I'm super pumped on this months Animation Mentor newsletter and wanted to point people to this insightful article that Victor Navone wrote around tips for dailies. Check it out here
I received a fantastic email the other day from a newly inspired and very talented animator working at a major studio. They approached me with this general feeling:
“Is the animation industry jaded? What happens to people when they get older? Are there still jobs in animation for them? Am I going to always be worked to death like this or will I find some balance? I just want to know these things so I can decide if animation is something I want to do for the long haul.”
Great questions! I was happy to answer them to the best of my ability, as most all of this is very subjective. I thought it’d be great to share my thoughts here.
Is the animation industry jaded?
It is true that a lot of people get burned out due to working long hours and on projects they may or may not believe in. I remember working at Disney on Dinosaur and people would tell me, “You’re so happy, it’s just a matter of time before you get all jaded and crusty like the rest of us.” Ha ha. I’ll always remember that. If you know me I’m anything but jaded and crusty. It’s all a matter of perspective. I know at AnimationMentor.com we have worked hard to create an environment of support and inspiration. Our hope is to create more “inspired” animators that go in to the work force and populate it with hope and enthusiasm. Is this bad? Hell no. Most every one who got in to this industry was inspired at some point. “We’re making cartoons for goodness sakes.” I often hear this and it’s an important reminder to tell ourselves.
So, my answer to this question is, no. No, I do not think the industry is jaded. I think it’s easy to become jaded and negative energy is like cream and it tends to overpower and rise to the top. Beware of getting sucked in to this ugly pattern and remember to keep your chin up. Just as the negative rises to the top, the inspired will also outshine at the end of the day. So, I say work together to be stoked about what you do. This energy is infectious and will create something so powerful.
A good experience I’ve heard of this is at Psyop. One of our graduates got a job over there and the team said something to the tone of, “Wow, you really know what you’re doing and you seem really easy to work with; do you know anyone else like this looking for a job?” Before you know it there are 13 people from Animation Mentor working on their project! I recently met the CEO of Psyop at a party in New York and he told me they love hiring people form Animation Mentor. I was told the work ethic inspired the whole team to raise their standards and pumped an infusion of enthusiasm throughout the organization!
This is the type of story I LOVE to hear. It’s not the first I’ve heard like this. Am I saying only Animation Mentor students are this way? No, not at all. What I am saying is that being jaded or feeling like, “I’m a great animator” are dangerous ways to think. When you are a constant learner, supportive, sharing of your knowledge and are inspired by the work you do, you will be creating a SUPER POWERFUL quality of life, not only for yourself but for everyone around you! Something to keep in mind.
What happens to people when they get older? Are there still jobs in animation for them?
Ha ha. Yes, there are older people in the industry that are animators. For the most part it is a “young” industry, however the older people I know, and I do know a LOT of older folks who animate, feel that the young talent keeps them fresh and inspires them to maintain their energy and passion for why they got in to the industry in the first place.
A lot of older animators do become lead animators, supervisors, directing animators, story artists, directors, etc. It’s a natural progression. Some choose to become supervisors on one film and then jump back to being purely an animator. There are a lot of choices, and as long as you keep pushing yourself to do great work, the work will be there.
Am I going to always be worked to death like this or will I find some balance?
This is a tough one. I remember on The Incredibles I was working a lot on side projects after work. Those projects kept me inspired to do the best work I possibly could while AT work. I remember I did get a “talking to” by one of the supervising animators that I was only getting my work done on time but wasn’t staying late like the rest taking on additional work; aka “team spirit.” I tried to explain that I was a BIG team player and that I was giving my all to the team in dailies and in the work and support I gave during work hours. This did not go over so well and perhaps reflected in the shots I got on that film.
What I wanted to do was to help start setting a standard that is important and one that I employ at my company. That is, “inspired people create inspired results.” That is my motto at Animation Mentor. One BIG way we do this is by promoting true work/life balance. We don’t work overtime. It is true that during graduation, Siggraph and BBQ’s that some extra hours are required by the marketing/events team. However, as a whole we work hard to keep this balance. It is so critical to staying inspired and pacing yourself.
In the beginning it is true that you will most likely work crazy hours and need to work 6+ day weeks on projects. This IS an unfortunate reality of the industry. However, there are many studios that believe, as I do, that you need to nurture your talent and keep them inspired for the long run. They are few, and they are out there. However, it is important to understand this reality as it is something to consider.
