Featured Animator: Kieran Quinn

Our featured animator for September is Kieran Quinn. Quinn graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta with a degree in animation in June 2018. He's also the Learning Coordinator for ASIFA-South International Animation Society. Quinn began his animation journey in 2007, but didn’t fully embrace the craft until he joined the Stop-Motion Club at SCAD in 2015. There he co-directed and animated an animated short film, Princess Cottongrassfor the Xperimental Puppetry Theaterblock shown at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.

Inspired by Aardman Animation, the creators of Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, Quinn hopes to have a career in stop-motion animation. “My career goals mainly focus around short-format storytelling in stop-motion through narratives, commercials or experimental pieces,” says Quinn.

As an animator, he believes that focusing on the story is the most important element in animation, and not necessarily the medium.

However, he admits a preference for stop-motion.

“There’s something about knowing that every character, prop, set – is a physical item that exists, that is literally, physically manipulated by an animator on a frame-by-frame basis, that gives it an incredibly intimate feel,” says Quinn. “You can see the result of someone breathing a life, a personality, into it.”

As for the animation industry in general, Quinn feels that because we’re in the age of digital distribution, artists from all over the world now have the opportunity to put their work out there.

He also mentions how platforms like Netflix have changed animation for the better.

“Serialized storytelling in animation has become a norm, allowing artists to do more with their characters than a normal 11-22 minute block of television might allow,” says Quinn. When animators relied on that short time frame to tell stories, Quinn says that it stunted room for overarching plotlines and character growth. We definitely agree.

Quinn has already accomplished so much, and we hope to see more of his work in the future. You can check out his current work here.

Cheers everyone and keep animating!