South Seas animation competition winner announced

Monday, 13 November 2006

The inaugural Youthtown/South Seas animation competition has a winner. 14 year old Hamiltonian Gabrielle Bradley took out the first prize with her entry entitled “For Justice”. The medieval-themed storyboard impressed the judges with the quality of classic drawing and the understanding of shots used in film and animation production.

“Gabrielle’s entry showed real style and demonstrated good storyboarding techniques” says Greg Chapman, head of South Seas Animation School on Auckland’s North Shore. “The storyboard was dynamic and exciting in it’s telling of the tale and clarity of ideas.”

Gabrielle received the phone call last week notifying her of the win. “I was exhilarated, I was like "YES! thank you South Seas for giving me this recognition and this opportunity."

Her prize is a much sought after place on the one-week animation introductory course in early December. “

Animation gives me the freedom I need to design unique characters and push the limits. I love to draw characters with something I call a yes/no factor where the bad guy looks just a little bit too nice to be bad”

Gabrielle has always had a passion for drawing. “I have drawn every day for as long as I can remember. My interest in animation began years ago with shows like Pokemon and Digemon.” She lists her current favourites as Final Fantasy 7 Dirge of Cerberus, Chaos Legion, The Cat Returns, and Castlevania Lament of Innocence.

Youthtown, based in Auckland City, provides young people opportunities for physical, social and creative experiences. In order to build self esteem and confidence, they provide specialized quality programmes and guidance in a supportive environment.

South Seas Film, TV and animation school runs a two year diploma in Animation. The school focuses on classical animation, incorporating classic and life drawing techniques as well as 2D and 3D animation software.

And does Gabrielle see a future as an animator? “This is totally my dream. I aspire someday, to do the animation and or character design for well known companies like Konami, Capcom, Studio Ghibli and Square Enix”

And Youthtown and South Seas hope they have given her the opportunity to meet that aspiration.

ENDS

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