CAA Alumni: Anass 'Class of 2015' Moudakir

Hello, I am Anass Moudakir, a Computer Animation Arts graduate from 2012-2015.  I am currently working as a Junior Artist at PixelSky Studio in sunny Casablanca, Morocco. I am happy to tell you a little bit about what I have been up to since then.

After completion of the course at UCA, I have kept busy with online classes to strengthen my skills. I have also attended weekly life drawing classes for animation in London where I met talented artists from the industry. Let me tell you it has paid off.  I am glad I made the effort, so do make the most of your life-drawing sessions in uni!

I have also worked on commissioned projects including an info graphic for a friend’s project at the University of Leeds. The explainer is about single travel holidays for coffee lovers. It was made in just 48hours 'from script to screen'.

   

Upon my return home to Morocco, I joined an art workshop where I continued to develop my 2D skills (traditional animation and life drawing), while actively searching for an internship/job - and then the opportunity to join three talented artists at Pixelsky Studio came up.

Pixelsky Studio

I had the chance to work on the different aspects of the animation pipeline from pre-production to post production (an advantage of being in a small studio), which was really interesting. It shows how spontaneous you have to be in making decisions in tight deadlines and the importance of research and finalizing the concept before moving to production.

Few weeks later I focused on different parts of the production from low poly modeling techniques to xgen Maya for various projects. (You guessed it - I can’t talk about yet).

It is such a great work environment and it feels good being around experienced artists, your confidence and skills improve quickly!

Besides that, I am also devoting time to getting involved in art workshops/debates, which is a great way to develop your personality and has definitely helped me make great contacts. I've recently been selected along with 15 other artists to take part in an initiative called TA7RIR, which means Liberation. It stresses the importance of observation in life-drawing, as well as keeping an intimate yet respectful relationship with the models and breaking any labels society may impose on us!

Anass at work at TA7RIR

An exhibition took place on March 5th, 2017 showcasing all artwork created during the event.

I believe the most important thing I have learnt so far is to not be naïve, to get out there join art communities and meet people, you will certainly learn something and it will eventually lead to something that can only be good.

See no Evil is a great bi-monthly meeting in London where artists/animators/directors give a talk about their work and how they got started in the industry and socialize! 

Also if you haven’t heard of ItsonCraft, go check it out, it is such a great website where you can access ‘making of’ animations and games from script writing to compositing and project management. You can also purchase animation project files and PSDs! It is so pleasing to look at and great to learn from.  Most importantly, enjoy the process! Best of luck!