Start: Liz Bernard

Studio: Digital Domain

School(s):

• University of Virginia '04
  B.A., Theatre
• Animation Mentor '10
  Character Animation
• Animation Mentor '11
  Animal and Creature Animation

When I was a little girl, I watched the Loony Tunes pretty much nonstop. I loved Daffy and Bugs, and I developed a pretty spot-on impression of Sylvestre the Cat's "thuffering thuccotash!", but my favorite was Wile E. Coyote. I watched those little cinematic desert farces so many times that I had the comedic beats memorized. Wile E.'s creativity and perseverance, his self confidence in his zany plans, and his optimism in the face of adversity all left an indelible mark on 8-year-old me. So, at age 11, after plastering my walls with drawings of my favorite characters, and saving up my allowance money to buy Chuck Jones' autobiography, I announced to my parents that I was going to be an animator. They were not surprised. Both are graphic designers, and they had been feeding my artistic habits with unlimited art supplies from their studio. The local community art centre was offering a Basics of Animation class, and my parents signed me up.

You might think that my path to a career in animation would be pretty direct given my early clarity and focus. But no...

Unlike so many of my peers who found their inspiration to become animators in Pixar's groundbreaking Toy Story, which came out when I was a teenager, I saw CG animation as the beginning of the end of traditional hand drawn animation. This made me very sad, and eventually steered me to try other artistic avenues, including theatrical lighting design, which is what I studied in college. I worked as a lighting designer and technician for several years in a variety of venues (opera, pro wrestling, political events, Shakespeare plays, etc), but found myself losing enthusiasm as the reality of making a living doing theatre sunk in. It was at that point that I was presented with the opportunity to go abroad and work in West Africa for two years. I jumped at the chance, and divided my attention between a part-time job at the Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and my photography business. I was self taught, and although I loved the artistic expression photography allowed me, I did not enjoy the constant search for new clients, the self-promotion, or the stress of running my own business. So, when I returned to the USA, I found myself not sure what to do next.

In 2008, adrift and living in Washington DC, I stumbled on the Animation Mentor website...as I researched the school a little more, I realized that maybe my childhood dream wasn't so childish; maybe it was a really great idea! CG animation and visual effects heavy films were exploding in popularity...maybe it wouldn't be so hard to find a job when I was done! Although my drawing skills were rusty, I was pretty quick to pick up computery things, and I knew from years of photo editing and doing complex origami that I had the patience to focus on something as detail oriented as animation. I love cartoons and movies, and have always skewed geeky (Who's got two thumbs and loves Star Trek? This girl!), so it seemed like an excellent fit. I signed up. I worked a full time job at the National Archives, and did my AM assignments on the weekends. It was a grueling schedule, but I think that having so little time each week to complete my homework meant that I became a faster and more efficient animator than I would have become otherwise.

My experience at AM started out kind of rough. I struggled at first and even failed the first time I took the Intro to Acting class. Taking that course a second time was when a lot of things like spacing and overlap really clicked for me. I started seeing beautiful arcs everywhere around me, and found myself totally fascinated by the way the animals moved at the zoo (humans included). I found it easy to lose myself in my animation assignments, spending hours and hours glued to my screen.

I completed my short film in class 6 --it's about a naked guy who accidentally gets locked out of his hotel room-- and then I started looking for work after graduation, but none of the studios I applied to were biting. When AM offered me the chance to pilot test their brand new Animals and Creatures class when it debuted in the winter of 2011, I jumped at the chance. I thought the A&C course was going to give my reel a unique edge, but it did so much more than that: it taught me that my true passion lies in animating animals. I still love to watch slapstick animation, but what I really love to animate myself is animals, the more physical the shot, the better. My final project was animating a 250 frame shot of a big cat taking down a dragon. It was pretty ambitious, but I loved finessing the physical details, adding little imperfections into the finished product. Creature animation, I could tell, was where I wanted to be.

At this point, it was really starting to sink in just how incredibly competitive the industry is. It seemed like the only fellow classmates of mine who were finding work were already experienced animators who had taken AM to improve on their skills. Those of us who had started from scratch were out of luck.

When I was feeling low about my job hunt and the state of the industry, my mentor Nicole Herr gave me some very frank advice. She said that, in addition to a great reel, you need two things in order to find a job as an entry level animator: a) you need to be where the jobs are, and b) you need to have some --any-- paid experience as an animator. Timing is important also...if a given studio isn't hiring, then no matter how good your reel is, you're not going to get a job there.

