Nominee: Henri Winkelman Award 2019
On 29th of May 2019, the annual award show of the Henri Winkelman Awardwill take place at the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA). The Henri Winkelman Award has been created seven years ago by the Stichting Ondernermersbelangen Rotterdam. This foundation supports young innovative entrepreneurs on their way with two incentive prices of € 10,000 and € 5000.
What is your occupation now?
In the beginning of 2014 (I was in my second year at WdKA), I received a call from a consultant with whom I worked with during my internship a couple of years before. He asked if I could make an animation for the company he worked for at that moment. This is how I started to work as a freelance animator, which I continued to do for the remaining years of my study at the Willem de Kooning Academy. When I graduated in 2016, I continued to primarily work on commissioned projects as a freelance animator. Now I regularly work with multiple studios across the Netherlands and in my own studio and continue building an online stock portfolio containing animation, videos and photography to obtain a steady (passive) income while doing what I love to do.
What did you gain from your study at WdKA?
I have learned so much at WdKA, it is difficult to name everything. Obviously, I have learned a lot about concepts, directing, drawing and animation. But the most important thing I have learned was why I wanted to become a filmmaker and how I could position myself in order to do the work I love and to attract the right clients and the right audience for my work. Academy helped me make better decisions regarding which path to take for my dream of being a freelance animator to come true. And, I now have a group of friends with whom I still collaborate and a broad network of animation studios.
Favourite WdKA memory?
The lessons of our Drawing tutor Victor Elberse were (most of the time) such a fun experience. Victor has a good sense of humour, loves what he does and is very serious about teaching. I used to be rather poor at drawing but because of Victor’s approach of humour, knowledge and disciplined way of teaching, I managed to develop my drawing skills and started to find drawing way more fun than I used to. What was also a real eye-opening experience for me, seeing that the students for whom I thought could draw really well were having the most trouble to succeed in the drawing classes because they sometimes were held back by the technical tricks, which took a lot of time to unlearn.
What is the future of your profession in your opinion?
Now I focus more on digital animation and 3D instead of traditional animation. With computers becoming faster and faster, with world-class real-time renderers soon to be released, I believe that my work will become less waiting and more fun. Long waiting time for a render to complete the film will become a thing of the past. This would mean I could pay more attention to all the other aspects of filmmaking. I also believe that animation will become a medium that will be used broadly for new products, partly because of the mobile phone revolution with cheap, smart and small screens. Like smartwatches, Virtual Reality, traffic signs, in the doctor’s office and Augmented Reality.
You never leave your house without…?
Without my Penny skateboard, because it helps me to exercise and be on time. I bought mine in 2011 and the thing still works! I can take a Penny skateboard with me in public transport and I will be faster in the city centre than when I would’ve used my BMW.
Any words of advice for future students?
Be open-minded and don’t be scared to take a path different from what you first thought of. Don’t be scared to try new things. Love what you do and invest your time and effort to make work you like. This attitude will give you energy for the next projects.
Name your favourite recent project.
I have worked on the visual effects of the movie De Dirigent, directed by Maria Peters. It was the first time that I worked on such a huge project for several months as a freelancer. I worked closely together with Maria and was thrilled to show new stuff because, luckily, there was enough time to deliver good work. After all the months working on the finest details, it was an amazing experience to be present at the opening premiere in Tuschinski Amsterdam with all those famous movie stars.
Future plans and hopes.
I want to further expand on my passive income options. I have plans to develop my own animated series for YouTube. I first want to complete a series of six episodes and then release it weekly. There are a bunch of ideas that I really want to execute but don’t want to share just yet. We’ll see what the future brings.
