British Animation Awards 2024 | Q&A with Derek Hayes
In association with the British Animation Awards, Skwigly presents an exclusive video Q&A with veteran animation director and educator Derek Hayes.
An award-winning director with a focus on animation, Derek Hayes spent fourteen years creating work at his London studio Animation City spanning commercials, music videos, TV title sequences and graphics for clients including Lego, Carlsberg, Madonna, Rod Stewart and Elton John. Alongside this work he would direct over ten short films including the 1993 Channel 4 holiday special Prince Cinders.
As a freelancer, subsequent projects have included co-directing (with Stanislav Sokolov) the 1999 feature film The Miracle Maker (starring Ralph Fiennes, William Hurt, Julie Christie and Miranda Richardson) and directing the mixed-media feature film adaptation Y Mabinogi (Otherworld), as well as working with Bristol studio Aardman Animations in a variety of roles across story, consultation and design.
As an educator he is presently Senior Lecturer/Course Coordinator for Animation VFX at Falmouth University and co-authored (with Chris Webster) the instructional book ‘Acting and Performance for Animation’ for Focal Press.
For this year’s edition of the British Animation Awards, which previously gave out donated artworks from multiple established animation artists as prizes, Derek has created A Triumph of Animation – a series of unique, edition-numbered linocut/relief prints that pay homage to Holbein’s 1533 artwork Triumph of Wealth. Each of these prints will be handed out to award-winners of the 2024 BAAs, which take place at the BFI Southbank on Thursday March 7th.
In this exclusive Q&A prepared and produced by students of Falmouth University, Derek discusses his animation industry beginnings, his preferred animation techniques, highlights from his work in animation production, new developments in animation, current obstacles for the animation industry, tips for new animators and the backstory of his British Animation Awards print series A Triumph of Animation.
For more info on the BAAs and to get tickets, visit britishanimationawards.com