Start: Lukas Niklaus

Studio:  Framestore Montreal
School(s):  Animation Mentor

My name is Lukas Niklaus, and I am currently working at Framestore Montreal. The office here was opened up only months ago, and it is a fantastic team in a fantastic city.

Currently, we’re working on “All You Need is Kill,” which is going to be an action-packed sci-fi feature. It is nothing but humbling to see the work the people around me create; I really have learned to get used to the feeling, “soon they’re going to find out that I can’t animate, and then they’re going to throw me out of here!” But so far, I’ve kept my job, and I’m grateful for every day my key card still opens the office doors for me.

I am originally from Switzerland, where I grew up, attended school, and worked as a graphic designer for about 8 years.

I always felt that graphic design wasn’t the thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and for quite a while I was searching for that one thing I’m “destined” to do.

Then, one day, I had a breakthrough. It was when I first started at a cool Event Agency. Our boss asked me and my creative director to learn this architectural CAD software to be able to create visuals of the events we were pitching to our clients. I soon realized, this 3D stuff is awesome!

I fell in love with it immediately, and more or less took over all the 3D jobs right away. I attended a course in Cinema 4D on my own in Zurich, and met up with a guy who had his own one man 3D business right in the town where I lived. I remember printing out the FAQ from Pixar’s job website and setting Pixar as my goal.

That was 6 years ago.

It is funny to look back now and realize that I had NO IDEA how far away from that goal I really was.

At that time, I was also very engaged in karate, which I had been practicing for over 12 years. I was doing a lot of competitions and even just made it into the national team the year before. But an injury forced me to pause for many months. So I searched for something to distract me while I couldn’t work out.

What I found was Animation Mentor.

And so my AM journey started in Fall 2008 with the Springboard class, and in January 2009, the actual program.

Looking back, I can’t tell you how much this changed e. It was there where I discovered the beauty of animation and the satisfaction to see your characters come to life. It was a fantastic but exhausting experience.

At some point during class 4, I started working out again with the same old intensity, and along with working on my job, where I was now head of the graphics department, and with AM, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I actually had a breakdown; my whole system just shut down at work and they had to bring me to the hospital.

After that, I made a choice: I wanted to keep on with karate, and I wanted to continue with school, so I reduced my time at work down to 60%. My dad was not happy with that. In the end, though, he saw my determination, and even told me to move back home again for the time being so that I could save some money. So I did the last half-year of AM like this, and it really helped me.

I traveled to the USA in Summer 2010 to attend my graduation and go to Siggraph the week before. It was there in LA where I met a recruiter from Pixomondo. I dropped off my reel and we talked very briefly. We got along well because we both spoke German, and about 2 moths later, they messaged me, telling me that they were opening up an office in Toronto, and wanting to know if I’d like to come over to work there. I jumped up, screamed, and messaged back — standing in front of my computer.

They didn’t offer to help with a visa or travel costs or anything. I had to organize everything on my own. Luckily, Canada has agreements with some European countries so that young people can come for up to 18 months for work experience. So I knew I had 18 months to make an impression good enough for Pixomondo to be willing to sponsor my visa.

This year was absolutely fantastic. The team was incredibly close, as we were only 25 people, and were just starting this new branch. The work was not as fulfilling for me, as I couldn’t do as much animation due to the projects we were working on, but it was still amazing, and I loved every day there. I tried my best to make up for my lack of animation practice during the day by working on personal projects almost every evening when I got home. I also worked with people like JD Haas and Kenny Roy to get regular feedback from industry veterans. Sometimes it was hard and lonely, but I didn’t want to have to leave Canada in 18 months with the knowledge that I hadn’t done everything I could to make my dream come true.

But after a year, I unfortunately couldn’t stay at Pixomondo, because they didn’t have enough animation work to do. (They shut down the whole branch just recently). So I had to find another company with only 6 months left before I had to go back to Switzerland.

It was only thanks to my CG supervisor at Pixomondo — and his girlfriend who worked at Soho VFX — that I got an interview there, and eventually got hired to work on an 8 month project. They agreed that they would take care of my visa for the last two months if they liked me and my work, and I was just happy that I had found something new.

At Soho, I came into another great team, and was finally able to actually do some animation on a funny TV cartoon show. I gave it my best again, both at work and home, and after only 2 months, they extended my visa for the last two months.

During this production, I also realized that you don’t have to work on major Hollywood movies to find creative satisfaction. At Pixomondo, we had won a VFX Oscar for Hugo, and Snow White and the Huntsman was nominated for an Oscar as well. The projects were shiny and cool, but none of that work was really creatively fulfilling. Then I started working on a kids TV show, on a pretty tight schedule, with no Hollywood glamour, and knowing that it was just one show amongst sooo many others being produced for children’s television, I honestly had a BLAST! We were animating day in and day out; we breathed as much life into our characters as we could in the limited time we had available. We grew together as a team in crunch, and in the end, we were really proud of what we had achieved. I learned so much, mostly technical and workflow-related, and I’ll always look back with a smile at that time in my life.

