Quick Draw Question and Answers with Braincase Collective UWE Students

This year has been a strange one, but it hasn’t stopped our animation students from getting involved in local festivals. With the cancelation of the Cardiff Animation Festival due to the coronavirus, the organisers decided to still curate online shorts programmes, curate resources for families so they can work from home and organises online events and watch parties. 

Amongst this was the Cardiff Quick Draw that ran over a weekend. The quick short films aired on the 26th of March. 

Two of our third-year students, Jules and Emma took part and I asked them to share what they did for Quick Draw, about UWE and discovering animation.

I guess the best question to ask you first is: Tell us a bit about yourselves? How did you discover animation?

Jules: Hey, I’m a 2D digital animator and mixed media illustrator who’s a part of Braincase Collective; a group of content creators working on collaborative projects and playing with the unique! I started my animation career watching an unreal amount of youtube videos and playing around with lego figures and an old camera, it all went downhill from there.

Emma: Hi, I’m Emma a 2D animator with a love for dogs and a dark sense of humour. I’m mad enough to be a part of the Braincase Collective alongside Jules!  My first experience of animation involved making wacky claymations with my friends at school. I’m not sure any of us understood what we were doing, but we had a great time!

What led you to study animation – and what made you choose UWE? 

Jules: Eventually I ended up discovering Adobe Flash and how many drawings I could get away with in the margins of my school books. I always knew that I wanted to do animation as some form of career and finishing college with a hunger for more, I knew I wanted to study it in university. UWE seemed like such a genuine course, a place where I could really push myself and explore properly. I’d say that was the truth.

Emma: I actually didn’t know I wanted to do animation until I did my foundation course at UCA Canterbury. I tried out creating traditional animations for the first time and I loved it! UWE seemed like the best place for me to explore my love for animation in all its different forms. Which is why I’m a 2D animator today!

What led you to enter the Cardiff Quick Draw, and to work together? 

Jules: I was involved in the quickdraw 2 or so years ago and it was pretty fun. I wanted a creative break from our big final year film so I asked if anyone wanted to take part.

Emma: I’ve previously taken part in the Global Gam Jam which was a really fun experience. So I decided to join Jules in the Cardiff Quick Draw which turned out to be even better! It was a fun opportunity and challenge to test our animation skills.

This year’s theme for Cardiff Quick Draw was ‘Green’ how did you come up with your film?

Emma: Jules and I smushed our brains together, this resulted in lizards and alcohol. I’m sure you can draw your own conclusions on what this says about us.

Jules: We then decided to make a Sketchbook film, inspired by the animator Fran Krause. Everything in the film, characters, backgrounds, effects etc, were done physically in a sketchbook. All we had to do was scan it in and combine it in after effects, it was an interesting experience

Emma and Jules’s film which they intend to release a never before seen director’s cut in the near future can be seen below:

So what’s next for you both?  

Emma: Finishing my graduate film and hopefully survival! After that I’ll be working on all sorts of weird stuff with Braincase collective.

Jules: Braincase collective have a collaborative film coming up soon about holidays in space, we’ll be posting lots of buzz about it so stay tuned! Other than that, we have plans in the works!

To find more of Emma and Jules’ work click on the links below!

Jules:
https://juleswebbanimation.weebly.com/
Instagram: @julesanimation
Twitter: @julesanimation
Facebook: @julesdoesanimation

Emma:
https://emmatilbrookanimation.weebly.com 
Instagram: @artist_akuma
Twitter:@TilbrookEmma
Facebook: @TilbrookEmma

Instagram: @braincasecollective