Continuing our series of interviews with Wooshii community members, we are going to talk with Lawrence Taylor, a motion graphics artis and animator from the UK, who has won two projects on Wooshii so far.
Here we go:
How did you get started with creative things? What has been your path right up to this moment?
I first became interested in animation after watching things like ‘Morph’ and ‘Rolph’s Cartoon Club’ as a kid. I always found the idea of bringing something to life, and being able to tell a story visually – from nothing, wildly exciting. It was difficult to pursue this as a career at first though as careers officers at school often wanted to recommend more traditional jobs. This lead me into engineering, which I continued with for 5 years or so, before finally leaving to go to uni as a mature student at the age of 23.
How does it feel to be a creative working on online video nowadays? Pros and cons?
I really enjoy working in online video, getting paid to be creative is very rewarding process. In terms of pros and cons, a big pro these days is the power of ‘off the shelf’ computers, the online training communities where you can learn a great deal about software for no charge whatsoever and the ability to send clients pre-viz and deploy final delivery from anywhere you wish that has internet connection – I’ve even held Skype meetings from a boat off the coast of Scotland. The cons that come with this overall democratisation of skills and the availability of technology can devalue the currency of the creative by having too much in circulation, work can be undervalued and quality can get diluted. Decent clients will always recognise the value of good work though.
You’ve won a few projects at Wooshii. What are some good tips for winning pitches?
My main tip for winning briefs would be to make sure you are confident that you can deliver a product that you would be proud of and that you really understand what the client is looking for, and of course have examples of your work that can validate your confidence.
What is the favourite video (Wooshii or not) you’ve made so far?
Unfortunately my current staff position prohibits me from putting the work we make online, it’s largely internal stuff for a very high-profile group of brands. I’ve seen my work develop at great place while I’ve been here and produced many of my best pieces in that time. Prior to my job here, this self initiated piece was one of my personal favourites:
(Ed. note: Wow, that is just beautiful!)
What is your favourite video on the whole web?
Ha! This is a very tough question, I could give you a different answer every week, every day almost. I’ll give you a couple if that’s ok: I always enjoy Patric Claire’s stuff, this is one of my favourite pieces by him
Stuxnet: Anatomy of a computer virus
This one is just too charming for words:
And finally, just as it was a massive massive inspiration, the well known ‘headphones’ spot by Paul Clements – the style, attention to detail, composition and overall design and charisma of this piece are just off the chart completely.
Favourite software (or hardware) to work with?
I use pretty much the same everyday, I’m lucky enough to have a 12core Mac Pro with 32gb ram, along with C4D studio, Adobe premium and a little wacom bamboo pen and touch. It’s the perfect set up for myself. Along with having a really decent ergonomic chair with lots of support. It’s a boring issue but it’s so important given the number of hours people in our job frequently do.
And which software or hardware (or both) doesn’t exist, but you wish it would?
This would definitely be the ‘Tony Stark’ custom 3D augmented reality interface from Ironman. I would like that a lot 
What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m working on campaign for a major brand hair care product.
Finally, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Five years is a long time in online video, I’m very happy in my staff position with my current employer, I’d like to see either a work project or a self initiated project make it to the front page of motionographer and do the rounds. I’d like to create something that people enjoy enough for them to want to share it.
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And that’s it! Thank you to Lawrence for his time answering these and looking forward to all his future projects.
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