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about

I am a BAFTA scholarship winner and have an enthusiasm for emerging technology and hold a PhD in VR and animation and recently have been the concept artist for Outlander Season 7. I’m tenacious with learning new creative technology and I am proficient in 3D software tools including Maya; After Effects; Premiere Pro; AutoCAD; SketchUp; Photoshop; Adobe CC and Unreal Engine 5.

I am best known for inventiveness and synthesis of ideas, but I am equally adept at getting projects over the line, on time and in budget. I’m driven by being part of dynamic collaborations and forward-thinking teams and solving highly creative and technically complex problems.

I began in the art departments for the feature film ‘Judge Dredd and in TV on ‘Pie in the Sky 3’. Whilst raising my family I worked as a freelance designer on productions for BBC Bristol and Screen South and designed architectural interiors for luxury hospitality portfolios including HandPicked Hotels, Alexander House, Wagamama, ZeroDegrees  Micro-Breweries and multi-million pound health spas for Utopia Leisure.

I have a tenacity to keep pace with technological advances, and in 2022 gained a PhD in VR.

featured & 
awards

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Masters Prize: Animation & VFX,  Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design  2017

Odd Shoe Nominated for Best Short, Chicago International Film Festival 2008

Design feature - Kent Life Magazine 2004

Design feature - Sleeper Magazine 2004

Design feature - Theme Magazine 2000

Design feature - The Right Angle  Magazine 2000

Radio Panellist - Ideal Home Show  2000

Finalist - Young Designer of the Year - BBC Homefront 1998

Shaman - British Short Film & World Festival, Houston 1995

BAFTA Scholarship -  Post-Office & National Film & Television School 1991

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published

Design Journal

McSwan, A. (2021) 'Exploring Animation and Virtual Reality to Represent the Perceptual-Experiences of Art-Practitioners with Sight-Loss', The Design Journal, 24(2), pp. 315-324.

Alternate, Virtual and Augmented Realities Conference 2021

McSwan, A. (2021) 'Exploring Animation and Virtual Reality to Represent the Perceptual-Experiences of Art-Practitioners with Sight-Loss'. Online presentation at PG/ECR Alternate, Virtual, and Augmented Realities Conference 2021. Institute of Medical Humanities. Durham University: Durham.

DRHA 2020

McSwan, A. (2020) 'Exploring Animation and Virtual Reality to Represent the Perceptual-Experiences of Art-Practitioners with Sight-Loss'. Online presentation at Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA 2020) Conference 2020. University of Salford: Manchester.

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