About me
My name is Thomas
Crook and I am 22, from Nottingham, England. I have loved drawing and painting since I was old enough to hold a pencil! My interest and enthusiasm in drawing led me to study Animation at Staffordshire University in 2005, where I developed my drawing ability and came up with some of my own animated characters such as the Cheesemen you see as my site mascots! I also got to make my own short animated films complete with colour and sound there! I graduated in 2008 and my dream is to be given a chance in the Animation industry. During my study at University I was exposed to all the different aspects of creating an animated film, from Storyboarding and sound-recording in a sound-proof studio to line-testing, computer colouring and final editing. It was a lot of hard work and I learned to be even more disciplined and dedicated than I had been at school, but it was worth it in the end! Animation is addictive as you want to bring characters to life, it is a magical (but testing!) experience, and I am always trying to improve on my work. I feel that I could learn a lot from professionals if I could experience life in a studio, even for a day! I would really appreciate the chance of some very valuable work experience and will gladly make the tea and help out as a "runner" at a studio! My dream job in the industry would be an inbetween or key frame animator or a Storyboard artist or assistant as I love the drawing aspect of the animation process, you are creating the "bare bones" of the animation. If you think I am suitable for your company and would like to give a hard working, enthusiastic and extremely helpful young animator a chance to see what the real world of animation is like then please contact me here: thomascrook@thomascrookfilms.com Profile
Age: 22 Interests: Drawing, Animating, sculpting, model making, going to Salsa lessons, Classic Cars and robots! Favourite Cartoon Character: Inspector Gadget Favourite movies (Animation): "Laputa the flying island" "The Castle of Cagliostro" "Ghost in the Shell" "Akira" "Howl's Moving Castle" "Memories" "Porco Rosso The Crimson Pig" "The Iron Giant" Favourite movies (Live action): "Robocop," "The Fifth Element" "City of God" "Transformers" (A guilty pleasure!) "District 9" Favourite Computer games: Pilotwings 64, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini Favourite Music: Although they are before my time I enjoy good tracks by Fleetwood Mac, Roxy Music, Jimi Hendrix, Kate Bush Favourite Food: Roast dinner, Stir fry, Marmite! Favourite Cars: Lancia Stratos, Fiat 500, Fiat Abarths, Alfa Romeo GTA, Bizzarrini 5300 Strada, De Tomaso Mangusta and Pantera, Alfa Romeo Montreal, Alpine Renault A310. Although I have finished my University course it has not stopped me from making more Animation! The main piece of animation equipment I used at the University animation studio was their line-testing device. It enables you to check the flow of your rough pencil drawings by photographing each one and playing them back on a TV screen. I came up with my own solution to this by connecting a webcam to my computer and using a special free program called "Monkeyjam" to photograph each drawing and play them back in a sequence to test how my animation is looking! The webcam is connected to a shelf in my bedroom as you can see in the photos below using some Lego Technic and a small G-clamp! The grey box underneath the drawings is my lightbox which I use to trace over the drawings.   |