Joe’s hyper-stylised computer art is going on exhibit alongside Saran Glöbel at the Glasgow School of Art from the 9th of June. Read more about Superzone here.

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Three Heads by Edinburgh based animation and motion graphics designer, Darren McNaney.

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1.    Tele-sales Assistant. I was 17, broke and all my friends had new Nike’s on their feet. I took an afternoon off college and went for an interview at a double-glazing sales firm getting the job without much question. I made few sales and was rarely paid. The guy I sat next to was overweight, balding and probably in his mid twenties – he ate ham from the packet and frankfurters from the tin. I soon left.

2.    Sales Assistant. Desperate to have new Nike’s on my feet, my second job took me to THE home of new Nike’s… Croydon. It was a sports concession inside a shopping centre. A lot of weed was smoked in the stock room and the store went under investigation for missing stock. One day, I turned up for work and the manager was ill and the assistant manager was AWOL. As the most senior staff member left, I took my two younger colleagues to McDonald’s and left the shop unattended. I was soon asked to leave.

3.    Sales Assistant. I was 19 and had failed my first year at Uni. After a summer of Job Centre visits I took up a part time job at the oldest off-license in Soho, The Vintage House. I returned to Uni, got my act together, and 3 years later finished with 1st Class Honours. In the meantime, I gave many discounts to local customers at the shop.  They’d later turned out to be TV Execs and I soon left to do some TV work experience.

4.    Runner/ Researcher/ Motion GFX. During my last year at University, I did several Runners jobs at different TV production companies. And after finishing, I proudly landed a job as House Runner at Remedy Productions. I stayed for 3 years – mostly as a runner, but later as a researcher & AP – during my last year I did all their in-house graphics for broadcast and left with my first Motion Graphics show reel. It was reely good.

5.    Freelance. I currently design and produce Motion Graphics with most of my work being for broadcast, as well as the occasional job for stage or web. Further to that, I also do the odd TV job as a Director, Editor or Producer. I’m incredibly passionate about what I do, and currently own two pairs of Nike’s.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

“Script kiddies” is a derogatory term for a new wave of bedroom computer programmers that rely on huge chunks of code written by others. Their projects usually end up as Frankenstein’s monster, carrying a series of modular components that work well independently, but that are inelegantly tacked together.

I was warned about a new wave of motion graphics artists that seem to be following the same convention. There’s a backlash amongst some of the creative people I work with. On one hand, technology is making our lives easier – plugins, scripts, example scenes, software & tutorials mean that it’s very easy to make something pretty onscreen in a short amount of time. This (according to one MA lecturer) has caused the moving-image equivalent of “script kiddies” to unashamedly rip anything and everything they see fit. Obviously, this can be a useful workflow on a tight deadline. As long as nobody’s being plagiarised, they argue that a collage of methods could be the way forward.

One can sympathise that this is a sign of the times. The Internet is a huge collaborative community and this way of working could be a response to the very unique online disposable culture. I do believe that this workflow dilutes any message that was originally in the project and makes the craft very reductive. Some artistic integrity is obviously also lost.

I had the good fortune to visit and workshop with an US art school last year. It is famous for its motion graphic graduates, although I found huge inconsistencies with their work ethic verses one that may be found in a typical UK art school.

I helped with some portfolio reviews but it became clear that these students were far more career oriented than their UK equivalent. There was a flurry of sincere hand-shakes and “Mr. Houston”s that composed their rehearsed ritualistic job-dance. These were people that had just finished an art degree but had no intention of talking about their work. They were interested in using software packages to land a steady job. Our reference points were way off. The majority aspired to be soaked up into anonymity behind the wall of a big studio and quickly secure themselves a rung on the career ladder.

The truth is that I had only been a graduate for a year and had no idea if their work ethic was something I should adopt.

I found it disappointing that they could break their own work down into modular components. They willingly did it before my eyes:

“This was done using the new Trapcode Particular,

this is a VRAY render with RSMB applied,

this is made of thinking particles in C4D.”

Such a reductionist approach made it very easy to dismiss a potentially beautiful film as an exercise in a software package. Anybody can be taught to keyframe, although it’s rare that the outcome is worth more than the sum of its parts. David O’Reilly famously doesn’t talk about his workflow. He adds a layer of mystery around his process which helps the legacy of his films. Any recent graduate that wants to avoid piracy lawsuits may want to jump on the same bandwagon.

Is the script-kiddie workflow simply a response to the cultural (and economic) pressures that we face as “artists”? I know that I’m hesitant to use any visually distinctive piece of software in my own work as it ends up very transparent.
PART 2 _ THE GOODS:

It’s moving image month at Central Station. I thought it fitting to post a reference bank of inspiration, as opposed to a wall of text that fluctuates back & forth without reaching a definite conclusion.

The following videos are very dependant on process.  Computers were either used conceptually or as craft. not necessarily as a starting point. These have the stamp of the director/artist, not the stamp of the software. A mixed bag of very inspiring stuff that you should already have seen.

“Het Klokhuis” Opening titles from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Peripetics from zeitguised on Vimeo.

Please Say Something – Full Length from David O’Reilly on Vimeo.

RECURSION / Zhestkov.com from Maxim Zhestkov on Vimeo.

Asymmetric Cycles: The Work Of Al Jarnow from numerogroup on Vimeo.

The chainsaw solo at 1:04 gets me every time.