Not everyone will last in this type of environment, perhaps it is a byproduct of the movie making industry as a whole. This is the ugly truth of the matter. I long to see the day where studios take work/life balance into consideration and promote it in the work place so that people can go home at a reasonable hour, see their kids, play music, go to the movies, do to dinner with friends/family and simply enjoy life as a whole. Maybe it’s rare at this point, however I believe it is possible. This is a personal endeavor for me as I see the results of what can be accomplished with the work/life balance mindset and it is outstanding!
I just want to know these things so I can decide if animation is something I want to do for the long haul.
At the end of our email back-and-forth discussion I thought this person may leave the studio they are at to find one that promotes a better work/life balance. Instead they told me this, “No, no. I’m going to stay here. Perhaps I will be someone who helps lead the movement to a more inspired work place and one that values a stronger work/life balance.”
Wow!!! That is so inspiring to hear and something that touched me so much that I wanted to take the time to share these thoughts with you guys. It’s up to us to work on this. If the work/life balance part is hard to achieve, then, at the very least, let’s make this job something fun and absolutely inspiring to come to each and every day!
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.
Today we launched two new ebooks. These ebooks are not meant for people who are currently animators so much as they are for people who are interested in becoming animators. Although we feel that Animation Mentor is a great place to learn animation and we do give a shameless plug or 3 throughout, it is still filled with great info for people who are interested. We also decided to make the content 100% free. No, "give us your email" "Free." This is actually free, so we hope the link gets passed around.
I also was stoked to see us pop up on www.AnimationConversation.com regarding our new student showcase. It's a nice critique of the work we're doing and they also ask some great questions that we are always asking ourselves internally:
1. Are our student reels starting to look the same? 2. Is Animation Mentor flooding the market with animators?
Addressing #1: I addressed this topic a couple posts back on things we are doing to vary up the look and feel. SO, to paraphrase:
1. We have updated the curriculum and launched this in January of this year which addresses adding new assignments which now allows students to pick from a variety of assignments.
2. Stewie (the "generic" character with coal eyes) now has a "costume picker" which allows students to "dress" Stewie up in a variety of combinations to give their shots a more individual feel while still keeping the Animation Mentor branding; i.e. look and feel.
3. We have made it way easier to customize Bishop so people can add hair, lipstick, stubble, hair styles, clothes etc. You can also scale the proportions of Bishop to get a different look and feel.
4. We are launching something next quarter which will also excite the students and will DRAMATICALLY change the look and feel of future reels and showcase reels coming out of Animation Mentor.
Addressing #2: I hear this a lot and it's important to note a few things:
1. Because we are worldwide we are providing opportunities to people in other countries, not just the U.S. Almost half of our student population are from overseas.
2. Have we helped change the dynamic of studios hiring policies? Perhaps. It is true that some studios are now bringing in more entry level talent than they did before. I honestly feel it's because the overall talent is going up from students and Animation Mentor definitely does provides talent to the studios. Is this bad? Depends on how you look at it. We feel it gives more opportunities to people allowing them to get in to the industry. We also think it helps keep jobs in the U.S. as opposed to watching all the studios jump fully over to the outsourcing bandwagon. I'm actually very happy about that one! There are plenty of studios all over the world making unique and amazing content for people to be entertained by. I'm SUPER happy that Animation Mentor is one of the providers of that talent, not only in the U.S. but overseas as well.
Animation Mentor launches the Summer Showcase Reel
Today the Animation Mentor Summer Showcase reel launched. We're so incredibly happy with the quality of work and dedication that has gone in to this. It's nice as I really feel it shows a good variety of work and also shows a depth to the "look" of the work, too. We've had some comments from recruiters that it would be nice to "mix it up a bit" and I"m proud to say that we've done a lot to mix it up and the next showcase reel will REALLY reflect a lot in these changes that we've made to add the variety to the work and reels. Here are some things we've done and are doing:
1. Bishop has a variety of looks and styles to him/her. Students are getting more creative each and every time they do an assignment; putting different hair styles and clothes and really designing their shots keeping this in mind for their final pieces. 2. The new curriculum has a lot of new assignments which will and have really mixed things up showing a greater overall variety. 3. Stewie now has a "costume picker" which allows students to choose from a variety of pre-defined costumes and sets that we've created. This will reflect in the next showcase.