To fulfill item A, I realized I needed to move; Washington DC isn't exactly an entertainment hub. My boyfriend had recently been accepted to a PhD program at the University of British Columbia, and Vancouver seemed to have a lot of animation work, so in the summer of 2011, he and I took the plunge and moved across the country to BC. We arrived just before SIGGRAPH, and I immediately started applying to all of the studios in the area. I felt optimistic because many of the studios I talked to at SIGGRAPH said they would be hiring, but several months later...crickets. I was feeling pretty low at that point. Mentors and friends assured me that my reel was good and said, "don't take it personally" and I tried not to, but it was starting to feel like Wile E. Coyote...I just couldn't catch a break.

In the meantime, another mentor of mine offered me a remote temporary gig working on the Animal Planet show, "Finding Bigfoot." It was only about 6 seconds of Sasquatch (sorry, folks: spoiler alert) on the small screen, but it was enough for me to put a new line on my resume. Just a month or so after I reapplied to a few studios and let them know that I had landed that remote gig, I started getting nibbles from studios. Suddenly, I had three promising interviews in one week! One of those was with Digital Domain, one of the best studios in the world for realistic visual effects. Digital Domain was up there with ILM and Weta as one of those dream studios that I hoped to work at sometime in the distant future, after I had cut my teeth at a local television or commercial studio for several years first. When they offered me a three month gig on Jack the Giant Slayer, I was over the moon! After over a year and a half of looking, I finally got my big break. Wile E. smiled.

Three months was just the beginning. I am still animating at Digital Domain, having just wrapped up a full year of work on Ender's Game. I started on my fourth feature film this past Monday, Disney's Maleficent. I am very happy at DD, and I still wake up every day excited to go to work. Getting to this point took years of training in which I had hardly any free weekends, and then an incredibly demoralizing period of time desperately trying to land my first break... It wasn't easy, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the most passionate aspiring animators, but now I get to do what I love every day with some of the most awesome people I've ever met, and that is worth all of the lost weekends, the tedium, the exhaustion, all of it. Sometimes I have to work seven days a week, ten to twelve hours a day. Sometimes it's boring, or frustrating, and the last thing I want to do is animate. But seeing a character or creature come to life in my shot is the most gratifying expression of my artistic self that I have ever experienced.

Advice for future animators:

If you are nice to everyone and show enthusiasm for what you do, people will want you to succeed, and will help you do it.

Start: Casey McDermott

Studio:

●     Blizzard Entertainment

School(s):  

●     Gnomon School of Visual Effects; 

●     AnimationMentor.com; 

●     The Animation Collaborative

My name is Casey McDermott, and I like to call myself an animator.  Lets jump right into WHY animation.  Why would anyone choose a craft that takes so long to master(if mastering is even possible)?  A craft that when you start it becomes your whole life, in and out of work.  Anything I see in motion or in pose or even inanimate, I can't help but think to myself, “I can use that someday!” 

Since I could remember I would (and still do) run around in my batman pajamas, cape included, and act out crime fighting scenes alongside the TV with Adam West.  I would watch Pinocchio three times a day, and every time Monstro would come on, I would gather everyone in my family and lead them by the hands all the while yelling the words, “Mon, Monstro,” which obviously means, “COME ON GUYS, MONSTRO IS ON TV RIGHT NOW LETS WATCH THIS!.”  It was quite obvious I have an infatuation with playing characters and imagination.  So much so, that one time my mom dropped me off at daycare as one Casey McDermott, but when she came to pick said “Casey McDermott,” you better believe there was not a single Casey McDermott at that daycare!  There was, however, a Peter Vankman (from Ghostbusters), as I told (and convinced!) everyone that was my name.

   I didn't have a normal childhood, but really who did?  Half of my family were artists.  My mom was ink and paint at Disney and Hanna Barbera, and she worked alongside her mom and aunt who were also Ink and Paint artists at Hanna Barbera, Disney, and Filmation.  My other Aunt and Uncle also worked at Disney in the animation and effects departments, respectively.  My dad was and still is a contractor, but has built some amazing and breathtaking homes and structures, some of which I have had the great fortune of growing up in.  I was surrounded by constant creativity and support.  My family loved and still loves getting dressed up for ren fairs, pirate fairs, halloween, christmas, and any other sort of occasion that allows for it.  We all love to pretend.

