Vera Babida's esoteric animations are full of character and life

All little pointy breasts, emotive character creation and poignant tales of dating woes, it’s hard not to fall in love with the esoteric animations of Edinburgh College of Art animation graduate Vera Babida.

From the sounds of it, uni was a real hoot for the young creative. “I have never met a more wonderful, passionate, talented, diverse, supportive group of peers and friends,” she says. “They were so vital in helping me go through my third and final year, moral support is important, and it made me realise how much I love working with people.

“The structure of my course has helped me become independent and self-sufficient as a creative individual. The tutors have provided us support when we needed it and told us that if we want something, we have to pursue it and make it happen.”

Specialising in 2D moving images and motion graphics, Vera’s work revolves around “observations of daily life, documenting events and feelings, with occasional imaginary creatures and characters,” she says.

“I find it very hard to describe my own style, but I guess colourful, psychedelic, modern and possibly bold? Colours play a massive role in my style. Being inspired by impressionism, I also seek to portray stories from my own perspective.”

The piece that really caught our eye was a semi-autobiographical piece, There Again, a tale of the repetitive and often dispiriting world of online dating. “It is my most recent work and it has definitely been the most challenging!” says Vera. “I had full control over a project which was satisfying yet very daunting at the same time, but having a good support network of friends helped immensely… The whole project was very exciting and there were so many milestones to achieve; storyboarding, putting the sketches on a timeline, deciding on the colour palette, collaborating with my composer and bringing it to life.”

The Hong Kong-born creative has recently moved to Melbourne, and has screened films in Scotland and international film festivals. Vera was recently nominated for the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award 2016, and after a year in Melbourne she hopes to one day create her own young independent studio. “Something along the lines of Animade in London would be perfect!”

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