A fast-paced and energetic session for UoN Visual Communication Design students and industry professionals.
For a couple of hours, our Creative Director, Julie Matthews and Graphic & UX/UI Designer, Ryan Williams got to share pearls of wisdom alongside an impressive crew of local industry creatives, as they reviewed student portfolios brimming with fresh ideas.
This year’s University of Newcastle event, organised by Associate Lecturer Carl Morgan, was a wonderful opportunity for OOTS to talk to up-and-coming students, share industry perspectives, and provide constructive feedback.
Following the session, we checked in with participating student David Quoy, to see if the experience was as rewarding for him as it was for us.
David, what motivated you to participate in the portfolio session?
It was a great opportunity to broaden my network, get feedback from industry professionals to provide insight into my strengths and areas for improvement.
What were your key takeaways?
I got a lot of great feedback on my animation and motion graphics showreel, in particular ways to increase the value of the work to potential employers and/or clients.
Julie and Ryan from OOTS provided useful advice on avenues I could explore and strategies around that for my work.
Tell us about a project you are working on at the moment?
I have been working on a project for Newymation, and the Newcastle Fringe Festival called the Newymation Extravaganza. It’s the second year the event will run and will showcase animation, game design and VFX.
I’ve created 2 mixed media animations and a series of small countdown animations.
One of the animations is an announcement that entries are open for submission as part of the call out material. The second one is to promote the event for the 2026 Newcastle Fringe. The projects aesthetics are a mix between 1950s sci fi and 1990s MTV indents. I used various stop motion techniques including Claymation, and replacement animation. I made use of stop motion rigs, live plates and rotoscoped plates which required a lot of post-production compositing.
The countdown animations are for social media use to build some buzz around the event. It’ll employ various animation techniques including zoetrope, hand drawn, digital, and strata cut to list a few.
If you’re feeling creatively stuck, where do you go for inspiration?
I often refer to fine art books, some of my favourite art movements include Surrealism, Dada and Bauhaus and artists like Goya, Dali, and Frida Kahlo or animators like Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham from Aardman, early Disney animators such as Art Babbit who developed the character of Goofy and Fleischer Studios.
I get inspiration from music, comics, I have a collection of matchboxes, coasters, packaging and label designs. I’ll even sometimes use things like social media, but I try to minimise that and if I’m still stuck, I try to go for a walk and if I’m still completely at a loss, I commit myself to the silliest idea I can think of and that takes the pressure off and can lead to betters ideas.
If your design aesthetic were a movie, which one would it be?
The 1995 cult classic Tank Girl starring Lori Petty as Tank Girl, Australia’s own Naomi Watts as Jet Girl and Ice T as a mutant Kangaroo.
What typeface do you irrationally love or hate?
Papyrus only because I love that such average typeface was committed to a huge movie like Avatar and continued through the franchise.
Is realism in animation overrated?
For me the appeal of animation as an artform is it can do things that the real world simply can’t and that’s highlighted perfectly in live-action animation movies like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and the Michael Jordan “Space Jam” (which proves Jordan is the GOAT in the Lebron vs Jordan debate) where the principles of animation and the fun playful space animation sit in are juxtapose with realism.
If Pantone were to name a colour after you, what would the colour be & what would it be called?
It would be some shade of Green, and it would be called “My wife likes me in this colour”
Should motion graphics always serve a message, or can they just look cool?
I think it can be both. But ultimately the message is most important.
What’s your dream creative industry goal?
I got into animation by introducing my kids to Morph who was one of the original Aardman characters and they wanted to know how stop motion was made and I started learning it by watching the Aardman Morph tutorials to show my kids, so my dream gig would be to work with the people at Aardman.
