Carter Jacqueline: Lilou Studio, Zurich
Internship report by Jacqueline Carter during the spring semester of 2019.
1. INTRODUCTION
My internship focused on producing a prototype of a game to pitch for funding. It was conducted at Lilou Studio GmbH in Zürich, a studio that specializes in 3D Animation. Lilou Studio is a one man business of Margit Gassner’s. She works by herself and asks other freelancers for help when the workload is too much for one person. But generally, she is the only one working in the studio. She has recently shown interest in creating games. Their current game is soon to be out as early access: Fishery. It is a fish tank simulator. My internship is about another game they have in development: Donut Run, its working title. It is to be named Peccadillo when pitched.
Why this internship? In general, I want to learn the basics to produce a game. I am interested in the production of both films and games. Why Lilou Studio? Margit Gassner. She teaches and aids us in some of our CGI courses. She has years of experience within the Swiss market such as what clients do, what to expect from them, how working with them is like, etc. Generally, she is knowledgeable about 3D Animation, which is what I was interested in at the time I signed up for the internship. She occasionally works along with a graphic designer, her partner, who aids her in her projects relating to advertising. They are a great team where their skills complement each other. It is something I wish to pursue personally with my own spouse. We wish to start a studio together producing films and games in the future. My internship mainly consisted of 2D Animation, but I enjoy that, too. I had to animate sprites to implement in a mock gameplay video. This also helped me to keep up with my 2D animation skills as I was mostly working on 3D projects during the past year in school. I implemented all the 2D animation in Blender, ironically a 3D software. I want to stay in Switzerland when I graduate from HSLU. I want to understand the nation’s market and adjust my skills accordingly to allow my chances of staying in the country as high as possible. I am not opposed to the idea of working abroad, but I want to stay at home for as long as possible.
2. ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS AND LEARNING EXPERIENCE
A. The company
The tasks I had was to produce animations and assets to build a game prototype. This prototype is to help pitch for funding. The animation technique I used was frame by frame 2D animation. I personally feel that Flash animation with the intended style will look flat, so I resorted to hand drawn frame by frame animation to allow for more fluidity and not have the characters look too stiff. Throughout the weeks, I got good feedback from both Margit and Joel in regards to my animation and visual style for the game. They always tried to keep me on track and offered useful suggestions when I needed help. These feedbacks were valuable to my process for the project and pushed me to go further.
DIFFICULTIES: The style of the characters do not have outlines and the shading is not flat, making the coloring of the entire animation more difficult. I essentially need to make a new painting per frame. Originally, the character would be animated on 12 fps, but rendered on 24 fps. After some revisions, I realize I may have made the character animations too slow to how quickly he is intentionally moving in the game engine. In the end, this proved to be better visually. Since the character is moving quickly, it is actually more ideal to animate in ones rather than twos. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Character design also proved to be tricky. Do not be fooled by the simplicity of a donut. It is deceptive to think that a simple idea would be easy to execute.
DISAPPOINTMENTS: I had some confidence with my 2D Animation skills, but I am still discouraged when I do not get the results I need after the second or third revision. This is a learning process I am… learning. Learning to be patient and accept failures and learning from them. I am also disappointed that I was not able to work with 3D Animation as much I would have thought, but at least I got to polish my 2D Animation skills and learn how to implement them for a game. Another disappointment was having to knock down our goal. Originally, we wanted to have a working prototype to pitch for the prototype fund. Ironic, I know. But it is advised to have a working prototype to have a higher chance of receiving the funding. Sadly, we could not find a programmer that fit our needs, which is why I’m making a mock prototype.
TECHNICAL WORKFLOW: I mostly worked with Clip Studio Paint on top of Photoshop to create the animations and concept art for the game. I learned to use different features in the software I haven’t used before that will benefit my future projects in animation. I want to be more proficient in Clip Studio Paint to widen my possibilities as an artist, especially as a 2D Animator. I want my work to be the result of my artistic decisions, not through limited technical knowledge. I got insight on how to set up a GDD, a game design document/dossier. I know where to go for funding and how to prepare the necessary documents for submission.
B. The city, country, culture
Regarding the work or office culture, it is casual. There is no dress code or hard set schedule. I come in and catch up on what is going on with the project before sitting on my desk and continuing with where I left off the work day before. There isn’t much to say about Zürich since it is only about 50 kilometers away from HSLU. The studio is located in Hardbrücke, directly in front of the train station. Our studio sits across the street facing the Prime Tower. From the train station, the left side of the street has people in business attire whereas the right is more casual, lose, and creative. Wild, free, and colorful may also be appropriate terms to describe it. Anyone can see the stark differences between the individuals when people from both sides mingle during lunch time.
Margit helped me plenty whenever I asked anything, even if it is not directly related to the project I am working on. For example, she helped me tinker around with Maya’s Xgen. I am the only other person with her in the studio, so I was able to talk to her about other topics relating to animation and 3D work. Having these one on one conversations were very enriching for me and made me feel like I have a better grasp at 3D technical knowledge and what to expect in the Swiss creative industry. We also share the office with the new line producer for our 3rd BA students, Luana. She is not there every day, but it is nice to hear some insights on her thoughts regarding the films. Other than that, I cannot say much about my work and lifestyle outside of it. I did not go to a completely new country with different people. My hours for my daily commute still took around four hours a day, but rather than going from Basel to Luzern, it from Basel to Zürich now.
3. CONCLUSION
Working with Margit was a pleasure and is a person I admire when it comes to work ethic, hard work, dedication, and philosophy to her craft. I am very happy to have a mentor like her. Her ambitions were admirable. When talking about what our next steps were for the game, I was playing it safe whereas she dared to take chances. She believed in her work so much that it made me want to trust my own works in the future. It inspires me to fight for what I believe in. I was treated well, better than what I would have expected. I felt like a valued asset. I sometimes feared about delivering work that is deemed as subpar. Contrary to my feelings, Margit always encouraged me to do better and go further. She gave me constructive criticism; it is always good to get fresh eyes on your work. She always thanked me for my hard work at the end of the day. Growing up, I thought I would be another face in the large crowd of men in suits, a salaryman. However, as I pursued the creative field, my expectations were broken and I am unsure what to think. It is mostly unknown territory for me. As I got to know the job atmosphere of the creative industry, I feel more confident at where I stand. I may work freelance as an individual or start a studio with my husband after university. Margit showed me her way of running a one man studio. From how to set up a studio physically (like setting up and maintaining a server), down to running taxes and expenses. On top of that, I learned how to balance work and home life. She gave me little gold nuggets of wisdom every now and then.
