Start: Ryan Chan

Studio: Ubisoft Entertainment
College: Ex'pression College for Digital Arts

My name is Ryan Chan and I'm currently a Mocap Technician at Ubisoft Entertainment.

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Mocap?? I'm here to learn about animators and animation and how animators got started in animation and how they animate, animation animation animation! Well, before you beat me with your pencil (or mouse, for the 3d animators) and shove me out of the internet, let me tell my story a bit.

For as long as I could remember, I wanted to be an animator. I grew up watching everything Disney, from the classics like Pinocchio and Jungle Book, to the golden age films like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin (one of my personal favorites), to Disney Afternoon when I got home from school. It was my lifelong dream to animate for the Disney company and I thought I would start my skills early. My favorite toy as a kid was my zoetrope, and instead of reading my school textbooks, I would draw flipbook animations in the corners of the pages. I even tried making an animated movie of Mickey Mouse blinking by setting up my parent's camcorder on a chair and quickly pressing record and stop to capture "frames" of my drawings tacked up on the wall. Needless to say, that didn't work too well.

But even the most saturated of childhood dreams can become washed as you get older and other priorities and interests invade your life0. So, for a while, I sort of moved on from that dream. After high school, I decided to forgo college, and I picked up some jobs here and there until I settled on what I thought would be my career in commercial insurance, funny enough working for my dad's office. I even got my broker's license before I was legally able to drink in the country. But one day, it sort of struck me. Maybe it was the endless administrative work, or the commuting to a financial district every day that made me realize that I was not doing what I was meant to be doing. Soon after that epiphany, I enrolled to Ex'pression College for Digital Arts to learn Animation and Visual Effects.

I absolutely loved going to that school. I met some of my greatest friends there, and it was so refreshing to be around other creative minds, immersing myself in that cultivating environment. And a quick 2.5 years later, I graduated as Valedictorian, ready to charge into the industry.

However, it's not always as easy. Even with a half decent animation reel (at least I thought it was), it was hard to find animation work. So for a while I was working as an aid to my school, until 2 opportunities came up for me at the same time: An internship for Disney Interactive's Think Tank division, or doing motion capture clean up on a feature film for a "start-up" company (I only say that cause of technicalities. Really, the director building the studio already had Oscars in his cabinets, so I wouldn't say he was new at it). Honestly it was a hard choice. As you've read earlier, me working for Disney? Come on. I was beaming at the thought. But on the other hand, feature film, although at the time I was on my animation high horse and thought mocap was underneath me. But I wanted to work in features, so that's the job I took. And let me tell you, it was the best decision of my then non-existing career. Not to mention that the studio I worked for actually got picked up by Disney early on.

So to briefly bridge the gaps between then and now, I got to work on set of A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey and some other amazing actors (highlight for me: brief encounters with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Molly Quinn of Castle and Cary Elwes..l just to name some of them). What started as a 4 month contract, turned to 6, which turned to indefinitely, which quickly got me to another position in the company as a Performance Layout Artist, building and laying out the scenes for the animators. Next thing I knew, I'm sitting in dailies with some of the top artists in the industry, with Oscar winners and a director who created cult classics, "Back to the Future" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?".  As Christmas Carol wrapped, we moved on to the next feature "Mars Needs Moms", and in the middle of production, we got the horrible news that our studio was being closed down once we wrapped the movie. That day, was a really rough day for everyone. Our studio had quickly become a family, and it felt like Mom and Dad had just split up. It doesn't go without a lesson though, that even the most secure situations (even some of the managers had closed escrow on nearby houses the week we heard the bad news) can be taken from you at any moment.

So that leads me to some advice for the people breaking into the industry. The one thing I always tell aspiring animators or vfx artists:  “be as flexible as you can be”. Take the job even if it's not exactly what you had planned for yourself. Be willing to move to places you'd never thought of moving to, as was the case for me; I moved down to LA to do mocap clean up (being a Nor Cal guy, I was instinctively opposed to that idea, but I opened myself to it). That taken opportunity led me to meeting and making friends with some of the best animators in the business, who I can confidently say will look at and critique my work whenever I ask (free mentoring anyone?). As a bonus, my job allowed me to be in the Animation Guild, which actually offered a grant for Animation Mentor for up to 2/3rds tuition. Not only that, but I also met some of my best friends there as well, and my network expands to all the best vfx companies in the world. And as an oh-so-sweet cherry on top, I fulfilled my dream of animating on a Disney movie. Okay so it was only 3 small shots, but I technically did animate on a Disney movie. Oh and let's not forget about the other cherry: the Disney employee Silver Pass. 

