Adenike is an incredible animator; not shying away from 2D and 3D. She does anything, and excels at everything! Gearing up for her senior year, Adenike takes us through her experiences at SCAD.
What classes have you enjoyed?
Studio classes! I love the hands on work experience that you get in studio classes. I actually took Concept Development again this quarter because I heard Webber was teaching it and I wanted to push my story skills further. Webber fits so much information into every class; I was blown away by what I’ve learned.
What area of animation do you like?
Honestly, I love everything! I don’t know what to focus on because when I came here I wanted to learn what I didn’t know and now I love everything I’m doing! Sometimes I worry about what I’m going to do after I leave school, because I’m spreading myself too thin, but hopefully those additional skills will be seen as a benefit! I’ve mostly focused on 2D animation and want to pursue television animation. I love the freedom of 2D, that fluidity you can get from pushing the action is really fun to do! I love animating dramatic/intense shots, like those cool sakuga moments in anime where you can tell all of the budget went into! You can really be limitless in your imagination!
“I love the freedom of 2D“
Have you worked on projects outside of classes?
I’ve done some freelance work! There is this new studio that is developing a visual novel type of video game so last summer I did the beginning cutscene for that. It was a lot of work to manage at the time, being the only animator working on it. It was a great experience for me because I realized I had been overworking myself. I was under the impression that you had to say yes to everything and take all opportunities. But being so overwhelmed with work made me realize that maybe I should focus on the bigger picture when accepting client work. It’s okay to work hard, but I realized I should be spending my time on things that would help me develop my portfolio and skills; to prepare me in the long run. I also have a webcomic I’ve been working on for years, but that’s been a lower priority since SCAD with classwork and internship applications!
“I realized I should be spending my time on things that would help me develop my portfolio and skills”
What are you looking forward to in your senior year?
Learning new skills, I love getting the opportunity to learn! There’s so much I want to explore. I have a lot of experience with 2D animation, so I’m mostly refining my skills now. On the other hand, 3D is something I get to challenge myself with. I don’t entirely know what I want to do moving forward, but I know I want to learn as much as I can now while I’m here!
Is there anything that you want to see SCAD offer in the future?
I’d like to see more opportunities to collaborate with the other departments! The Motion Media department is really awesome, I feel like there’s a lot we could explore and learn from them in terms of animation techniques, designs and acethetics! There’s also VFX and ITGM and tons we could learn from them as well! It would be cool if we could combine our skills and share techniques and be more like a family than spareated departments haha!
Why and when did you choose SCAD?
When I was in high school and I honestly didn’t even know art school was a thing! I was also afraid of moving away from home but I knew I had to pursue it to further my animation goals and dreams. When I researched about good schools I’ve heard great things about SCAD and their amount of different areas to explore. I knew it would be a great place to learn a bunch of new things!
What inspires you?
I get inspired super easily! Everything I see, I want to figure out how it was made and recreate it myself! I try to figure out their techniques and skills, which is pretty fun! Like with Into the Spiderverse, it was sooo beautiful and inspiring for testing 3D! I would a lot of times ignore the story just because I’m so focused on the visuals and techniques, haha. One of my all-time favorite films though is Spirited Away. The visuals and animation were so impressive; and because of it and anime in general, it made a huge influence on me as I started developing my skills years ago.
What experiences have stood out to you?
I really enjoyed working on the senior films when they were open to everyone! It was such a new experience to work on many different films during my freshman and sophomore years. It was cool seeing everything come together, working with and getting to know the upperclassmen and learning new programs early before taking the studio classes. And during the showcases it was magical to see your name in the credits for the first time! It was a great collaborative experience overall and I made really great friends and future connections!
“It was magical to see your name in the credits for the first time!”
Huge thank you to Adenike for giving us this interview! It was wonderful hearing about her experience here. If you want to see more of her work, please visit her website:
https://adenikeanimates.wixsite.com/portfolio
Also be sure to check her out on social media!
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