John Stopforth
Born in 1974, I was a we little ‘un in the 70’s so had my formative years in the early 80’s and 90’s. Coming from a small mining town in South Yorkshire I was always happiest making up stories and having imaginary adventures, many of which took place on the coal waste deposits we call the pit slacks. (Note: these were very unstable places and no place for a child). My main pleasures in life were drawing out the stories in little cartoon books, not saying they were very good but they made me happy.
I was sent off to Catholic School and immediately became one of those children, always seeming to find myself in the frame for any misdemeanour unaccounted for. This led me to the socialise with the cool kids and I discovered a world of dance music, yes I was a child of the Rave scene, “Aciid” It was around this time that I enrolled into the martial art of Taekwondo; at last some structure in my life.
I eventually ended up at Art College in Barnsley and bounced around a few courses include Graphic art and Design and Fine Art, but I didn’t see myself in the University mix, I had cousins that had all gone to University and I just wanted to get stuck in. I remember a careers talk in school in one of my final months where I was asked “what do you want to do next Stopforth” I replied “something in art” …. The ensuing conversation resulted in me being told to “find a proper job, you cant make any money in Art”. And so my mission in life began.
I started out in Computer hardware Sales with a Silicon Graphics reseller, selling computers and hardware to all manner of companies. Somewhere in the mist of time at this period Gary and I first met. I quickly moved on into the content creation world working for 15 years in Games, animation and VFX, from MGM/Eurocom and SEGA/Sumo projects, to animating lemur tails for animal planet idents; I had a blast. At one of these commercial jobs I reconnected with Gary, 422 Manchester on a job we still can’t talk about (NDA’s are real) a summer blast it was but over so quick.
I decided to give a little back joining Doncaster College University Centre as a part time lecturer, and here I still am supporting and developing curriculum and creating some amazing links with industry partners. This unique viewpoint allows me to really understand the pressures on both sides of the academic debate, a debate that will go on an on .. like me.
Gary Noden
Growing up through the 1970’s and 80’s, Gary fed himself on a TV diet of Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Space 1999 and Star Trek amongst others. He would spend a huge amount of time during vacations pretending to be on alien landscapes, preforming Judo forward rolls to evade imaginary Aliens in his garden, fighting them off with cardboard weapons. Every option to read and watch Science Fiction was fueled even more when he bought a big blue book with every story by Jules Verne in it. But the chance of a boy who was rubbish at science meant going “From The Earth To The Moon” was never going to happen. He did like to cook, so maybe in the Space Catering Corps?
After going to The Dorset Institute of Higher Education in the late 80’s to do an HND in Hotel Management he joined the drama society, met a load of people just like him and found out they were all doing a degree in Media Production. He had enough points, so he applied to move across, but wasn’t able to. So he applied for the following year and got in. At the end of the first year he was introduced, with the rest of his group, to a big nasty computer thing that had a thing called a plotter, a very basic translation animation program, built a really crap bicycle and realized this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
A year or so after graduating, he finally managed to land a job with a games firm in Walsall, then after a couple of years moved to London to work for another games firm. Four years later he worked, with almost every person in Soho who could move a mouse, on Lost In Space. Yep, that film. After 3 more years of London, he moved with his new family to Manchester and has been in the North West ever since working on commercials, Children’s TV and Dramas, as well as creating Motion Graphics for Corporate Clients and TV Documentaries.
After 30+ years in the Industry, he thinks he’s just about getting the hang of it. Just about.
The Graphters' Podcast 