            So of course I would grow up doing art right?!  Wrong.  By the time I hit 10 years old, art was the furthest thing from my mind.  All I wanted to do was be a baseball player.  It’s all I knew about and cared about.  But I still loved to pretend.  I pretended every day that I was a professional baseball player, playing in front of screaming fans booing and cheering, sweat dripping, muscles tight and me fighting the tightness to keep them loose, the smell of chalk, dirt, and grass stains infusing together to create the unique aroma that maybe only baseball players can understand.  There I was, stepping up to the plate in the bottom of the 9th, the score all tied up, and one swing away from making history and winning a championship.  It was always so vivid in my head.  Even though I was playing baseball, I really believe that this mindset has helped me today.  I don't like to start working until I can see what I want in my head.  I always want a vivid image and aesthetic so I know what I am striving for.

  In college I wound up ramming my knee into a pole during a game and cracking my patellar and tearing my medial and lateral meniscus.  I was in an “immobilizer” for 9 months and additional 4 months of physical therapy afterwards.  This was a very hard time in my life, thinking I was done with my dream and coming to terms with it.  I attended a Junior College in Chico California (this is also where I met my lovely wife) during the time my leg was in an immobilizer and I started taking “3D multimedia classes” to get my mind off of my nonexistent sports career.  With some great inspiration and support from teachers there I learned that I could make a new living with “multimedia.”  All of a sudden my passion for baseball started to shift to animation and multimedia.

            My brother in law, who is an editor, told me of a Production Assistant internship for the summer at Sony Computer Entertainment America.  With a little good fortune, and some good recommendations, I got the internship.  While I was there I got to be a part of all aspects of game development, from the art side with Maya, to production side with directors and project leads, and finally I got to do a little voice over work.  It was this summer I knew for a fact what I wanted to do for a job.  While at SCEA, I asked what schools were best to further my education.  They all said Gnomon was the top school at the time.  I applied there thinking nothing of rejection.  Then I learned they only accept 24 students a year.  I had a very puny art portfolio and they saw that in my 1 on 1 interview with the school board.  All I remember is when I left my interview, i confidently said, “I am excited to come here,” and “See you in August.”  Maybe I tricked them into thinking they had already accepted me. 

Gnomon was a great experience and taught all aspects of CG and art, more of a generalist course at the time.  I wouldn't trade my experience there for the world.  Working with a such a small class size, with individuals who all had different fields that they wanted to specialize in made it fantastic for collaboration.  2 weeks after graduating, and some guidance from some mentors of mine at Gnomon, I had the great opportunity to start working at Rhythm & Hues, and a week after that I started attending AnimationMentor.

Ignorantly enough, I thought this would be easy to attend school and work at the same time.  Well the production schedule is very unforgiving and became very jealous at the fact I was also attending school.  I wound up having to take a leave of absence from AnimationMentor.  Well worth it.  However, the entire time I worked at Rhythm & Hues questioned everything I did and looked at everyone’s gorgeous work, which put me into some despair.  I did not feel adequate at all, in fact I felt like I knew nothing (Jon Snow).  The first dailies I attended were very eye opening.  One animator, (also a friend, peer, and mentor to me) by the name of Jeff, presented work so beautiful that it looked like dancing.  He had beautiful texture and timing, with great hand and finger flourishes, and the dialogue was so clear and appealing, I was sick to my stomach.  I didn't take lunch for 2 months, in hopes that during that extra hour, I might get better or learn something to make my hideous animation not stand out like a sore thumb.  However, during my time there I sat next to 3 incredibly talented artists and animators, including Jeff, that helped shape me with honest feedback and support.

After my contract ended, I thought it best to go back to AnimationMentor to learn again.   At the end of school I picked up some freelance gigs from some studios such as BrainZoo and MPC, along with several others, for little 3 to 6 month gigs.  Animating at as many studios early in your career I think is a great way to learn, not only about the studios, but about yourself.  It is sort of like the dating scene, in my opinion.  You have to date around a bit to see what you like and don't like, and until you find studios that fit you as a person and as an artist.

That is how I got started.  The reason WHY I animate is that I love to create, imagine and pretend.  It is in these callow fantasies that I really feel comfortable and free (as ridiculous as that sounds).  For anyone who has made it this far in the story I have some words of advice.  Firstly, whenever anyone ever asks me “should I get into animation?” my answer is NO, the fact that you even ask that question means this is probably not the medium for you.  As I tell my students, animation takes a certain type of patients that many people do not retain.  Hell, I question if I am patient enough.  And to reiterate, you will be animating at work for 8-12 hours a day, then you will come home and animate more, or see things you want to animate, or be inspired to animate, or depressed that you don't know how to animate, or be thirsty for more animation.  Your average work day is not enough to quench that thirst. 