Overall these small changes will make a HUGE difference in the quality of work coming and out and this showcase should give you a good sample of that. Enjoy and please let me know what you think! WOO HOO! Click Here to view
I just got back from Comic Con 2009. I wanted to blog while at the convention, however the connection at my hotel was the slowest thing ever. No worries, I'm here to report the fun activities that ensued!
Animation Mentor along with Animation Magazine hosted a panel which was, for me, the highlight of Comic Con. It was so freaking amazing to be in the presence of so many fantastically talented animators. In this picture Don Hahn talks about the new books "Drawn to Life" while Eric Goldberg listens intently.
The panel was all around the power of mentorship highlighting Walt Stachfield, author of the "Drawn to Life" books. Many stories were shared that highlighted the importance of seeking stimulation and a sense of breadth in ones life to be the best animator you can be. In this photo, Tom Sito and Ruben Procopio listen to Glen Keane as he talks about how Walt Stanchfield was not one of the 9 old men, but was equally as influential on the art form; i.e. the unsung heros.
The turn out for the panel was fantastic. This is only about half of the room. From everyone I talked to it seemed like they were totally inspired and had a blast!
Glen Keane stuck around afterward and signed everyone's sketchbooks and told awesome stories. It was Glen's first time ever at Comic Con and he was so enthusiastic about all the great art and inspiration he was seeing!
Overall my time at Comic Con this year was freaking amazing. It's a total recharge to the batteries and I simply love the feeling I get there which carries on with me for a long, long time!
We did record the event however, I'm not sure if/how we are going to use it. I would suspect there will be something on some of the upcoming newsletters so stay tuned ;)
Over the last couple of weeks my life has been Animation Mentor from head-to-toe! It's been so inspiring hosting and participating in so many fantastic events! It was a pleasure meeting so many inspired students and graduates from all over the world.
Christa and Melissa welcome AMers to the Career Fair!
This is the stuff I LOVE to see. Alumni coming out to support the current graduates and having a blast. So stoked to see so much love and support going around. If you weren't there you wouldn't believe it if I told you how freaking awesome it is to be around this energy! WOW!
I was also fortunate enough to host a webinar with Don Hahn, the editor of the two book set "Drawn to Life," by Walt Stanchfield! It was such an honor to host this and I'm so stoked we're offering it for people to view for FREE! Click Here to view it. Enjoy!
So with that I'm getting a couple moments of rest and then getting ready to hit Animation Mentor Power Sessions Part 2 at Comic Con and then at Siggraph! It's going to be a VERY BUSY next couple of weeks and I'm SOOOOOOO looking forward to it! WOOT WOOT! Hope to see some more of you soon. I'll also be blogging more while at the events!
Animation Mentor had 51 mentors, students and alumni who worked on Ice Age 3!
This is one of those proud moments where we get to step back at Animation Mentor and feel proud of what we've helped create. We had 51 mentors, students and alumni work on Ice Age 3!
I was lucky enough to catch the film opening night with several Animation Mentor students and grads, some who worked on the film. It was a special moment watching the credits roll and seeing so many familiar names. Watching the folks in the room who worked on it with their significant others so proud of them was so touching. I remembered back to seeing my name roll up in the credits on my first feature film (Virus) and feeling that sense of pride and accomplishment! Congratulations you guys!!! We couldn't be more proud of you and all your hard work!
I'm so happy that we took this tack in our lives to help people fulfill their dreams. Although I don't animate anymore, I get to live vicariously through the many successful people who go through our program. Today I'm giving thanks for being part of something that feels like magic!
Animation Mentor : New lecture with Bret Parker on "Mechanics and Acting"
Bret Parker was at the Animation Mentor Head Quarters this past weekend doing a lecture for The New Animation Mentor Curriculum. We're finishing up the last few lectures for this program before moving on to new SUPER exciting stuff. Bret gave her best in this lecture. The cool thing is we got permission from Pixar for her to use one of her shots from Ratatouille to go over in her class! This marks the first time we've been able to use Pixar footage in our classes. More of this type of thing to come in the new curriculum and this is so freaking cool!!!
