Nani is an animator who happens to be awesome, creative, gracious, ambitious, and… Christian. She works for Ludo Studio, where she helps to create the multi-award-winning children’s animation, “Bluey” – including a Logie for ‘Most Outstanding Children’s Program.’ I was given the great opportunity to visit Ludo Studio in November 2019 and interview her. It was my absolute pleasure, and I hope you enjoy reading her story below.

~ Tamika Spaulding ~

I’m excited! This will be my first interview! Bluey is a story based around an Australian family of blue heelers and what happens in their home. Each episode tells a new story for kids and adults alike.

Joe Brumm, our director, came up with the idea of Bluey, and he is the main writer for the episodes. Originally, Joe had a little team that pitched a pilot of the story – not to the amazing quality we are producing now – to the ABC. ABC then liked it and bought it. Ludo Studio was given approval for a budget and began production. When I first got the job, I knew Bluey was in a 12-month contract with 52 episodes that would air on ABC.

In the creative industries, you gain contracts per project, and then those contracts are renewed. Some projects might go for two weeks, three months, a year – and after that project is over, they will release you and you will need to find the next project to work on. This part of being in the industry is very stressful, because you know that at some point, when the contract ends, unless it is renewed, you will need to find another project or job.

Luckily, the contract has been renewed for Bluey to continue production, so we still have guaranteed work.

Before animation can happen, each Bluey episode is written and edited. The next stage involves research, drawing and design. The background department organise what items will be seen in the background shots; the design department will work out how some of those items in the background will be used and interact with characters, e.g., spoon or a table.

One of the reasons Bluey is so relatable to viewers is because the design department base their designs on real world items that can be bought from local Australian stores like Big W, Kmart etc. The viewers likely have most of the featured items in their own home. The design team have great fun going into Brisbane City and surrounds to take photos of different places to gain new ideas for upcoming Bluey episodes. The episode ‘Spy Game’ is based around New Farm Park with its trees, shrubs, and BBQ setting, which is not far from the Studio. Bluey’s family live in a Queenslander – A double-storey home built on stumps with veranda, gabled roof, and prominent exterior staircase.

The audio department then work with the voice actors and record the dialogue for each episode.

The background, props and digital puppets are prepared for us on the computer, and then our job is to make those props and puppets perform. I love creating each of my scenes. I can become an actor through the digital puppets’ performance, and I can put a little bit of my own flavour in each scene.

As animators, we get allocated scenes and frames to work on. The voice recordings have already been approved, and we have a storyboard with the basic concept of each episode to base our work around. Everything else is looked after by the other teams, otherwise it would be crazy for the animator, and the episodes wouldn’t make sense.

In the animation department, we are all split into teams. Season 1 had three teams and Season 2 had four. It works out that I work on every fourth episode, and there are about 52 episodes in each Season. We work collaboratively together, and each team is working on a different episode. It takes each team four weeks to create one episode – and that does not include the work of the other departments. Each episode goes for seven minutes.

Each team divide up scenes and frames for the episode they are working on, so each person has a specific job to do. Depending on the episode, it may have 6-200 scenes to begin with, and each animator will get an allocation of 1000–2000 frames. The animator lead and animation director will look at the content of the episode and decide what scenes and frames to give each animator, dependent on our strengths and abilities.

For me personally – the animation director and animator lead know that I like to do still performances, where the characters are not moving as much but rather expressing emotion. They will allocate those scenes to me, because they know that I can go through those quicker and my performance is good. When I finish my work early – which doesn’t happen too often – I get to help another team with their frames. I do need to confess that I struggle with deadlines (giggle) – it can take too long to get my sparkles sometimes. I like to play with the digital puppets’ facial features, and I am not as skilled with creating big movements like the characters running or jumping across the screen in the time it takes for them to say a short phrase. Luckily, we have various skills in our team, so someone else will be allocated those scenes.

Everyone has their strengths, and we all work well collectively, and our skill set is constantly improving as does our efficiency.

As animators, when we see the storyboard, we can also ask for specific scenes if there is something we would really like to work on.

The digital puppet features are also increasing. For example, we began with about fifteen different hand choices, and now we have many more. We have counting-fingers and increased-rotation options, so the characters can grab, point, and count, in more complex ways. This adds to the final overall production quality. Options will continue to increase as time goes on and the design department see the need for different features.

The production of Bluey has a focus on detail and high storytelling quality. As an example, if a ladybug is flying, an animator might add dust in the air to make the ladybug look like it’s passing through light. The episode ‘Fruit Bat’ has Bluey flying around in a dream and she flies over the footy field, which is lit up with lights, while a little moth flies through light. The animators pay attention to applying special effects in these episodes, as they love to make each episode extra special and full of life.

