Finding What Animates You

In this interview, Lead animator Adeline Grange describes her career path, from her first interest to leading teams, before giving advice to aspiring animators.

Can you tell us why you decided to work in animation?
Well, it happened a bit by chance. I started out studying medicine, but I wasn’t very happy there. Then I discovered an animation school near where I lived and took the plunge. I was fascinated by Japanese animation and had not stopped watching cartoons or drawing since I was a child. I studied at the Lycée Technique des Arts et Métiers in Luxembourg, then was accepted at Gobelins in Paris, where I did my second animation course over three years, learning both 2D and 3D. It was there that I decided to become an animator, which is what really excited me. After taking an internship at Framestore in London I was propelled into 3D animation. After a few years at MacGuff in Paris I moved to Montreal.

Is there a typical route into animation?
There are lots of possible routes. The most straightforward is to become a junior animator straight out of school. That said, I’ve seen other paths, people who went through layout first, but who fell in love with animation and, because they already had the technical skills, managed to join the animation department straight afterwards. In animation, there are the crowd characters we see in the background. Often, you can start with crowds as a junior and get promoted from that.

What does a typical day in animation look like?
After the director has approved a sequence and given his instructions, the animator is assigned a shot, often according to their level – junior, middle or senior – with an assigned number of working days. The most important things are to know what’s going on in the sequence before and after the shot to get the motivation right, and also to understand what the director is looking for in the character’s state of mind. Once that is clear, the animator would usually film some reference to get approved by their lead and supervisor. After that, blocking starts, a rough outline of the animation which is validated by the supervisor and director in meetings called dailies or director reviews. That process is generally repeated until we are ready to send the shot to the next department.

What nourishes you most in your work and what challenges you most?
My biggest challenge is impostor syndrome. Even today, as a lead, when I get a shot and I have to give my opinion I wonder what will happen if I’m wrong or if I miss something important. That’s difficult because you don’t want to lead your team down the wrong path. However, it’s normal to make mistakes sometimes. There are a thousand ways of playing a line or a feeling and you can’t get it right every time. What’s gratifying is to see an animator who’s having a blast on their shot, who’s happy with what they’ve done and how they’ve contributed. As leads, we know that we’re partly responsible because we’re the ones who assigned them, guided them and responded to their problems so that they could get the most out of it and have fun.

What has been your favourite Cinesite project so far?
I’ve been working at Cinesite since 2022. I’ve had the chance to work on four projects: Iwaju, Animal Farm and Smurfs (feature films) as well as a lovely test for a partner studio. They were all very different projects. Iwaju and Animal Farm succeeded in meeting personal needs that I had. For Iwajù, I’d just come back from maternity leave, so I needed a production that was comfortable, reliable, reassuring, enveloping and warm. And that’s exactly what it was. This show was incredible. I’ve never seen a production go so straight. That’s what I needed at that moment to regain my self-confidence. And for Animal Farm, it was a time in my life when my daughter had grown up, I was less tired, I was more sure of myself and I was able to become lead again at that moment. It was very challenging on so many levels, but it was at a time when I had the energy to respond, so it was perfect.

How did you find the experience of being a young mother in this industry?
I’m not going to say it is easy because it’s not, but I felt supported as a young mum. When I came back from maternity leave I didn’t want to manage other people at that time. As an animator, it was great because I had a lead who was supportive. Production always supported me, for example when my baby was ill and I had to stay home. I’ve never felt judged, even though it made me feel guilty because one of my main strengths is reliability, but because of things beyond my control, I wasn’t so reliable anymore. Within the studio, I’ve always had a very warm relationship with production and human resources. I really think I’ve landed in a very, very nice company when I came back from maternity leave, and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better. I wish all young parents had the same support.

And now, for students interested in working in animation, are there any elements that you think are really important to include in an animation demo reel?
I think you have to be able to show that you have a good sense of acting. After all, an animator is an actor behind the camera. You have to want to express emotions and understand your characters. You have to be able to make choices that are fair, honest, sincere, in which you resonate with the character, but also understand body mechanics. Being able to move a character from head to toe is really important and that’s often the point where animators struggle because it’s really very difficult. As a senior, I still sometimes have trouble with body mechanics shots because they require a lot of thought. But it’s important to show that you can do it.

And do you have any advice on how to improve your body mechanics skills?
You shouldn’t hesitate to act out scenes, even if you feel a bit stupid doing so. Repeat the movement and try to understand it. It can be very simple. If you have to get up from a chair, do you understand what’s happening? Where do you put your feet? Which muscles are activated? Doing the movements yourself is really important. Observation and attention to detail, that’s what’s going to help you a lot.

Are there any mistakes that you often see, either in terms of length or the type of material that goes into the demo tape?
There are two common mistakes: making a demo that’s too short, where we don’t get a chance to see what you can do, or making a demo that’s too long, where we get bored and which also shows us that you’re unable to pick your best shots. Another mistake would be to add overpowering music to a demo tape. Remember that the person watching the demo tapes will watch a lot of them and after a while the music is tiring. You shouldn’t hesitate to ask around for advice either. If you have access to other animators, your supervisor, your lead, ask them because sometimes you’re too critical or too close to your own work.

How is 2D an advantage in 3D?
It’s an advantage because the 2D animator pays a lot of attention to the strength of his poses, to expression, because it’s really a drawing that he has to create from head to toe. In 3D animation, the puppet is already done, so all you have to do is pose it, and often you take less time and pay less attention to the pose as a result. Sometimes, for some animators, it’s easier to do a quick draft in 2D before launching into 3D. It can also help to rough out an idea, to get a sense of the timing, the rhythm you want to give to a shot. I often work with draw-overs. In other words, the animators send me their shots and I reanimate them in 2D. It makes the review process simpler and quicker.

Is there any advice you wish you’d had when you were a student yourself?
Yes, I wish someone had taught me how to negotiate my contract and my salary. Because when you’re a junior entering the job market, you’re easy prey. I’ve had to pay the price and it’s destabilising. It’s frustrating, because you realise afterwards that you’ve negotiated your contract badly and it’s so important. It’s about getting respect for your work, the value of your work and establishing a relationship of trust with your employer.

Are there any qualities that are important to you for working in the industry in general?
Communication, because animation is really a team effort. You’re in contact with a whole bunch of people at all times and in all departments. You have to be able to express yourself clearly and be a good team player.

Do you have any projects that are particularly close to your heart for the rest of your career?
For my next project, I’m going back to being a senior animator. It’s something I asked for because, in fact, I find this rotation healthy. I’m doing a lot less animation now because most of my time is spent helping my animators. And I miss animating because it’s really what makes me tick. So going back to being a senior presenter is something I really want to do, and it gives me the chance to tackle technical problems and realise that I don’t know how to do everything and that I can still learn.

A final word?
As a woman in animation, I started at a time when I didn’t see many women around me. My first feature film was Gravity and I was the only woman in the whole animation team. I didn’t realise it straight away, but one day I looked at the production photo of the animation team and saw that I was the only girl. There were girls in production, and in the other departments, but in animation I was the only one. And in fact, over the course of my career, there have been a few women who have inspired me and given me confidence. More and more, I see that there are women in positions of responsibility and that’s important. In fact, I’d like to say to all women students, “Don’t hesitate, go for it!” The more women there are, the more we’ll be represented and the more we’ll show that we can do this job just as well.