Ever wondered what our interns get up to at Triggerfish? Or maybe you're studying animation and are interested in doing an internship here once you're done. Lawrence Jaeger (technical artist) shares his internship experience in the piece below. Watch this space for other accounts from interns in other departments!
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I began my internship at
the start of November 2011, a week after completing my three-year course at The
Animation School. I was placed in the department I had hoped to be in - Technical.
Most of the other interns got that week before we started to
relax, but I was told by my HOD at the time, Simon Anderson (now working at
Animal Logic) to learn XSI Softimage during that week, as we were trained on
Maya, so that I could begin work ASAP!
I arrived at Triggerfish the Monday morning, not sure if my eyes
were deceiving me. The work space was amazing, people laughing and having so
much fun - I wasn't sure if it was the high levels of caffeine in their systems
or if these people were genuinely having a blast. I was soon to find out for
myself.
I was given a desk and met my fellow techies, and within the first
few minutes I was overcome with a feeling. A feeling so awesome, one that I can
still remember today. The feeling of never having to wake up feeling like I
would be coming to work. The feeling of waking up every morning, and getting to
do what I love!
Simon put me to work right away. I remember him saying, "How
is your understanding of Softimage?" I told him it was pretty good, given
that I was given a week to make the transition. He then replied, "Good!
Here, rig this Gemsbok!" Thrown in the deep end and wouldn't have had it
any other way! At the end of the day, it is the quickest way to learn how to
swim. For the first five months I was involved in the rigging side of things,
learning so much. I was then picked up and trained by the studios
stereographer, Chris Cunnington (who received a personal training session by
the DreamWorks stereo artist) as he was going away for a month and the work
needed to be done.
Learning stereo blew my mind and it's great to have that knowledge,
as well as the fact that I got to be an HOD (Head of Department) for a month. After that I was
placed with the finaling team and worked in that department for a duration of
about two months. During that time two of the riggers left Triggerfish, one to
pursue a career in the game industry and the other for personal reasons. So I
was called back to where I belong, and for the past two months I have been
fixing rig issues and writing scripts here and there to make the animators life
a little easier.
In my time, going on 10 months, as an intern at Triggerfish I have
learnt so much it's ridiculous! I was fortunate enough to be thrown around the
studio to help in different departments, learning every step of the way. At the
end I am glad that I have the knowledge of rigging, scripting, stereo, finaling
and VFX. Glad to know that I have found my passion in the industry – my passion
as a techie!
Lawrence Jaeger
Technical Artist
Triggerfish Animation
Studios
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