Visiting Lecturer & Notes - Peter Peake

Visiting Lecturer & Notes

Peter Peake

Animation Director – AARDMAN - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0668849/

-          Studied as a Graphic Designer, and side-lined as an animator in college, then found employment at Aardman with his 3 exhibition animations.

-          Works and directs a multitude of multi-disciplinary skilled people in order to create a cohesive project.

-          Extremely focused on his intent.

-          Was hired as a stop motion animator after university.

-          One of the animators on Rex the Runt.

-          He was the one to help develop the original Sean the Sheep with Nick Park.

-          Directed Robbie the Reindeer- Legends of the Lost Tribe.

-          Design idea to create simple representation in order to differentiate objects easily.

-          Without maintaining focus, it can severely increase production time.

-          Spontaneity creates more approachable viewings.

-          Creates bespoke characters in order to create characters we can relate to.

-          When working in a collaborative environment, it is always wise to design multiple options that relates to your teams work.

-          Works towards the simple draft in order to visualise concepts faster. Also used for storyboards & lip-syncing the character.

-          Researched based on life experiences.

-          Informed research from a range of disciplines (furniture/product design/surface pattern), materials and environments.

-          Look & Movement are used to inform the design of the character.

-          Developed inspiration by utilising objects found on hand. Shoe-horned Design.

-          Unusual experimentation can create unusual results. (positive)

-          Out-sourcing work, if appropriate, to appropriate designers in order to aid production.

-          Eye & mouths of characters, are usually tracked and added later in Flash.

-          When creating polished designs, the entities need to be easy to register and distinguish, by having simple features that portray this.

-          Using bespoke tools for location research. (Google maps)

-          When working for a company, you can’t go off script due to the higher end requirements.

-          When working on solo projects, he tends to work on anything fun and has fun with the research.