Creative satisfaction can be found anywhere, not just on the prestigious stuff. Hollywood glamour is only cool to tell your friends, but what really matters is to feel fulfilled in what you do.

And lucky as I was, in December, Soho VFX actually got me a full time contract and a 3 year visa. I could not have been happier at that point! I guess when you’re working really hard luck does the rest for you.

In early 2013, we went back to Soho VFX’s key business, which is feature VFX. This meant that, aside from some not-so-challenging animation tasks, we went back to match-moving, and I really felt like I was standing still. So I applied to Framestore here in Montreal. It was an application that I just sent out with the thought, “Well, you have to try at least.” I honestly didn’t expect to hear anything from them, but they got back to me, asking for an interview. Soon after, they made me an offer, so I decided to pack my stuff again and move to Montreal.

Sometimes it is crazy how life goes, and I only just started realizing how far I’ve come, and what I have achieved already. But it’s not always easy. I fell in love with a girl in Toronto, and in the end, our relationship didn’t work out; she couldn’t come to Montreal with me. It still hurts, and probably will for a long time to come.

It is definitely not an easy life that I have chosen, and I just really hope that in the end, it pays off. For now, it feels like it will. I’m so incredibly happy to be here, and I’m not done yet. I have realized that just going t Pixar as fast as possible isn’t the most important thing (although I haven’t lost sight of that goal at all). For now, I’m in Montreal with Framestore for one year (and hopefully a bit longer), but there is also a chance to see the world while doing what I love the most, and actually getting paid to do so. Isn’t that amazing? I recommend that young people, who don’t have to take care of family, should take this chance to see the world and make those unique experiences. Who else has that kind of opportunity nowadays?

And so we come to my piece of advice that I wish I would have gotten when I first started off. Except there isn’t one thing. Buthere is what I think is the most important: Surround yourself with people who challenge and inspire you. It is so much easier to go on this journey together, to geek out together, to hear other opinions, and so on. It’s the people around you, who love animation (and movies in general) as much as you, who really make this job worth doing. When I came to Toronto, I experienced for the first time what it meant to truly be amongst people who “tick” the same way that I do. And that was a wonderful feeling.

Another thing that I find really important is: if you really want to achieve this goal to work at a world class studio, go for it with all your heart and energy. The only way to get better is by practicing as much as you can. Always ask yourself, “Could I do more? Maybe I could squeeze in one more hour here or there.”

In one of our first classes at AM, our mentor, Jalil Sadool said “If you work 8 h a day you’ll make it in 2 years, if you work 4 hours a day, you’ll make it in 4 years, if you work 2 hours a day, you’ll make it in 8 years.” I never forgot that. Practice and mileage are key. Sometimes, this means not sleeping enough. Opten it means no parties. I barely went out for 2 years now. This also means going through jobs where you don’t do the work you want to do, but at least you’re animating, and you can still go home and do the stuff you want on your own after work. I say it again, mileage is key. I get mad at myself so often, because I feel like I’m not hard enough on myself, and I constantly feel like I’m slacking off. I got mad at my girlfriend a couple of times when she wanted me to stay a bit longer on a weekend. I thought I’d lose precious hours of work. I personally think that is the state of mind you have to be in, to be able to push yourself to the limit.

BUT — and this may sound contradictory, but it’s really not — make room to relax! Plan it into your week. By consciously relaxing, you’ll give your body and mind a break without having to feel bad. At some point, I turned the weekends into “relaxing days,” which I would spend with my girlfriend, sleeping in and doing whatever we wanted without one thought about animation (well… almost).

But don’t come home from work and spontaneously decide, “Okay, I’m going to make some room to relax right now.” I have done this myself too many times and ended up getting mad at a myself and feeling like a slacker.

There’s so much more advice I’d like to give, but I guess this text is already much too long, so I should probably cut it off now.

Everyone is of course more than welcome to message me and ask any questions if they should come up. I’d love to help others get started in this amazing industry. [Editor’s note: leave questions on the comments page, and I’ll make sure they are properly directed to Lukas].

Here’s the link to my reel: http://lukasniklaus-portfolio.blogspot.com

One word of advice for future animators:

What I notice the most when I see students coming out of any school is that so many of them think (or almost expect) they’re going to get into Pixar or ILM right away. While it happens for some, it’s a rare thing, and most of the time, those students have already had some experience beforehand or were just really, really exceptional talents. Most of us will have to keep on working after school, and maybe go through some jobs we don’t like. It might be frustrating at times, but remember that you are working and gaining experience.