Conference by Kristof Serrand, head of animation at Netflix France

A TRANSMISSION TO THE NEW GENERATION

Kristof Serrand is far from discovering ESMA since he has been faithful to the school for many years and has seen many generations of students grow up! We can qualify him as an expert in the world of animation, for almost forty years that he has been in the business, he has contributed to a multitude of blockbusters known to all (we’ll tell you a little more at the end of the article).

It is a fabulous know-how that he has acquired over the years and that he is keen to share with those who will join the biggest animation studios in a few years. With eloquence and benevolence, he came for a day to share his knowledge with the students of CG Animation & FX Master Degree in Toulouse.

During a conference, Kristof Serrand came back on his career and, what interested the students, his integration to the famous Dreamworks studio. He took the opportunity to talk about the different projects he has worked on while taking the time to present the characters he has animated. He addressed several points related to animation (bipeds or quadrupeds, poses, the play of lines, the different balances, the lipstick, the anatomy…). Benefiting from the presence of such a character is also the moment for our students to drink from his advice such as the importance of personal culture and the need to develop it; not to hesitate to use references in his work to rely on them; or to develop his own personal work to continue to practice and work on his imagination.

Part of the afternoon was devoted to a meeting between the 4th year students and Kristof Serrand. The latter was able to discover the production of the films that are in development very early on, but also to take the time to discuss with each team. This allowed our students to get the first feedback on their project. A project that they still have to work on for the rest of the year.

KRISTOF SERRAND’S BACKGROUND IN A FEW WORDS

A graduate of the Gobelins school, he began his career as a 2D animator. He began working on the films Asterix and Caesar’s Surprise as well as Asterix in Brittany and Asterix and the Menhir. He quickly flew to the United States to join the Dreamworks studio to continue his profession on American soil where he ended up as Head of Character Animation of this same studio. He stayed there for no less than 25 years during which he worked on projects such as: The Prince of Egypt, Spirit the Plains Stallion, Shark Gang, Dragons (1, 2 and 3), The Croods, Abominable… And the list is far from being exhaustive! In 2020 he left Dreamworks to join the French branch of Netflix as head of animation. This new opportunity now allows him to return to his first love as he is in close collaboration with the Toulouse studio TAT Prod which produces the new series of Alain Chabat: Asterix, the fight of the chiefs.