Meet The Movers
We chat to animation duo Tapocketa about how they work and what they love about animating.
Tapocketa are an animation team consisting of Trevor Young and Elenor Long, with distinguished backgrounds in film, television and the arts – including silver screen blockbusters – they’ve turned their hands to crafting unique, handmade animation and illustration work.
Hey Guys, thanks for finding the time to have a chat with us!
Can you give us a bit of your background story and how you became part of the animation industry?
Eleanor and I both have a history in media and the creative arts. Eleanor went the practical route as a model-making graduate of the Royal College of Arts. My route was through feature film effects, working on the Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Hellboy film franchises before we decided to team up for Tapocketa.
What is a typical day looks like for you in the studio?
I’m not sure there is a typical day! It’s always different which is the appeal of working as part of a small team of two. You need to be multi-skilled as one day you are animating, another promoting, blogging etc.
What part of your job do you like best and why? What makes it so awesome?
We love exploring new techniques and inventively solving tasks. There is plenty of opportunity to do this at Tapocketa!
Can you briefly describe your process on an animation and the programs you use?
We start with a pencil and it gets more complex from there. We draw out all the bits we need, scan them in, add colour and texture and create our scenes in 3D software. We also print out the characters to create paper puppets for motion capture which then is applied to the CG versions.
The main software we use is Affinity Photo and Designer, Blender for 3D and Moho for 2D animation.
What are some of your favourite projects you're proud to have been a part of?
Well we are going to be bias and say our own - Galdo’s Gift: The Boovie®. It’s an animated interactive children’s book that we wrote, designed and animated ourselves and has gone on to win multiple awards including best book at The Digital Book World conference. A proud moment.
What is your favourite 2D or 3D animated film(s) of all and why?
It’s a short film, ‘Stems’ by Ainslie Henderson, a stop-motion film about stop- motion. Ainslie is beautifully inventive and experimental and the way he enchants inanimate objects to life in this short is astounding.
Finally, what makes animation so special to you?
I think a lot of animators would say that it’s all about the magic of seeing your scene and characters come alive - and well, we would too!
To see more of Tapocketa's unique, handmade animatuon full of captivating characters and scenes click HERE