Sense of humour required for the animation game

One of the Give Up Yer Aul' Sins film animators, Sineád Lawless finds that getting animated herself is an essential part of the creative process. Catherine Foley reports

She grimaces as she draws. She stands up and hops, waves her arms around and jumps on the spot. Sinéad Lawless says it's all part of the creative process.

And a sense of humour is crucial in animation, adds a smiling Lawless - who already has her share of an Oscar nomination under her belt.

She worked as one of the animators on the short film, Give Up Yer Aul' Sins, which was produced by Brown Bag Films.

"I worked from the start on that project. I did the colouring in," she says with great satisfaction. "And I got a credit on it," adds the delighted 23-year-old.

It can be unusual working in Brown Bag Films animation offices off O'Connell Street in Dublin, she explains, smiling at the idea: "Sometimes you have to get up off your chair to act out certain movements." She is one of the five full-time animators who work with the company.

Even while drawing on the computer, her own face often contorts as she draws, she says, explaining that her expression changes as the character's mood emerges on the screen.

In this job people look for enthusiasm, she says. Cartoons are often aimed at children so it's important to maintain a sense of fun and wonder. She herself loves her work and she doesn't feel she'll ever grow tired of looking at cartoons. When a new cartoon film hits the screens, "I can't wait to see it," she says.

She believes her love of art and drawing in particular, is due largely to her art teacher in the Ursuline Convent in Cork city, Miriam Barry, who was "extremely encouraging . . . She just kept me motivated". Lawless, who also enjoyed science and maths subjects, continued to draw all through school. After her Leaving Cert in 1997, she decided to study animation at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

The three-year diploma class was comprised largely of men, with just a small handful of women. In her first year, she recalls, they were asked to draw a bag of flour in different moods - looking happy, sad, excited, tired and angry.

"It was quite hard but it was fun and made us more aware of the subtleties of how to convey emotions. Animation is about exaggerating characteristics."

In third year, her work included the creation of a three-minute film. Called The Tooth Fairy, it was shown at a number of festivals, including the Galway Film Festival, the Foyle Film Festival and the Dublin Film Festival. After graduating in 2000, it was a matter of knocking on doors and looking for work, she says.

On finding a job, she says: "There are not that many companies in Dublin so you have to go out there and push yourself. You have to persevere and take the knocks," she says. She was hired by Brown Bag Films that August.

In her job: "You have to have an eye for detail.You are conveying emotions, she continues. It's all very creative. Seeing everything in the finished piece is where the joy comes in." And, as in many other jobs, she believes it's important to be outgoing too.

"You certainly need to have patience. There are 25 frames a second for animation. You need to have an eye for movement and composition, you need to be able to draw. If you are going to animate people, life drawing is important. You have to know a little bit about anatomy."

Her long-term ambition, she says, would be to work on a feature film. I'd love to work on something like Shrek or Monsters Inc."