His talent for the arts was evident early on. His appeal to the use of technology came to enhance his capabilities and the combination of the two, was what gave him the significant edge and elevated him to the elite of London. And all this, at the age of only fourteen.
The Cypriot Pavlos Xenophontos was one of the young people who last November came first in a competition to create a short animated film. What makes Paul's story special is not his age, as everyone could assume that he is a child who grows up in technology and it is a natural consequence that he knows how to use new media well. What is special about this particular story is the fact that Paul is self-taught.
He learned to make short, three-minute 2D animated films by watching YouTube videos. He used his talent in painting, but also his imaginative ideas and managed to create videos that caught the interest of many netizens. Hence the video that won the award, it was one of the most popular on his channel.
Speaking to REPORTER, Pavlos recalled his first steps in creating animation, but also when he started drawing. At the same time, he explains that it was not his first award, because of his talent, while he also sends his own message to the new generation, to follow their dreams.
“I started doing animation about six years ago, in 2916, when I was 6-7 years old. In the beginning, my brother and I used to play and make static animations with Lego figures and make videos with mom's cell phone. I also did a lot of drawing and creating my own characters on paper, using colored pencils. When I got my first iPad, I started creating digital drawings, which I started animating by watching how-to videos online.”
Although the 2D films created by Pavlos are short and specifically a few minutes, usually up to three, this does not mean that their creation is easy. Instead, it took months to create the result that Pavlos presented in the competition and won.
“The award-winning two-minute short film took me nine months to make. I had less skill with my hands then. But now, I need about 3-4 months to create a short 3-minute 2D animated film.
It is not easy to prepare such a film and it takes a lot of time. For example, to make a small character figure move, I had to draw it repeatedly for every frame of movies, and one movie has about 2,500 frames. Since I had to use my finger, it was quite tiring. I also had to add sound effects, using a video-making program, which only allowed three sounds to play at the same time, which was a bit annoying.”
His mother found out about the contest
Pavlos found out about this particular contest through his mother, who follows various studios dealing with animation, in social media. When she informed him, he immediately wanted to take part. And in the end, it was the right choice.
“My mother follows quite a few graphic design and animation studios on Instagram. One of them is called “Blue Zoo” and it's the one that funds the Young Animator of The Year in the UK competition that I took part in. They posted on their page that they are accepting applications and showed me that. I have some animation videos on my YouTube channel, but I chose one of the most popular ones. It took me a few days to make it shorter because it was three minutes and it had to be two because of the provisions of the contest and I removed unnecessary parts of the video.”
When he found out that I finally won first prize, I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe I achieved this feat because of a stupid video I made as a joke.”
This is the award winning film.
It is not the first time he has won a competition
This award was not the first for Pavlos. His talent in art and painting won him another important prize when he was still in elementary school.
“I had entered a painting competition back in Primary School when I was 11 years old. The Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London had asked schools in the district to submit drawings by their students, on the topic of road safety. Among the thousands of drawings submitted, two from my school were chosen. One was mine. The winning drawings were included in a Road Safety calendar which was given to all pupils in Kensington and Chelsea.'
He wants to make his hobby a profession
The distinction for Paul is only the beginning, it seems. He does not intend to give up, on the contrary, he wants to make this occupation a profession, while he also intends to continue the story of the award-winning film, since he has already designed the script in his mind.
“I would be very happy. to succeed in making this occupation my main profession. I plan to continue doing animation so that I can develop my skills and create things that I couldn't imagine.
I plan to make a sequel to the award-winning animated film In the competition. I have thought about the whole story and new characters that I want to add to this particular series”.
His message to the young
Paul wanted to send and a message to young people, who are asked to choose between their dreams or the security of another profession.
I'm really scared about the future myself, but the best advice I have to give young people is to try their best to achieve the best result for what they love to do and are passionate about.
