Tell us about your internship – Anaïs Blancquart
News . 27 Sep. 2021
Anaïs Blancquart, a fourth year student in CG Animation & FX Master Degree at ESMA in Toulouse, tells us about her internship at TAT Productions and in particular her participation in the Pil project, the studio’s third feature film.
HOW DID YOU FIND THIS INTERNSHIP?
When I was looking for an internship, one of my acquaintances told me that TAT was looking for interns. I immediately applied because, having always heard good things about this studio, I thought that working there could be an interesting and enriching experience. I was also very interested in the background of this studio, which has managed to make a place for itself in a very active and fast-moving industry.
I really enjoyed this internship because of the atmosphere in the studio, the feedback and follow-up we got, and the opportunities we were given. We started with learning exercises, on riggs and studio tools, then we animated crowd characters. We also had the chance to fully animate a crowd scene and one of us even got to animate a very short scene with the main characters.
© Studio TAT
WHAT WAS YOUR POSITION AND WHAT WERE YOUR MISSIONS?
Once the training period for the tools was over, I took the position of crowd animator. I had to animate “clips” of characters: animations in empty scenes in order to make them reusable animations for the crowd. I also animated 2 scenes of a musical sequence at the crowd level (one of them in pair with another intern), then I temporarily did some “runners” missions in which I had to animate the arms of Crapulo, the puppet of one of the characters.
© Studio TAT
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PILL PROJECT YOU WORKED ON?
The project on which I worked is a film for all audiences, it’s the 3rd feature film of the studio (the 1st one being Aces of the Jungle and the 2nd one Terra Willy). We will follow the adventures of Pil, a little orphan girl accompanied by her 3 weasels, who will have to save the prince as well as his kingdom from the regent Tristain who occupies the throne, the whole in a medieval-fantasy universe.
HOW IS WORKING ON A FEATURE FILM DIFFERENT FROM SCHOOL WORK?
Working on a feature film is very different from what is done at school because we only have one job: animator in this case. Everything is already set up to work: we are assigned scenes to animate for which we have to refer to the layout and the animatics, which are done by different people. Also, we work as a team under the direction of a lead animator, where in school we always had to do every step by ourselves and organize ourselves.
© Studio TAT
HOW DID THE INTEGRATION INTO THE STUDIO GO?
The integration went well, especially because I already knew the animators. Therefore, I was able to integrate quickly into the team, especially since all the people in the studio are very accessible. Moreover, I appreciated the fact that it was not on one side the trainees and on the other the employees. Everyone was mixed together, which is very nice because they make us feel like part of the team.
THERE ARE FORMER ESMA STUDENTS AT TAT, DOES THAT CHANGE ANYTHING?
There are indeed former ESMA students at TAT. It’s always interesting because we can discuss our experiences at ESMA with a lot of distance, especially the end-of-study film, the difficulties encountered, etc., and this makes it easier to make contact.
HOW DID THE TRAINING HELP YOU TO INTEGRATE INTO THE STUDIO AND YOUR MISSIONS?
The training helped me to know what to expect in the studio and to understand each step of the project. Being versatile also allows me to perceive where certain bugs can occur and to fix them myself. It also made me acquire a certain autonomy in the work.
© Studio TAT
DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR MOMENT THAT MARKED YOU AND THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH US?
I think that what marked me the most was the screening of the preview of the film. It was with great joy that everyone was able to see the film finally finished after so much work!
DID THIS INTERNSHIP HELP YOU FOR THE CONTINUATION OF YOUR PROJECTS?
This internship confirmed my desire to be a CG animator and helped me to better manage certain problems during the production of our final film. It made me acquire a certain lucidity and hindsight on the work and allowed me to improve in terms of efficiency in order to concentrate more quickly on the essential.