Fumio Obata
The first lecture was interesting because he told about his history of being a illustrator. He started off by telling the group what influenced him to become an artist which was manga and anime culture when his living in Japan. This was nice to find out what influenced Fumio because I could tell it influenced his work by looking at it. I feel that I am on the same boat as Fumio because when I was little I watch anime and read manga. But I mostly got this experience when I visited America for it's take on Japanese culture. So in a way I am influenced by both American culture and Japanese culture.
He then went on to tell us what he did that started off his career as an illustrator. He studied at Glasgow School of Art for BA Illustration degree and got a masters degree in communication Design from Royal College of Art in London. He told us how he was very passionate about Character design and how he got taught to expend his skills and tutors telling him to pursue his career of Sequential design. With this knowledge it was good to know what he did to help him build up his skills and knowledge of what he wanted to do as career. He also did said that he had a basic idea of what he wanted to do which is the same as me because I know I want to be concept artist. But also I know I want to go into further education which involves the video game industry. So this information was comforting to know what kind of work you would have to do to get to that kind of level of work.
Fumio also developed a career as an animator from 2003 to 2008. He worked for many companies which were Duran Duran, Channel4 and the Redkite animation. With this he showed what kind of work he had to do when he was an animator which was him creating storyboards for the animations, Structuring and planning out the animation and creating concept art. He also told us that with the projects he had deadlines to fill and with each company and program it was different. Sometimes he had two weeks to finish animation or a month to produces a 1-5 minutes of animation which takes time. He also told me sometimes he would have to work in a team or by himself. Which again was interesting to know because he said that it was easier to work in a team but still was a lot of work to do and he said that it was a stressful because of the short deadlines. It is good to know what is expected off an animator and it something that I would not mind trying again but I did find animator a bit stressful from last year but that was a time when I did not have the knowledge of what to do as animator.
In 2008 Fumio then went to France for an Artist residency to study comic book design at La Cite Internationtionale de la Bande Dessinee et de L'image in Angouleme, France. With this he understood how comics are made. With this knowledge he has chosen graphic novels and comic books as his main creative outlet with also be a freelance illustrator who has designed illustrators for Italian magazine called Internazionale which is a comic about the earthquake that hit Japan in March 2011. This was interesting to know that Fumio does a wide range of things will still he is doing the career path that he had chosen. I think this good knowledge to know even if I do the career that I want, I still have a range of choices to chose from.
Overall this was a brilliant lecture because it has gave me the knowledge from Fumio life experience of being an illustrator and will this knowledge it can me think about what I want to do as a career and what I could also branch into when doing my career.
Fumio graphic novel
Fumio short animation "Shhh"
With the next lecture with Fumio I was told what to do when creating a children book what process we would have to go through when deciding on a publisher. But before I decide on which on a publisher I should research about them first and find out what one is best for independent illustrators and what kind of contract they offer. With the books themselves they are sold to the sellers not the actual publishers and with selling them to sellers they need to be given to them at a discount rate which will be normal half the price or sometimes more, so that it can bought in a large bulk. So when it comes to the actual selling of the book, the illustrator/storyteller normal only get 10% of the profit for each book sold so when it comes to pricing it. This ten percent is called the Royalties checks. I should consider what will work best at what price and consider how much I want as an illustrator.
Fumio also gave me advice such as always look at the contract because sometimes the contract may say that you only get the full amount of money, when all the books are sold. With Fumio he went with Jonathan Cape in which he present the idea for his book to the company, which they approved and then provided a contract. With the contract it stated that he would be paid in three instalments which was him get a £1000 once he had signed the contract and he would get a £1000 once he has completed the book. But with the third instalments Fumio has to wait twelve months after the book has been publish. He also told me that there is another form of pay which is called Royalties checks, which are checks you get once the whole quantity. But with the quantity is different each the less you have, the lower the profit but if higher the illustrator/storyteller gets more but not a lot more to get ten percent profit you must sell three thousand books but to get eleven percent you must sell six thousand. With the royalties checks profit rating, they do not change if it sold as a hardback copy or trade paperback. I was also told if the books get translated or taken over to America, the publishing company that want to do this will have to buy my artist right, which means that I would get a large profit from this.
With each publisher they give you a time limit like any project but sometimes they would want something in three weeks or three months, it just counts on what the client wants. With this knowledge to is good to know what will happen if I get into this business and what I need to do when signing a contract. But with this knowledge I am also worried about joining this business because of the ten percent profit, I thought how will I make a living out of that but then I though if I sold a large amount of books or translated I would gain a profit. But in my head do I want to take that chance. I will have to try this out but use this knowledge to help me get the better advanced.
