Kristy Kay

Kristy Kay is a Visual Development artist currently working for Sony Pictures Animation and worked at Laika/ House and The Dam Keeper. I follow her on Instagram and she's really great! She did an interview (below) with CGMA 2D Academy and she talks about her work process, what its like working on an animated feature film etc. and it is sooooo insightful!

Interesting points:

• The Dam Keeper (Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo Oscar Nominated Short Film)
• each frame on the project had to be painted individually
• As a painter she (along with other painters) was responsible for painting backgrounds as well as painting each frame of the character animation.
• Sometimes she would have to paint backgrounds of different times of the day
• how she got involved - they sent out a post on fb asking for intern-like artists, then they asked for portfolios.
• all painting was done on photoshop - each frame was separated as a different file, and then they'd load them onto photoshop and paint them separately, and used adobe bridge to see if they were animating correctly - without bridge it would've taken a lot longer.
• used 3d for some of the background and some of the camera angle.
• Full production took 6 months
• Once a week they would get up at 6 or 7 and do still life paintings - they'd set up a still life with natural lighting and study the still life
• or they would go out - plein air painting

What she learnt from doing the project:

• the importance of studying - going out and studying nature, doing plein air and still life paintings - its something that she still do a lot of, she tries to paint everyday.
• important to constantly practice - If you want to be able to paint a scene with natural, realistic colour or lighting, you have to go outside and paint often. or just study from real life - "it's crucial."

• Hotel Transylvania 2
• Her role was painter
• she would be given a drawing, rough sketch - she'd get notes of what they want e.g. red eyes, white tips on ears etc. she'd get references (photos) to refer to when painting.
• she did a lot of the design work, background paintings - props, outfits etc. needed to produce colour keys to pass onto the lighting department.
• role as painter - focus on materials, painting ambiently so that you could tell the difference between materials.

Advice:

• Copying someone else's work - Helpful to study artists/someone else's work that you admire - By doing that you pick up on what is successful in their painting.
• for example, if someone else is good at colour, to study and copy what they're doing is good.
• to copy and try to make it the same - maybe not so helpful - but to really study it and to observe how they're using colour, how they're using lighting to make the piece work is okay - really pay attention to what decisions they're making and why.
• Do film studies, film stills and paint from them - if you're heading towards working within entertainment or film, its helpful to study from entertainment and film - for composition, colour and lighting, its helpful to study film, even if its black and white movies
• you want to study what you hope to work in - film, animation etc. so that you would have more of a knowledge of what you hope to create yourself.

Helpful exercises:

• figure drawing, even if you're not a character designer - improves your observational skill.
• be observant - study from reality - so you can recreate your own worlds.
• The more you do observational studies - e.g. with light - the more easier it will be to recreate some type of a lighting situation when you need to than when its from your mind.
• she usually spends 20 mins - 1 hours on these studies.
• Figure drawing: she spends 2-5 mins usually. get the gestures/pose down first. anything longer is a different type of drawing - its just drawing.
• iPad drawings, 20 min - 1hr study - get an iPad, its more convenient - sketch club app.
• how to overcome creative blocks: refuel inspiration - go outside, see a movie, music show, see friends, museums, refresh yourself - take a break from creating.
• Favourite reading materials:
• James Gurney, Colour and Light. 
• Richard Schmid, Alla Prima.

IMPORTANT! How did she get job as Vis Dev artist at Sony?

she went to ctn expo - showed portfolio at sony animation booth they told her lets keep in touch - she was still in school at the time - after she graduated, they called her about job opportunities.