Front Row Left: Jonathan Gomez, Front Row Right: Heather McNabb Back Row Left: Veara Suon, Back Row Right: Nicole Demas Part of the New Curriculum format is doing classes where we invite several students to participate in the lecture. This way we get the student perspective right there inside the lecture and we're so proud of these guys as they asked some fantastic questions which really helps take the content to a whole new level! Thanks guys!
It's so great to be at a level where studios like Sony, DreamWorks and now Pixar are recognizing the importance of allowing footage in our classes to help make for better, more relevant instruction. So cool!!!!
Part of the new stuff is letting you guys get a sneak peek into the behind the scenes world of what we do here at Animation Mentor. I hope you enjoy this super sneak peek of what's to come!
Animation Mentor hosts webinar and Comic Con panel
As promised, I'm proud to annouce our associate with the amazing two series books on the life and work of Walt Stanchfield! I will be hosting a FREE webinar with editor of the two books, Don Hahn. The webinar will focus on the legacy of Walt as well as talk about the power of his teachings, mentorship and lessons.
We will also be holding a panel discussion at Comic Con. I will be introducing the panel. We are SUPER proud to annouce that Glen Keane AND Eric Goldberg will be there along with Don Hahn and other Disney greats!
As I said before we really believe in these books and think they offer something fresh to the animation world. We are so VERY proud to be promoting the books in a big way and helping to spread the word. We hope you enjoy the events we have planned! WOOT!
Yesterday Animation Mentor had our annual company wide team building event! I've appropriately titled this one, "TOP CHEF." We have a small group within Animation Mentor called the EEC (Employee Event Committee) who researches events and details. We keep the details of the events "secret" to the rest of the team so that it is a surprise. Unfortunately, I was out in bed sick so I missed this event. I was torn for sure! But better to take a sick day than to get everyone else sick. Overall I've heard amazing things about the event and wanted to share photos with you guys! My thought is that an inspired team creates inspired results. There's a lot of buzz around the office today and a lot of smiling faces! WOOT WOOT!!!
We have a lot of "Foodies" in the group! I love the smiling faces and overall energy in this picture!
Lately we've begun doing a series of internal trainings. One was led by Jay Epperhart, super star Tech Care guru at Animation Mentor. His talk was tiled "Animation for Non-Animators." The point of this talk was to help educate everyone in the company about what makes great animation without all the technical jargon. Our hope with this was to help increase the awareness of what we do here so that people can also log on and look at student's/alumnus's work and give comments if they'd like. Thus getting people more involved. The entire company participated in this from Finance, HR all the way to the art department and technology. Way to go Jay!!!
The second was a talk given by Super Ninja Technology Specialist, Taylor Mahony! His talk centered around all the different products and services we have for students, alumni, leave of absence students etc. Again, this is all in an effort to make sure everyone in the company is educated on the different product offerings and services we have.
[Lleslle learns about Spacing]
Our company mission is: "To provide the most personal and fulfilling learning experience on the planet" and we want to make sure we are starting internally so that these are not just words we say, but life that we breathe in to all areas of what we do here!
I attended the Success Connect 2009 conference Monday and Tuesday of this week. This was a conference about a software product we are beginning to use internally to help tie all that we do in the company to the bigger picture. Ultimately it is an internal social networking tool to line up goals to strategy. Really neat and I got a lot out of it.
Things at AM are really buzzing right now. We have some cool additions we will be launching shortly. Our new "phased roll out" is working well and we've launched several new tools in beta to people. The method allows us to really gauge people's comments and usability while allowing us to work out necessary bugs before rolling it out to the entire school and alumni communities. I'd say my inspiration at work is hovering around 1,000% right now. Just wanted to share some of the really cool things happening behind the scenes. :)
Animation Mentor The Online Animation School in the news!
I get monthly emails from my PR group to show me the latest and greatest articles that have been published from Animation Mentor. I thought it would be good to post this here so they are all in one place. Sorry for any repeats.
Animation Mentor The Online Animation School on Forbes.com
Yesterday I was interviewed about my journey from animator to entrepreneur for Forbes.com! I had a blast being able to represent our animation school to a totally different audience. I'm stoked to be able to share more about the business side of what we do as that is now my big journey and area of growth over the last several years. WOOT!
Click here to view the piece. We interviewed for about 30 minutes and somehow they were able to pick all the parts where I wasn't bouncing off the walls. Ha ha!
DISCLAIMER: I was not the designer for Nemo and Boo, rather I was the character developer for those characters.