Secondly, with schools nowadays attempting to make animation look very fun and bubbly, I say, don’t be fooled.  Yes, animation can be fun, but by god is it frustrating.  See through the facade, and realize that these bubbly personalities are, for the most part, business’ advertising.  No, we do not all act this way.  Schools will not make you great.  They will give you great information, but in the end, you have to do the work to make it successful.

Thirdly, keep a vivid imagination.  It’s ok to pretend, in fact, it's encouraged.  Always plan out your shots thoroughly, being sure to be proud of what's in your head before you put it on paper, or in a CG program.  “Fail early and fail often.”  Collaborate your ideas early and often, show early and often and get ready to fail.  It’s the only way we learn and get better, and by collaborating with others, you will be absolutely amazed at how much your craft and storytelling can soar.

Lastly, stay passionate and thirsty.  The reason why we have chosen this art form is because we are passionate about telling a story through it, and letting the viewer see a piece of us.  It is a very vulnerable feeling and you MUST grow a tough skin in order to grow.  Love what you do, even when you hate it.  It’s important to feel proud of something you have created, but don't be satisfied, keep chasing the next big thing. 

Thank you for your time, and hopefully this is useful to anyone who reads it.  Hopefully someday our paths may cross.  Best of luck in all of your personal careers, and “keep animating,”  or don’t... it’s up to you, if you want to that is, of course...!  :]

-C

One Word of Advice for Future Animators: 

Leave your ego at the door so that you're not married to any 1 idea, because the best idea can come from anywhere/anyone!

Start: Martin Hebert

Studio: Exient Entertainment
College: Palacky University Olomouc, Faculty of Education

My name is Martin Hebert.  Currently, I’m working as lead animator for Exient Entertainment in Brno, Czech Republic.  I have also served as Lead Animator for Vatra Games (Silent Hill Downpour, Rush’n Attack), 2K Czech/Illusion Softworks (Moscow Rhapsody) and Pterodon (Vietcong 2).

I came into the game industry ten years ago in a rather unconventional way.  My education isn’t art-related at all.  My schooling, which focused mostly on math and engineering with Faculty of Education, didn’t give me much useful art knowledge, except self-management skills.

I have always played video games, but I never knew how they were actually created.  I accidentally stumbled across some information on a 3D artist forum, read a few tutorials (despite suffering from poor English skills), and once I had created something in CG, I became very interested in the whole process.  Since that moment, 3D modeling became my hobby.

The 3D artist community in my area used to hold regular meetings and conferences, and I decided to start attending some of them.  The very first one I attended was the reason I became an animator.  Most of the attendees were amateurs like myself, but one in particular was just an old dreamer who didn’t know anything about 3D; he simply had a dream to create a short 3D movie.  As there were only a few good artists available at that time, he offered to pay for courses for a few of us who were just 3D fans, so that we could create that short for him.  Good opportunity, so why not take it?

Now, I can tell you that creating a short film using only beginner artists was a very naïve idea.  However, while that guy lost a good sum of money and we didn’t actually create anything worth watching, he did give rise to a generation of great artists, many of whom are successful in the film and game industries.

I don’t know why but this visionary told me: “you are going to be an animator,” without knowing anything about me.  I agreed, and it was the most important decision of my professional life.

At that time, I had been working as a lead lift engineer for a small company, and I probably would have continued on with them if our boss had been better and the company had not gone bankrupt.  I was desperate to find a new job, so I was looking for any available opportunity.  It so happened that Pterodon (Vietcong) was looking for animators.

There was only one school for animators in the Czech Republic.  Because our education system is very conservative, the school only taught traditional 2D animation at the time, therefore 3D animators were very rare, which increased my chances to succeed.

Thanks to that old guy who decided I’d be an animator, I have successfully entered the game industry.  At that time, Pterodon was working on Vietcong 2.  I was involved in every facet of the game’s animation, working under Petr Mores, a great animator most recently working for Crytek.  It was he who taught me most of what I know about animating, and of managing people.  It was also he who decided I would be a lead animator for the next project, even though I didn’t have the experience for such a job.  “Throw the man into the water and let him learn how to swim,” we often say, and even though it’s a difficult way to learn, I think it was the best.

