Where do animators come from?
In this latest edition of Redhill’s employee blogposts, we ask the question: how far can an interest in Looney Tunes as a child take a person?
In the case of Manuel Prata, an animator at Redhill the answer is almost 11,000 kilometers between Portugal and Japan and then an additional 7,500 kilometers between Japan and Finland.
While Manuel’s talents within the field of animation is the real reason he ended up in those countries, it appears as though his early childhood interest in cartoons had a lot to do with how his interest in the field came about. Manuel speaks on how his interest in movement and animation was formed, stating: “I’m pretty sure what made me want to become an animator was watching cartoons, specifically looney tunes. looney tunes was a big deal for me growing up. I just really liked that show”.
However, it was seeing the 1995 animated masterpiece Toy Story that cohered Manuel’s interest in animation into something that he wanted to pursue, coinciding serendipitously with his burgeoning interest in computers and the technical side of the craft. When describing this interest, Manuel portrays it as being two-fold: “I was always either interested in cinematic animation, which is what I ended up doing in Japan or gameplay animation, which is what I am doing now. And the gameplay part came I think from playing Ratchet & Clank”.
What’s Japan Like This Time of Year?
Manuel’s stint in Japan lasted a total of four years , with him spending a year on research on all things animation-related and a further two years working. Furthermore, two of those years were spent being locked down during the COVID pandemic alongside the rest of Japan – a set of circumstances he credits with his decision to move back to Europe: “[…] I couldn’t really visit my family for a while, and I decided to move back to Europe. If I wanted to go to Portugal from Japan, travel distance was like 21 hours usually. So that’s a bit a bit too much. So, yeah, that, that was a big reason again, especially due to, you know, COVID shutdowns I couldn’t really leave the country for like two years”.
Intercontinental Moves
Intercontinental migration is a challenging endeavour even at the best of times, made more complex by the preceding years of worldwide lockdowns and instability but for Manuel, the process in retrospect seems smooth to the point of actually being pleasant – a statement that is sure to make anyone that has experienced international relocation first hand absolutely green with envy. Manuel credits the company relocation structures with this relative ease of movement, highlighting that “[…] everything was set up. Like, ok, I have the dates I know when I’m going to arrive in Finland in Helsinki, everything like that. Taxes, finding an apartment, every little thing that had to be done to move to Finland I had assistance with”.
Once the hard part was over with, Manuel could take the time to immerse himself in Finnish culture, finding surprising commonalities between the Finns and the Japanese ways of living: “Best thing regarding Finland to me – it’s definitely like sauna culture in general. Japan has the whole Onsen, which is you know, thermals and they have sauna as well when I came here and started doing it here properly… It is […] stupidly relaxing”.
In addition to the sauna saturated culture of the Nordic country, Manuel enjoys other aspects of living here (almost) as much: “People here are just really friendly. It’s one of those things that at least coming from the south of Europe. Usually the stereotype is, oh, yeah, the north, everybody is very cold, and yeah, they interact differently but people that, my knowledge is mostly Helsinki are really friendly. It’s really easy to go to a bar and just start talking with random people or have random people talking with you, […] just people having fun and just going around, summertime particularly, is just really fun in Finland”.
In addition to the warm reception by the local population, Manuel has found a lot to like about the kinds of activities available to everyone in the country: […] I’m really enjoying it here, do whatever you want, go for hikes, go for nature walks, and that’s the other thing like Helsinki, you can get on a train or on the bus and like in 20 minutes you are surrounded by forest pretty much. So it’s, that’s really cool. Winters are nice, there’s stuff to do and then summer is really cool”.
Not All Fun and Games
Doesn’t come without its challenges: “At the moment I’m trying to give, like, learning Finnish a proper go again, because it’s, I’ve been here over a year now, you don’t really need Finnish truth be told, especially in Helsinki, people just know English. But it does feel weird that after a year and a half in Japan, I already knew conversational Japanese and I’ve been a year and a bit here and I hardly can muster a sentence”.
Manuel’s positive outlook on life in Finland is further boosted b y the kinds of work he gets to do for Redhill: “Redhill has a small company feel in like the, in all the positive sense. While we’re working with really high-end IPs so professionally you end up doing really, really cool stuff, which I feel like it’s something incredibly positive”.
Mostly Fun and Games
To anyone intimidated by the prospect of moving abroad to work for a company like ours, Manuel has this to say:
To people with second thoughts. I would just, yeah, don’t, don’t stress too much about it. Like, it’s, it’s a fun time. It’s a cool place.
Manuel talking us through his journey:
