Animator Interview: Rhi B-N

Animator Interview

<p><span data-preserver-spaces&equals;"true">Art and animation are two very detail-oriented crafts that take a lot of time and attention to perfect&period; While usually rewarding&comma; the process can often be painstaking and takes several steps&period; Today&comma; we <&sol;span><a class&equals;"editor-rtfLink" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;an-interview-with-manga-artist-dataro&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><span data-preserver-spaces&equals;"true">interviewed<&sol;span><&sol;a><span data-preserver-spaces&equals;"true"> Rhi B-N&comma; a brilliant artist and animator paving their way in the industry&comma; to discuss their own steps in the creative process&comma; their ambitions&comma; motivations&comma; and more&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"yWz9cSqBbHc" title&equals;"2021 Animation Reel &vert; Rhi B-N"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;yWz9cSqBbHc"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;yWz9cSqBbHc&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"2021 Animation Reel &vert; Rhi B-N"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Please tell our readers a bit about yourself&period; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I’m a 2nd year Australian animation student&period; I love to draw cute&comma; energetic things&comma; mainly girls&comma; with limited color palettes&comma; as well as big backgrounds with interesting perspectives if I have time&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>What inspired you to start your art and animation journey&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I’ve always drawn since I was little&comma; and wanted to tell stories through my work&period; Initially I tried comics&comma; but soon figured out I didn’t have the patience for it&comma; so at 18 I tried animating instead&period; Seeing the characters move was so cool to me&comma; and while it did require a lot of drawings&comma; the drawings didn’t need to be cleaned up to convey what I wanted&comma; as long as they were readable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Going into something as new to me as animation&comma; since I was already pretty used to drawing&comma; was also just super interesting&period; Animation allowed me to add audio&comma; and much more movement than still images&period; It made me feel like I could move around with the character&excl; These days I draw because I want to help tell stories that make people happy&comma; and also because it’s fun&excl;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>We know you&&num;8217&semi;re skilled at traditional art&comma; digital art&comma; and animation&period; Which of these would you <&sol;b><b>say you had the smoothest time learning&comma; and which did you have the most challenge with&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Since I already had the foundations for art when I went into digital art&comma; that has probably been the easiest for me to learn&comma; once I figured out the program&period; Some traditional mediums like lead pencil or alcohol based markers were pretty simple too&comma; since I learnt to draw with them and they&&num;8217&semi;re reasonably straight forward&comma; but something like watercolour is very difficult&comma; and the skills I used to have with it have gone away with lack of use&period; Animation is probably the hardest I’ve learnt so far&comma; since it’s so different from standard drawing&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>What has been your experience&comma; like learning how to animate&quest; Do you think it&&num;8217&semi;s a rewarding <&sol;b><b>process for the amount of work it often takes&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Definitely&period; It’s also definitely quite difficult too&period; In the beginning when you have no expectations and just want to have fun&comma; it’s an amazing process&period; The beginning of learning something&comma; when you don’t know what’s good or bad is one of the best times to experiment&period; I’d say I&&num;8217&semi;ve definitely found it harder as I’ve learnt more and more how much I don’t know and how much there is to learn&comma; but getting something right and seeing the movement come out successfully is so fun&excl; I’ve found I don’t really like cleanup though&comma; even though sometimes seeing the whole animation finished feels worth it&comma; for the most part I think I prefer it at the rough stage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Finding other animators to learn off of and get feedback from has been the most valuable&comma; and has helped me improve the most&comma; along with animation studies&period; Doing animation challenges like drawing different walk or run cycles for a certain amount of days in a row was a good way of learning and advancing in my animation skills as well&period; Overall&comma; while it’s hard to animate I’d say it’s 100&percnt; worth it&excl;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;rhibn&period;carrd&period;co&sol;assets&sol;images&sol;gallery02&sol;52aa2f57&period;gif&quest;v&equals;9046e7e9" alt&equals;"Untitled" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>What are your favourite subjects to draw&sol; animate&comma; and why&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Cute girls&comma; dialogue and action scenes&period; Cute girls have such dynamic and fun shapes that I want to push and pull when I draw&comma; and I love the clothing and hairstyles I can put on them and move around&period; Dialogue allows me to use fun expressions and mouth shapes&period; And action scenes&comma; while I haven’t been able to do much of them yet because I’m still not too versed at choreographing them&comma; allows me to stretch and move characters in the way that draws me to animation&period; It makes me feel like I’m moving along with that character&comma; and feeling the energy of their movements&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Do you have a particular animator you look up to or any studio that has influenced your work <&sol;b><b>in any way&quest;<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I’ve of course been influenced by Studio Ghibli from watching their movies when I was younger&comma; but I’ve actually been more influenced and inspired by shows like Cardcaptor Sakura and Precure&comma; as opposed to specific studios or animators&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>As a second-year animation student&comma; would you say your experience in school has been  <&sol;b><b>favourable thus far&quest; Do you think university is vital to a successful animator&comma; especially in <&sol;b><b>recent years&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Going to uni has definitely been an amazing experience&comma; more so in making friends than in specifically learning&comma; but getting stronger at art fundamentals and being taught specific industry standard programs has been really helpful&excl; I wouldn’t say university is vital to success&comma; however&comma; it depends on how accessible it is to you&comma; and the animation industry is definitely not dependent on degrees&period; If you live outside of North America&comma; a degree might be handy in order to apply for work visas&period; Mostly I’d say it’s worth it to make friends to draw with&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pbs&period;twimg&period;com&sol;media&sol;FKJhF&lowbar;naAAEZBww&quest;format&equals;jpg&amp&semi;name&equals;medium" alt&equals;"Image" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>What are your future plans as an animator&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>In the short term&comma; I’m hoping to enter the animation industry before I graduate next year&comma; either through studio work or via freelance and commissions&period; Particularly at the end of this year I’m planning on entering the anime industry&period; In the long term I aspire to work on a shoujo anime one day&comma; as well as possibly open up my own studio if the opportunity arises&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Do you think art has become a more sustainable source of income in recent years&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Definitely&comma; although the western industry is still quite difficult to get into&period; With the internet has come some amazing opportunities to make money off of art&comma; and with the pandemic remote work has become more prevalent&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>NFTs have been an interesting topic of discussion on the internet in recent times&period; As an artist&comma; <&sol;b><b>what are your opinions of NFTs&quest; As we&&num;8217&semi;ve noticed&comma; some artists use them to sell their art in <&sol;b><b>multiple ways&comma; while others shame their use in any way&period; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>From my limited understanding of them&comma; I don’t support NFTs or ever want to get involved with them&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pbs&period;twimg&period;com&sol;media&sol;FKJhGASVgAEiK&lowbar;Y&quest;format&equals;jpg&amp&semi;name&equals;medium" alt&equals;"Image" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Do you have any general advice you&&num;8217&semi;d like to give upcoming artists and animators&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Make art friends so that you can learn and grow together&comma; and do art&sol;animation studies on things that get you excited and are fun to draw&excl;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Any upcoming or current projects you&&num;8217&semi;re willing to share or anything you&&num;8217&semi;d like to promote&quest; <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>There’s a possibility I’ll be opening commissions for animated emotes and png tubers in the coming months&comma; and you can stay updated on that via my social medias&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;rhi&lowbar;bn" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">&commat;rhi&lowbar;bn<&sol;a> on Twitter&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;instagram&period;com&sol;rhi&lowbar;bn&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Instagram<&sol;a> and TikTok&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;

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