What does your role as a Senior Motion Designer entail?

Animating anything and everything - from abstract squares and circles, to emotive characters, to 3D worlds. Sometimes, coming up with concepts and designs for animation. Other times, helping develop the team’s creative and technical skill set.

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How did you get into this field?

I started doing stop-motion Lego animations as a kid, then got really excited about filmmaking and visual effects, until I settled on motion design. Whilst in high school, I got into creating After Effects templates to earn some money on the side. Then I went to uni which was a bit wasteful, but it did help me spread my skills more horizontally - I learned things like programming, web development, and generative design. In my final year, I met Buff at a portfolio review event, started freelancing with them shortly after, and joined the studio permanently after graduation.

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What is your most memorable project and why?

I really enjoyed creating a little world for the character Hank to live in. Our designer Margo created the concept designs and included so many nice touches, like the framed photo of the frog character as a baby. It was fun reimagining the designs in 3D.

What do you feel are the more critical stages of your creative process?

Planning the animation out before hitting the ANIMATE button… This saves time because it means I can set things up the right way for animation. But sometimes happy accidents happen during animation, so it’s good to keep an open mind and not box myself in at this ‘planning stage’.

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With the increasing number of tools, techniques and resources, how do you decide where to invest your focus?

Choose the tools that are best for the type of work you do. This often requires doing some research, seeing what other people say about these tools, and maybe trying them out yourself. But it can get tricky if you’re a generalist and do a bit of everything - there are too many advanced tools and techniques that would take too long to learn. In that case, specialise a bit more or put in the extra hours to learn everything… Or at least familiarise yourself with the tools so that you can learn through doing the work once the right project comes along.

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What do you feel Junior Motion Designers don’t do enough of?

Often it just comes down to the principles of animation. It’s important to understand physics concepts like inertia. In a lot of cases, just dragging the ease handle all the way to the left is not enough to smoothly stop a moving object. You often need to add a third keyframe to smooth out that last bit of the movement. Sort of like stopping a car - no matter how slowly you break, you really need to go easy at the end to avoid a sudden jolt as you come to a complete stop.

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What has been a highlight of working at Buff?

I’ve loved the away days we’ve had as a team to flex our legs and brains. From screen printing, to mindful marbling, to spending a weekend at Pictoplasma Berlin, we’ve had some good times outside of the studio.

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Can you describe Buff in 3 words?

Versatile. Fair. Uncomplicated.

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Lastly, what would you say is the most rewarding part of your job?

Nothing better than finishing a great project and watching the video back a ridiculous amount of times.