After seeing Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph as a 15-year-old, Brenda Jie was transfixed by animation. “I felt creating a world like that would be like a dream,” she says.
The UTS College/UTS alumna now works at Flying Bark Productions (a leading animation company with studios in Sydney and Los Angeles). As a production coordinator, she keeps projects on the rails. She says, “I manage artists and schedules and such, helping the creatives thrive and do their stuff. It’s my job to work alongside the artists to make sure we create amazing stuff, and to keep things on track.”
Brenda loves being in the heart of the animation world. “You get to work on really cool shows,” she says. “Flying Bark have done projects like Lego Monkie Kid, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. The people are lovely, and you learn so much just being in the industry.”
Growing up in Medan, (in the Northern Sumatra region of Indonesia), with a love of drawing, Brenda had a goal to study in Australia. She says, “I’ve always loved it since the first time I visited, and I knew that UTS was well-known for its practical approach to design. I needed to go through a diploma first, and I knew UTS College had the options I needed.”
Reigniting her love of animation
When Brenda began her diploma at UTS College, she wasn’t sure about her direction, but the course reignited her love of animation. “I got a taste,” she says, “and I realised animation was what I wanted. The story writing, creating the characters, animation just has that charm.”
Next, she had to convince her family it was the right choice. “They expected me to choose something like interior design, product design, or architecture. They saw animation as ‘just drawing’ and questioned whether I’d have a secure future. But I managed to persuade them. I was inspired by my favourite tutor who taught me my first animation. She said to me, ‘You have to love your work. It doesn’t matter what people think. If you love it, people will love it because they’ll see it in your work. That helped my self-confidence and made me determined to do what I want.”
Brenda says there was a high level of support from her tutors at UTS College. “They’re my most vivid memory from my time there,” she says. “As an international student, there’s so much to learn and they were always there to answer my questions. I realised it’s okay to ask if there’s something you don’t know. There’s no need to be scared.”
She says her diploma prepared her well for her Bachelor of Animation at UTS. “It gets you ready for the demands of university,” she says. “I noticed when I started at UTS and saw others starting first year. I already understood how everything works – how to get the results I want. Other useful things from the diploma were leadership skills, presentation skills, and learning to work in a team. I know how to navigate a team and what to expect from people.”
A sense of community
UTS gave Brenda a useful overview of the animation world. She says, “It gave us a taste of everything. You get to try hands-on animation. You learn about 2D and 3D work, a bit about how to storyboard, and how to become a story writer. You get to know the pipeline – the steps to get to a proper film. When you understand the pipeline, you know what you need and how to seek the right people for your project. It gave us enough knowledge to go into the industry and understand what people are talking about.”
But Brenda says it’s about more than these practical skills. “The big thing you get from UTS is the sense of community. Being with like-minded people and in contact with tutors who are industry professionals, you see things from another perspective. In our first lecture at UTS, our tutor said to us, “You’re no longer just an animation fan. You’re an animator.”
Connections and networking
Brenda values the connections she made at UTS College and UTS. “The people you meet at UTS will be your industry colleagues one day. And now with the Diploma of Animation Production, you can start with people who are on the same path. Networking and connections mean so much,” she says.
Although her focus throughout her degree was 3D (specifically 3D rigging – creating skeletons that define a character’s range of action and gestures), Brenda’s happy to see how far she can go working in production. She says, “It’s a great department that’s not talked about enough. I’m satisfied with where I am. I’m so lucky to be in the industry. I’m still in the same company after a year and a half, with more projects to come, so I’ll just see where I go from here. I may consider going to the creative side of things one day. The main thing is seeing a project thrive and knowing you’re surrounded by people who worked hard together to make it.”
Looking further into the future, Brenda has another dream. “Getting my name up on the big screen, right there, in the credits,” she says. “Maybe it’s far away, but I want to be part of a film or series kids will remember,” she says. “Who knows? It may even spark another person’s love of animation.’"
Find out more about the Diploma of Animation Production