Hello Guest, my name is Alan B McKenna, currently a student at University of Salford, on MA Animation. Last year (2011) completed my BA Animation with a First Class grade.

My prime ambitions is to work in the TV and film industry; both live-action and animated, within the areas of 2D and 3DCG animation and characters. And also getting involved with the story design like scriptwriting, storyboarding, animatics and pre-visualization; visual effects and motion graphics. Even looking towards the comic book/graphic novel industry as a writer and letterer, and the emerging Motion Comics medium.

In the long-term, becoming a TV/film director.

I actually grow up with computers, due to the line of work that my parents are in, Accountancy. At the same, watching cartoons both TV and movies, and playing video games. English in my young years was one of my weakest skills but Art and Drawing was my strength (with some training needed).

What inpired me to become an animator / cartoonist was the discovering some Flash cartoons on the web, that it wasn't done by the professionals, but by actually fans by using their personal computer and the right package. And it due to new sci-fi, fantasy and action blockbusters at the turn of the new century, 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Spider-Man' that got me more interested in persuing the direction of film-making, besides visual effects and animation. Trained myself through Media and Film Studies at Bury College. Was at College for 5-years, mainly to improve on my English, at the same learned the trade and the culture of media and film industry.

Then finally arrived at University of Salford in fall 2008, in BA Animation. The course had every that I was pursuing, not just 3D and 2D computer animation, but also video compositing (on the lines of visual effects), camerawork and editing.

October 2011 - Starting on my Masters, it made me think more clearly about my career, which specialised area to take. I was going to aim towards animation, story design and post-production; but decided to leave the post-production lean towards animation, graphics and story design because I had a lot of pratice on this side, both educational and personal.

July/August 2012 - After doing animation at Uni for the past 4 years, I was getting worried of just presueing animation and graphics. I was interesting in working behind camera again, giving me the chance to go out on location and visit places then just being stuck in an office all the time.

October/November 2012 - Been looking at many DVD special features and I was very interge by the animatics and the pre-visuals, it was an area that I have been thinking for a while now. I was inspired of how the Storyboards were convert into 3D animatics; rough mock-up of the actual film, how it was useful to experiment with different camera angles and movements, staging the scene and characters in different takes before it's ready for the actual shooting or layout/animation production. I'll be able to use and combined all the skills that I've learnt at collage and Uni, and be able to work on both live-animation and animated projects.

Friday 2nd November - I went to a One-Day Workshop in film-making, run by TV commerical director David Millis. It got me interested on how to create continuity in films/stories effectivly and reminded me the joy behind the camera and working on location. When I menioned that I was aiming to presue storyboards, animatics and pre-vis to the students there, they encourged me to go for it and that it'll be a useful medium. So the workshop really helped encourge me more to presue Storyboarding and Pre-Vis, and combinding live-action and animation together.

Febuary 2013 - I've finally finished my Masters in Animation and education, with a Distinction grade. I'm aiming to create videos and animations with collabrators and for local business to start off with.