City Social
By Sue Israel
June 2005
"Animation is made of all kinds of things--writers, producers, directors, sound engineers, film editors, all kinds of people who aren't actually animators, but they're all integral ingredients to the filmmaking process," said Curtis Jobling, the designer of the international hit television show for children, Bob the Builder, who visited Baton Rouge recently as a guest speaker for the Redstick International Animation Festival. "Hopefully I'll be able to get the message across. You don't have to be an animator to work in animation."
Curtis is very active in the Animex festival, which is held very near his home in the Country of North Yorkshire, England, and he was thrilled to make the trip across the pond to give several lectures on animation and character design during the three-day festival in Baton Rouge.
The author and illustrator of six children's books, Curtis spends approximately one or two days a week on his designs for Bob the Builder, which offers him the time and freedom to pursue his own projects. "I've always wanted to design for animation, which I have done for eight years, and so the last few years I have been concentrating on trying to get in a situation where I'm not just designing for someone else's show, but for my own." And Curtis is hopeful that will be a show based on his first book, Frankenstein's Cat. "We are approaching a number of broadcasters, both in the U.K. and internationally, and we have distributors who want to come on board."
The animation of Frankenstein's Cat wasn't available for screening at the Redstick festival this year, but Curtis and his wife, Emma, who made the trip to Baton Rouge with her husband, are hopeful that it will be screened here next year. Curtis was still able to share his vision of Frankenstein's Cat by demonstrating to children how he designs his characters during a fun Saturday Morning cartoon fest called, "Cartoon Palooza."
Through his work with Animex and as a speaker at Redstick, Curtis hopes to inspire potential animators to follow their dream. "I also mentor to young animators. I teach them a number of things that a project might have, how to develop their ideas, their character, script writing, storyboarding, design, networking, and pitching your ideas--all the things that nobody ever taught me," said Curtis. "Because 99 percent of people in this industry don't come looking for you, you have to go looking for them. You have to be dedicated. And you might love animation, but you don't have to know how to animate to be successful."
Publish Date:
06-01-2005