I’m grateful that I met the right people; people who pointed me in the right direction so that I can be a part of this fantastic industry.

One word of advice for future animators:

Try everything; you don’t know what your destiny is.

Start: Justin Rosenthal-Kambic

Studio: Telltale Games

College: Ex’Pression College for Digital Arts

So when I saw that Travis had started up this blog with the intention of giving voice to his animator friends to relay their stories of how they, well, started the whole animating thing… I thought, “Hey, I’m sure I have something worthwhile to share. Right?” Now after reading through some of the previous posts of super talented artists, I’m not quite sure how my story will fit in? But hey, let’s find out together!

Oh, and I’m not so much of a “writer,” more of a “write-like-I-talk-er,” so you know, just imagine me talking about all this… Thanks for bearing with me.

Anyways, I didn’t grow up dreaming of being an animator. I mean, sure I grew up on cartoons like the rest of us, and I loved all that stuff - everything from classic Disney to uh, classic Snorks? I don’t know, but cartoons and animation (of questionable quality, perhaps,) have been in my life ever since I was a kid, as were video games, but more on this in a bit.

As I said, I didn’t grow up dreaming of being an animator. I dreamt of being a rock star. I had a little 3-piece band back in high school that was as grungy and punky as the mid 90’s could offer. Just imagine Nirvana and Green Day mashed together like there was no tomorrow. Oh, and also imagine ’96 is your senior year. Oh yeah. Good times. But as with all good times, they come to an end, but not before an indie record label helped us record and put out an album! We played shows throughout SF and even drove down to LA for a weekend of shows. It was great. Such fond memories...

Sorry – I’ll get back on track now. So while that didn’t really come to fruition, we had a fun time of it. Once we all graduated it was determined that college was what came next, (much to my disappointment,) but hey, education, it’s a good thing. So anyways, I decided to put off jumping back into school because I really didn’t know where or what I wanted to do. At the time I was working at Noah’s Bagels, and I know what you’re thinking, “Bagels are pretty awesome,” and while you would be correct, bagels weren’t really the career-path I was hoping for. But again, as it turns out, that was where I first heard of this place called Ex’Pression Center.

A guy who used to work with us at Noah’s quit and took off for school, (smart move on his part,) and at some point after that, he stopped by to visit and told me that Ex’Pression had a “bitchin’ audio program” and that I would probably “really dig it.” That’s how I remember him saying it at least; he was that kind of guy. So I eventually warmed up to the idea and went in to one of Ex’Pression’s open-house events. It was then that I knew what I wanted to do from here on out.

While I started on the tour of the audio-program, my epiphany came when I walked past one of the windows and peered into the lab packed with students and rows upon rows of glowing CRT monitors. I saw 3D models of half-built creatures and environments tumbling about on screens as their creators sat, in some bizarre meditative state, transfixed on their work. Everything looked like pieces of the video games I had grown to love (in an almost-obsessive manner) over the years. “That is what I want to do.” I thought. “I want to make video games.” And soon after that, I became enrolled in Ex’Pression Center for New Media’s “Digital Visual Media Program” (Editor’s Note: The school has been rechristened “Ex’pression College for Digital Arts,” and the DVM program has been retitled “Animation and Visual Effects).

The next 14-16 months were a blur. I hear now the schools courses are far expanded past what I was familiar with – with an actual Game Development program and whatnot. But whatever, I was getting a crash course in Media that was Visually Digital. Honestly, it was was a pretty intense and amazing experience, and by the time I graduated, I had found my calling as an animator. Making stuff move was my thing. As a kid, I spent countless hours playing with action figures; manipulating He-Man and G.I. Joe figures in my tiny hands to create epic slow-motion fights where each impact of their plastic feet sent me bending and twisting the figures about as I imagined each part of their body would react to such a devastating kick… I was still doing the same thing only this time, on a computer. So, you know, now it’s respectable.

