An animator has reflected on his “remarkably exciting” 2022, which has included creating work for Gucci, Fifa and a King Charles III documentary.
Ben Wild left school at the age of 16 to pursue a career in animation and told the PA news agency that since then, he has gone on to achieve numerous exciting feats, including having his illustrations and animations featured in a documentary on the King in November, which he hopes will encourage budding animators to pursue the craft.
“A production company in Scotland reached out to me around March 2021 to help with a feel good project highlighting the amazing spaces and people of Bradford”, the 23-year-old who is based in Wales said.
“And while I was there mingling with the producers, I was asked if I wanted to be part of a documentary where I would bring to life the transformation of a building for the Prince’s Trust.
“I basically just started with an animation test of Charles’ face with him talking and having a little lip sync and then drew about 90 illustrations of his face, animated it and it just kind of snowballed from there.”
All the animations through the show of the map and title sequence were also created by Mr Wild via his company Ben Wild Studios.
King Charles III’s TV documentary ‘A Royal Grand Design’ was released by ITV in November and told the story of Charles and his efforts to save an 18th Century stately home in the UK to help regenerate the local community.
Despite not getting to meet the King in person, Mr Wild said that being part of the documentary was a career “highlight”, especially when he got to paint the map of the grounds for the estate as it was “super interesting working out where everything should be”.
Other moments Mr Wild reflected on fondly from the year include working with Gucci, Fifa and on a comic book.
“We worked on a TV show for Fifa Plus in November 2021 (which aired on ITV around November of this year) about previous world cups, which was primarily about penalties”, he said.
“And on that project, we were really allowed to explore character animation and their role in story-telling, which was remarkably exciting.”
“We also worked on a comic book for YouTubers Romell Henry and Jay Swingler for the Childish collection, which has been incredibly well-received and that’s really nice.”
Mr Wild also worked with Gucci on a project with its Manchester Pop-up team to help add live illustrations to their space and illustrating clients and garments throughout the day.
For budding animators or illustrators, Mr Wild said that networking is the key factor.
“A lot of resources which are useful can be found for free online, so you don’t need to necessarily go to university”, he said.
“If you are willing to put that extra step in and do that research, you can find a lot of helpful videos on YouTube and free online courses.
“And networking is super useful and can be achieved by just going to industry led networking events in whatever town or city you may be in – that’s the key thing.”
