Méabh: It’s a balance. The most important things are a simple, appealing design, entertaining stories told in a clear way and giving children something that means something to them – elements they recognise and understand from their own lives. The animation itself is all about clear direct communication.
Preschool animation has to achieve a lot. It has to engage young kids, hold their attention, and give them some kind of payoff at the end. They are a lot more of a discerning audience than people give them credit for. Today’s children are navigating content on numerous platforms. They are fussy and well served customers. There is no end of choice for them so if you want your show to stand out – if you want your show to be the show they keep coming back to, then it’s got to really deliver. Bright colours, engaging backgrounds, nothing that’s too complex just for the gratification of the creators and equally not talking-down to pre-schoolers either.
Dee: Good use of lots of colour and appealing, simple designs. When we're designing backgrounds, we try to make them familiar to the kids that might be watching. Considering things like, what kind of sitting room would a preschool kid recognise? What objects would be in it? What do young families have in their homes? But also, what is different or funny that might make a kid laugh, or think.
What are some animated features that have excited you in the last year?
Dee: I'm so excited to see The Breadwinner! It's amazing to have such beautiful feature length animation coming out of Ireland. I also loved seeing Your Name by director Makoto Shinkai in cinema here - it's cool to see foreign animated films getting theatrical release here. I also haven't seen Isle of Dogs yet, but I'm excited for that too.
Méabh: From the last year I would say The Lego Batman Movie and Despicable Me 3 were definite favourites. Other films I’ve loved are Song of the Sea (I think I’ve seen it 3 times now!) Dying to see The Breadwinner too. I am also a total fan of Frozen, Inside Out, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant, Wreck-it Ralph, Spirited Away, Brave, My Neighbour Totoro. I know none of those are in the last year, but I have to mention them because I love them so much.
Dee, do you draw any influences from feature length films, animated or otherwise, in your work with Mooshku? Has working on backgrounds changed the way you look at animation outside of your work?
Dee: I definitely do. I was a huge Disney movie kid, and that's basically the reason I'm in animation today. The Lion King is the first thing I can point to in my life that made me really go, "What's all this drawing craic about." I'm really inspired by anything with a strong visual identity - for example, Wes Anderson movies, particularly The Royal Tenenbaums, and anything that Laika makes, particularly Paranorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. In Mooshku, we stick to the specific style of the show we are making, but consuming new media and films is necessary to keep your work fresh. The biggest thing for me is seeing different ways other people are using colour and composition.
Working in backgrounds has really made me pay a lot more attention to set dressing, not only in animation but live-action, and games too. Like how to make an environment seem lived-in.
Can you talk about how you've developed since you began working professionally? Who/what do you look to for new inspiration?
Dee: Working in animation has taught me to be a versatile artist. My job is to adopt the style of the show, so it's very different to just drawing my own work. Of course, your drawing skills improve if you're drawing every day in work, but I think most of what I've learned in animation is how to communicate with people to achieve your goal, or the vision of the project. Animation is collaborative, communication is key.
A lot of my inspiration actually comes from the people I work with - it's amazing to be surrounded by such skilled artists. Ireland is absolutely full of them. I use Twitter and Instagram a lot to keep up with artists. It's sort of like a bottomless pit of inspiration. Once you find a couple of artists you like, it just snowballs. Events like DCAF, the Dublin Comic and Arts Festival, which is very regular, are so great for finding new artists too. And for finding Irish artists on social media, Irish Comic News do a great monthly art roundup where they link to artists' social media accounts and display their work.
48 CinÉireann / May 2018