I enjoy working in this production, because I felt that my previous animation job, also popular with children, was inadequate in its storytelling. It was a fictitious world with characters interacting without the warm family sense that Bluey brings. Much of the fictitious world could not be explained, whereas Bluey’s world makes sense and is uplifting and relatable.

Many parents really feel like they connect with this animation and express their feelings in letters to the Management, who share with us. Parents often write long emails and children draw big pictures. It is encouraging to hear the impact Bluey has made in the community. It’s a unique program, because it tackles issues that parents can find difficult to discuss with their children, presenting it in a non-threatening and age-appropriate way, within the context of the Australian environment.

Once the episodes are put together, a lengthy process takes place, where the directors and the animation lead from each team approve each scene. Once approved, it all goes to the main director for approval, and the final special effects, audio and final background music will be added and approved.

I became interested in animation when I was a young child watching Disney movies. I always wanted to do something with art!

I grew up in Argentina and moved to Australia about 12 years ago, after marrying my husband, who was originally from Chile but grew up in Australia. He moved to South America to improve his Spanish skills, and we met at university.

In Argentina I couldn’t study anything to do with Art at university level, because my mum wanted me to go to a specific university that didn’t offer an Art option. My second choice was Education, because at that specific university that was pretty much the only choice I had. I trained as a Physical Education teacher, and a few years after completing my study, I moved to Australia. The university I studied at in Argentina has a sister school in Sydney and after I learnt to speak English and passed an English test, I was allowed to gain residency and use my teacher qualifications to work in Australia. I taught as a Physical Education teacher for several years.

I then decided I wanted to go back to university to study Animation. I really loved creating cartoons and storytelling. What I find the most joy in, is creating in my characters emotions that connect with the viewer.

It was expensive to go back to university and study Animation as an international student in Australia, but my mind was set. It was then that I decided that it was time to become an Australian citizen and I’m so glad I did.

The whole process in moving to Australia came with support from the government, in which I am now paying back. I had not learnt English before moving here. I knew only a few words, like cat, dog, and the colours. I had to study from scratch, but because I came in with a ‘spouse visa’, the government was amazing, and they gave me 500 hours of English lessons that I completed at TAFE. The teachers at TAFE were great and they took me from where I was at, to the highest level I could reach. I also picked things up by listening to the radio or watching the television. I most enjoyed practising my English skills with people at my church and in my community – that’s where I was exposed to real Australian English, and it allowed me to engage with active conversation.

I’m glad Australia’s government is asking people like me to learn English, because just coming in and living in Australia without being able to speak the language can get very isolating and make it difficult to integrate into the community.

It was a big jump going from no English into being able to teach at school and it was a humongous jump going back to university and writing assignments in very academic language. Without that learning curve (that was really a vertical line that went straight up!), I would not be able to do my job now. It was overwhelming at times, but I got there.

Once I trained as an animator, and before I found my job at Ludo Studio, I actively looked for work. There are limited purely storytelling animation studios in Australia. Many animators produce content for television ads that combine animation with actors. There has been an increase in animation studios in Melbourne and Sydney, but in Brisbane, where I live and where I want to stay, there are just a few and there is not a lot of work for an animator.

My job at Ludo Studio is like a normal job, with normal Monday to Friday hours, like everywhere else. What we do a little different is that on Friday afternoons after 5pm we screen the work done during that week, so each department will have like a little video or slideshow to share, and we will get to eat some finger food together. This is a nice moment for everyone at the studio to enjoy and share their hard work. During the winter months, I didn’t stay as long after work as other people. It gets dark earlier, and as a Seventh Day Adventist, I believe Sabbath has come in and I like to leave my work for the week and enjoy the start of Sabbath with my husband. People noticed my leaving early and began to realise I had a faith in God.

A favourite Bluey episode of mine is called ‘Bike.’ It is where the younger dog characters go through a struggle. Bingo wants to drink water that she can’t reach, Bentley wants to go on the monkey bars but is not tall enough, Muffin is trying to put a bag on her back with great difficulty, and Bluey is learning to ride her bike and gets discouraged after falling off. I just love that their dad, Bandit, was chilled and allowed the dogs to develop some of their own problem-solving skills to gain their own small victories. Bandit didn’t rescue them, opting to just support and supervise them, allowing them to grow. I didn’t work on ‘Bike,’ but I loved that episode, and it is one that brought a few tears to my eyes.

Growing up in South America, I was super protected sometimes, and if I fell, it was a whole event. At times I was prevented from reaching the solution because I was helped. I found this episode inspiring. I have learnt that sometimes you must step outside of your comfort zone to get to where you need to go, and I feel God has led me into this animation job. I love that I can be a Christian and keep my beliefs in this industry and I’m blown away by Bluey’s success – it’s crazy but it’s good.