Any journey can take several different roads to get you to that same goal. Never expect the direct flight, as it rarely happens. Plus, you'll never know what else you'll discover on that journey. My ambitions and lifelong dreams of becoming an animator have led me past that goal. In fact, I now have no desire to be an animator (although I still love it, still do it from time to time and am actively involved in the animation community). During my journey I discovered a new love for story and all the visualization and building that happens before any performance is added by the animators, and it's nothing I would have expected when I was drawing flip animations in my textbooks all those years ago... but at the same time, it feels completely natural for me... that my path would ultimately lead me there. So, keep an open mind. I often hear of people wanting to do nothing but animation. That it's all they dream about and think about and they know they want to do that for the rest of their lives, so they want to fast track that goal by going straight into Animation Mentor or something similar.

Which leads me to my next piece of advice: School is only what you put into it. There is no silver bullet to getting that job you've always wanted, and yes, talent does matter. But it doesn't make it impossible. To be honest, it does irk me when I hear of a newly high school graduate excited to apply to Animation Mentor. My first thought is "you really want to spend the prime years of your life making friends through webcam and animating on a computer all the time?" Yes, perhaps you're doing your passion and there's nothing wrong with working hard for it. But I think the one thing most aspiring animators lose sight of is that animation has nothing to do with animation, and has everything to do with LIFE. That's probably why Frank and Ollie decided to call their infamous book "The Illusion of Life" and not "The Animation Bible" or something like that. Animation is only a tool to manifest life through the medium. And if your life is all about animation, how good can you REALLY be at emulating it? I know it might sound strange and harsh, but I beg you, learn everything you can about everything else other than animation, and your animation will become infinitely better, because only you can bring the experiences that you have and THAT will ultimately make your animations unique and alive. I mean, if you just hear any great animator talk about a scene that they animated, they almost never talk about their 2ndary action or the anticipation pose or what have you, but they talk about something they remember in their life that inspired that action.  One of my favorites?  Glen Keane talking about the first time Tarzan is "inspecting" Jane. When animating that scene, he thought of the first time he held his daughter in his arms; it's almost like seeing yourself for the first time. He exclaims that when he shows his daughter watching that scene, he tells her "that's not Tarzan looking at Jane, that's me looking at you". THAT is what it’s is all about, and no amount of school or mastery of the principles can teach you that. That's life experience. And that's ALL of what animation is.

So nowadays, I’m still in Mocap and I’ve actually grown to love it. Another one of those unexpected discoveries on my journey I guess. I get to consistently work on set and make friends with and interact with a lot of the actors. How can I complain? Plus, there’s always room to be creative on my free time, as I work towards making short films with some of my talented friends.

So all in all, best of luck on your journey. I hope that you might have found some inspiration on my story. And remember, there are many roads to get you to your destination. As long as you have a compass to move you in the right direction, you'll get there. Happy Animating!

One word of advice for future animators:

I’ve been lucky enough to gain experience in this industry and am able to share advice to people trying to break in, but the one piece of advice I wish someone told me from the beginning, is that outside of your dreams, is reality. I think it’s easy to mold these ambitions of one day working for Pixar or Disney, because that’s the underlying message of the movies that make us want to get into the field in the first place give: wishing upon stars and being saved by the handsome Prince; It’s always a happy ending. But the reality is that the industry is unforgiving and really competitive. More and more students are learning animation, jobs are scarce and/or moving overseas and companies are shutting their doors forever. It’s a great time to be an animator (online schools, mentoring and communities and blogs such as this), but it’s also a really bad time (for all the reasons above plus many more). So I would say, don’t ever forget that. Getting paid to do the work we do is eternally rewarding, but it also comes with a price that we all have to come to terms with, and the earlier you’re exposed to that, the better off you’ll be. Had I been privy to that from the beginning, I don’t think it would have shoved me off my goals (and if your passion is strong, it won’t). But I got through school on mostly talent alone and even though I worked hard to do the best I could, I wish I worked even harder. There was no better time to hone my skills, so if you’re in the position to just work on your art and learn exclusively, squeeze every last ounce of liquid from that lemon."