, and it would be unrealistic to expect it to be engaging 100% of the time. In the quieter moments I found opportunities to talk to the other volunteers and gain an insight into their lives and practices, which was interesting as I'm mostly used to talking to LAU students as a point of reference for other animators/creatives my age.

I would love to do this again next year, as I found it much more involved and personal than just attending as a delegate, though I did miss seeing as many films as the last couple of years.

Study Task 2 - Personal SWOT Analysis

After the session, I have been able to identify some real strengths and weaknesses in my own practice and self. This came from my own analysis and my peers' feedback.

My overall strengths lie in my time management and organisation. In terms of artistic strengths, I have also identified that I am strong at character design, colour theory, and that I have a unique art style.

My weaknesses is that I lack confidence, and this comes from my own anxiety about my work and interacting with others. While I have definitely been able to handle my anxiety better over the last few years, it definitely still holds me back from time to time. Technically, my weaknesses lie in the fact I tend to give up easily if I don't achieve success quickly, and that I often doubt myself and compare myself to others.

While comparisons aren't always bad, I tend to view them negatively, always comparing my art to others' and asking myself why mine doesn't look that good. Of course, I can rationalise it and understand that other artists may have been working longer and harder than I have, which means they have refined their style more. Still, I do find it difficult to deal with the fact that I am not as progressed as others.