On Tuesday the 15th of November 2022, Sheffield Hallam’s BA and MA animation students had the pleasure of attending a talk by Barry Purves. Barry Purves is an Animator, director and writer. He has won many awards for his work in the past and continues to go on and educate people about the word of animation.
At the start of the talk he expressed his own opinion on how art is artifice, and how artistic images such as paintings and photographs are staged. He stressed the relevance of acting and body language. He mentioned how he the puppet or the character had its own agency and power to inform the animation so that it becomes believable and engaging. He also talked about how to use light to generate dramatic effects. His articulated the talk in a spontaneous and engaging style through the concept of artifice.
Barry Purves has had a lot of experience in the industry, here are some of the film that he has worked on, Achilles (1995), Tchaikovsky (2011), Rigoletto (1993) and his most recent film No Ordinary Joe (2021). During the talk he showed these films so that the students could start to see in more detail what it is he does.
One of the highlights of this talk for the students was the puppet from the film ‘No Ordinary Joe’. Barry brought in the puppet for the students to see. At the end of the talk students were able to go and speak to Barry personally.
This experience for anyone wanting to go into animation, film, directing is truly amazing and inspiring.