After graduation, it was a month or so until I found my first home at a game studio. And now after all my rambling, (and for those of you still reading,) let me impart my first bit of wisdom. “Don’t turn down opportunities, even if you think you already know you’re not interested.” I got the chance to interview with a couple of artists from a company called Digital Eclipse. I hadn’t heard of them and before the interview I looked them up online, as anyone should always do. Digital Eclipse was a little independent studio that at the time, focused on Game Boy games and arcade ports. Now pixel art and Game Boy games are great, but that wasn’t at all what I had just gone to school for, and there was part of me that was thinking on just skipping the interview all together. Again, “Don’t turn down opportunities. Especially if you don’t know where those opportunities will lead to.” I realized it would be ridiculously dumb of me to not go, and so I went in for the interview. As it turned out, their studio was in the process of merging with another to become Backbone Entertainment, and they were looking to assemble a team of 3D artists for a brand new IP. That sounded pretty cool. (FYI - Now that I’ve been in the industry for 9 years, I’m very aware that getting that kind of opportunity, especially right out of the gate, is super rare and probably the dream of every developer. That’s pretty much what we all want; to get the chance to work on something new. To create something unique.) So as luck had it, they were impressed enough with my work to bring me aboard. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Anyways, I’m an animator. That’s how I started.

One word of advice for future animators:

“Don’t turn down opportunities.”

http://www.jxrk.me

@JxRK

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."

Start: Sam Baker

Studio: Mr. X

College: Ex'pression College for Digital Arts

My name is Sam Baker, an animator from California, and I'm currently working in Toronto on the remake of RoboCop.  Getting here was certainly not easy, and it took a good 5 years (after art school) of trying, failing, hustling, and pumping out as much animation as possible.

As a kid I was raised on Star Wars, Harryhausen movies, Wallace and Gromit, and of course everything Disney.  My mom was/is an art teacher, but I could never draw too well.  Making movies intrigued me though, so I started out with stop motion.  South Park had just come out, so I began with paper cutouts and moved up to claymation, pressing start-stop on a VHS-C camcorder with no frame grabbers or animation lunchboxes to be had.  This continued throughout high school, and at the time I wasn't sure what to focus on in college: film making or animation?  I decided community college was the way to go, and studied all kinds of art.  Film history, art history, video production, actual 16mm filmmaking.  When most of my classmates were sketching storyboards, I was roughing out stop-motion animatics of what I wanted to do, and someone said "maybe that's what you should be doing."

As it turned out, my college had a stop-motion class!  Immediately I knew this was a path I wanted to pursue, but the teacher (a legend! a hero! my idol!) basically said that it was a dying art.  He suggested trying computer animation, which I hated at the time, and I decided to give that a shot.  After opening Maya and playing around for a few months, that was it.  I was ready to focus on that, and the best option at the time was going to a specialized art school with industry connections.  My goal was to get a job doing this stuff, not just do it for fun.  So Ex'pression College in Emeryville, CA was the answer.  A little over 2 years later, I had a demo reel, decent knowledge of animation, and enough skill to get noticed.  It still took 6 months after I graduated to find an industry job (expect that!) but I couldn't have hoped for a better first job.

My career as a professional animator started at a game company called Factor 5.  I received an email from a recruiter at my school who saw the posting and relayed my info to her contact there, and viola!  I got really lucky.  Four contractors were hired, and I was chosen to stay on full-time.  Although this was an amazing experience and I learned a lot, it still wasn't film.  After Factor 5 shut its doors, I was unemployed more often than employed.  What they don't tell you in school is how unstable it is out there.  Most jobs are 3-6 month contracts (even shorter for commercials) and if you're lucky enough to find a staff position, who knows how long the company will last?  It was about a year before my big break came, and it was all due to connections.  As they say, "luck is when preparation meets opportunity."  I was fortunate enough to work on some creature stuff, and when my girlfriend at the time was hired by an Australian company, my reel was just barely good enough that I was able to go too.  Rising Sun Pictures, about 2 years of awesome film experience to follow!

It's easy to uproot your entire life when you're chasing a girl and have nothing tying you down, but being ready to move to the other side of the world for work is not a simple task.  It's quite expensive and stressful, but very exciting.  Being ok with becoming a traveling artist nomad will open so many more doors and create contacts who can help you get to even higher places in your career.  Would I suggest it if given the chance?  Absolutely.  It's not an easy life, but it's the one I chose because I really don't want to do anything other than animate. 

My advice to current animation students is to pump out as much as you can as often as you can.  The faster you work, the sooner you'll get good, and the more valuable you'll be in the workplace.  After a few months you'll have an epic reel and you'll be ready when luck come your way.  Cheers!
For Sam's reel, click: HERE

You were a wizard, Harry(hausen)!

Ray Harryhausen

1920-2013
"Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever."
Steven Spielberg

For more info, click HERE