Day in a Life of a Final Year Animation Student

Hello there!

My name is Jesse. I am a recent Animation Graduate. Here’s a little snapshot of a typical day for me during the last stretch before I submitted my FYP (Final Year Project). Little side note, I’ll be describing a day during the Production stage of my short film. By this stage, I’m all hands on deck on purely animating.

After fighting my alarm clock countless times, I would eventually start my day around 8 AM. I would give myself an hour to freshen up and have breakfast. Thankfully I live just outside my Campus, so I didn’t need to rush to my class that started at 10 AM.

My morning class would last from 10 AM to 1 PM - review for an hour and then amend and change for the rest of the lesson. The review process consisted of watching back my animatic. I discussed the composition, timing, and acting in the shot. By the end of the review, we would discuss how to improve it.

Depending on how much I get done, I would either have a work-in lunch or go to a nearby café with my classmates. More often than not, I do tend to have a work-in lunch. I always find it difficult to stop when I get into the zone of animating.

The afternoon class would start at 2 PM and last another 3 hours. Although our tutor was present in the lab, I would resume the work I started in the morning and request feedback if needed. I would wrap things up around 5 PM and head back home. Whilst home, I either napped or got ready for Taekwondo training at my university’s leisure centre.

I recommend joining a sports club or a society at university. It will allow you to detach yourself from your work and return to it with fresh eyes the next day. After training, I would eat meal-prepped food I made on the weekend and crash soon after.

I hope this gives a rough idea of what a day is like as an animation student. I’ve created a short video on what another day is like; if you are interested. You can view this on our Instagram. Thank you for reading!

Feel free to ask me any questions related to my course or anything university related. I’ll be more than happy to offer some insight.

- Jesse