It's always fun when we get all the students and graduates together at Animation Mentor. Even though this is an Online Animation School it's so fantastic to hear in the student's words just how personal an experience it is for them. When we started the school that was one BIG area we feared would not work so well; would people make friendships that would last even though they were esentially working from home? You've got to remember this was well before communities like FaceBook existed. Now we know, more than ever, this is a solid way to learn, people DO make friendships, build relationships that last and learn in a way that is absolutely mind blowing! Every day I'm so proud to come to work and be a part of this magic. I can never get enough of the good vibes that people feel and I will continue to push the company forward to being the best place to learn animation on the planet and the best place that the team ever works! This is my personal mission!
Here is a link to an interview I just completed about the exciting and challenging aspects of Online Animation Schools. The picture of me in the interview is rather old and I need to get some new snaps, which leads me to today's post.
SOME THOUGHTS I've made some changes to my look/feel/style/wardrobe over the last 7 months and am super happy with how I look as I feel it reflects who I am, what my style is and the interests I have in life outside of work.
It's always tricky to change one's style as it can reflect in backlash from friends, family and I can say I definitely did/do get those comments.
When I was younger I had a similar experience with my best friend. He changed his style in such a "drastic" way that I didn't know how to handle it and, as a result, I pushed him away. During my transition to Bobby 2.0 (ha ha) This experience came back to me and I realized it was my own insecurities of "losing a great friend" that wound up pushing him away.
I have definitely grown as a result of experiences I've gone through recently but I will always maintain my BOOM no matter what! :) I feel so alive and so fantastic and I just wanted to share from the honest place as that is the place I live and thrive in. Enjoy being you!!!
This is PURE GOLD! So much great stuff in here. I just wrapped up watching it this morning and found myself geeking out! I love how much goodness is in here for free for people to watch and get inspired by. Please pass the link on to folks who you think may enjoy this type of thing! WOOT!
Animation Mentor Volunteers at The Local Food Bank
Today at Animation Mentor the whole company volunteered to help out the local Food Bank. It was great starting the day out with the pitch of just how far their outreach is and the impact they are having not just locally but state wide, too! It was inspiring even to play a small part in something so grand.
We had plenty of fun and shared many great, ridiculous moments together! I love this amazing team who always impress me with how much fun they can have doing just... well, yeah... Anything! Enjoy the pics below!
Victoria, Brittany and I rummaging through the apple bins, with cameo from Mike Mahony in the background!
Michael Steele enjoying the many yummy "apples gone wild." Check out the color on that apple. Ugh!
Lots of fun yummy goo to pick through. Mushed nice in the hands. ha ha!
The whole crew chillin'. Thanks to Rachel Lee and Francis for letting our crazy group bust in and "take over" their facility. It was truly a fantastic experience!
Wow man, this is absolutely amazing. Alli took a big risk doing something this bold and I have to say it paid off nicely. I'm completely impressed and inspired by the work for sure! Congratulations!!!
Trip to Sony Pictures Imageworks for new Animation Mentor Video Lectures
Rachel Ito (AM's Art Director), Michael Dauz (AM's Web Publications Specialist) and myself flew down to LA this weekend to shoot two new classes for the Polishing and Portfolio classes that are new to Animation Mentor. This marks the first of many upcoming classes that will feature real production shots! This is exciting for us as this will really begin to open things up as far as teaching goes, and being able to see real production shots, workflow techiniques, etc that take a shot from concept to the big screen is so absolutely invaluable!
Matthew Munn did the first class in which he went over some great shots he did on Surf's Up! He was full of energy and excitement for this class. We had a blast and we all laughed A LOT!
Joshua Beveridge did the second class where he also went over a shot he did on Surf's Up. Josh has an excitement and enthusiasm for animation that radiates from him! This totally came through in the class and although we had a lot of technical difficulties throughout the day it wound up being absolutely amazing and very memorable for all of us!
I wanted to give a HUGE public thanks to both Michael and Rachel for being rock stars and sticking through two shoots in one day! WOW, that was a lot of work for all of us and they kept up their energy and the results will pay off when these classes air later this year.
I wanted keep the readers of the blog abreast of all the cool things we're doing on a regular basis because it helps everyone see the effort and energy that goes into this crazy place. We're so happy and 2009 is proving to be a fantastic one indeed!
