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
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!
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!
This response was drafted internally here and sent out to folks who were worried about the state of the global economy and how that fared for the entertainment industry. Please, if you are interested, take the time to read this very informative and positive outlook. Even though it was written for Animation Mentor students I think anyone in the animation industry and students at other schools will be able to take comfort in these words. Enjoy!
Like you, we’ve been hearing the scary news about the economic downturn and how it is impacting financial markets across the globe.
Some of you have asked us how this is impacting the animation industry and wondered whether or not there will be any jobs available when you graduate.
While we can’t predict the future, there are certain facts that we do know.
1. We have an excellent relationship with the animation industry; film, television, advertising, gaming, and more. 2. We are still receiving requests from studios all around the world for well educated, character animators. 3. There are over 25 games and movies scheduled to be released in 2009 and 39 in 2010 from U.S. based companies alone. This does not include television or advertising. 4. Our alumni enjoy a 78% placement rate. That’s one of the highest in the industry. And we continue to have a department dedicated to creating relationships with new studios to increase that number.
So we feel, the answer is YES – there will be jobs. And now is a great time to get an education and ride out a year of slow growth while the rest of the economy gets back on track.
Now for some Fun Facts that Should Make your Day:
1) According to an October report, titled World Economic Outlook, created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an international organization of 195 member countries established to promote international monetary cooperation, stability and economic growth, we are experiencing a slow down in growth from 5% in 2007, to 3.9% in 2008 and 3% in 2009. Although financial and real estate markets have been hard hit, the balance sheets of non-financial companies in the US and Western Europe look to be a source of resilience for the economy. There is an anticipated recovery of the economy in late 2009.
2) According to an article called Is Your Job Recession Proof? on CareerBuilder.com, employers are still hiring and certain industries not only survive, but thrive in hard times. In fact 32% of those surveyed plan to continue adding staff.
3) Even better news for future animators: the two main industries we work in are virtually recession proof: Gaming and Movies.
4) The movie industry has historically been recession-proof because even during bad times people need entertainment. They still date, spend time with family and friends, and movies at an average price of $7 per ticket are an outstanding entertainment value. After the stock market crash of 1929, attendance levels at movies grew by 58%.
According to John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners in America, in a recent interview in these pages, the numbers don’t lie. “In the past four decades there have been seven recession years in this country, and the box office has climbed strongly in five of those years,” he said. The strongest of those years was the most recent, in 2001, when US box office receipts rose by $650 million. (Source: The Times, October 16, How Will the Recession Affect Film?)
5) Just like movies, games also provide an inexpensive entertainment experience. According to an October 16 article in Reuters, titled Video Game Sales Still Strong, Despite Economic Tough Times, the video game industry is thriving.
Professor of media and technology at NYU Stern, Al Lieberman said although luxuries are often the first to go during tough economic times, the video gaming industry continues to do well.
“There have been many recessions before and there are certain things, certain elements and sections, sectors of the economy that survive straight through and electronic games is one of those," said Lieberman.
Dan Ackerman of CNET.COM said people are turning to video games for light relief, like they turned to movies, during the Great Depression. "They say that video games are essentially a recession-proof product, kind of like movies were during the Great Depression where people still wanted to be entertained," Ackerman told Reuters.
The industry made 10 billion dollars (USD) last year, and is expected to make 14 billion annually by the year 2012.
Although there is plenty of bad news to be heard about certain industries, we feel the future of entertainment and gaming continues to be bright. We encourage you to stay focused on your studies and concentrate on becoming the best animator you can be. There will continue to be a demand for great animators as these two recession-proof industries continue to grow.
Best regards and good luck with your studies!
If you have any further questions or concerns we encourage you to contact your student care representative.
Today Ed Catmull came to visit Animation Mentor! It was so awesome and I'm still flying high. While I was at Pixar, Carlos and I pitched the idea to Ed right when we started to make sure it was not a conflict of interest and he gave us his blessing. We then showed it to him two more times along the way. Once just before I decided to leave.
Now that guy has a lot going on in life and he took time out to come check out where we've gone with it and it was so fun to show him. We talked, laughed and explained the journey and how it touches people's lives and doesn't just make them better animators but better people, too!
At the end he gave us a hug and told us that he never imagined we'd take it to this level and gave us some amazing comments and words of wisdom.
I will remember this day as a milestone in my life to remember that we're doing this "right" at AM and that it's fine to build a company from the heart first. Starting this company with my two best friends on the planet, although some said was a "bad idea" turned out to be the best thing EVER! The whole AM staff are so amazing and they believe in this as much as we do and that's the BEST FEELING! Dream big in life! Never let anyone tell you that you can't do it. You can!
Ps. Thanks to Fernando Herrera for being online for my AMiM chat! You rock!
Remi Tjon Ajong from Amsterdam and Animation Mentor graduate just released this great short! I got a PM from him on the Alumni site and I did a little interview with him, posted below! I hope you all enjoy as I think this is great, look, feel and the animation is excellent. Way to go Remi!
INTERVIEW BELOW:
1. Q: This is great stuff! What is it for and how many people worked on it (what did you do on it)?
RTA: Thank you very much!!! Well I recently graduated from Animation Mentor, but looking at my short, there's so much I want to "fix" on it that I felt I needed to do something else to re energize! My pal Niels had this design and idea floating on his computer somewhere and thought it would be great if I animated it! And so did I :) So basically it's just the two of us. Niels did all the design and technical stuff, and I did the animation and sound design.
2. Q: What was the inspiration for this piece?
RTA: For me the inspiration came from the design and basic concept of the original idea! When I saw the character design for the first time I knew Immediately how i wanted to make him act I was lucky that Niels allowed me to make the animation my own! This way I could come up with the timing and acting.
3. Q: Are we going to see more of this character or not now that it's splattered on the screen? :)
RTA: Haha, that's a question we've asked ourselves as well ... We thought about keeping him alive... but i think we can reincarnate him if we want to haha!
4. Q: What's next for you?
RTA: Well, this month I am pretty busy with a children's series for the dutch Jetix. They have asked me to direct it, it's a combination of live action and flash animation! (eleven songs in one month! I'll never show it hahaha!!) After that hopefully finish my AM short, and come up with a new one. WORLD DOMINATION! or just happy animating.. I can never decide...
-End
Great work my man. Keep it up and keep us inspired. This is really fantastic and fresh to see!!!
Okay, so I talked to a few other AMers who were staying at the same hotel and we all had the same "56k" slow internet experience. Eeek! Sorry the updates were not as often and vivid with photos as I would have liked. I thought I lost my camera at the Birds of a Feather event, but Michael Dauz grabbed it. Sweet. I'll pick it up on Monday so, for now, no pics.
I just got back home and I'm filled with inspiration and good vibes! I had such a great time with everyone. It was so fun getting to get to know so many of you. There are so many highlights to the whole event.
Animation wise, the Frank and Ollie tribute we hosted was a MASSIVE highlight for me. There were 600+ people who attened (or so they told me) and I think everyone left that event with crazy inspiration!
DISCLAIMER: If you did not attend Siggraphh the below comments may not make sense to you.
MEMORABLE "NON-ANIMATION" MOMENTS: 1. The big group walking "in a straight line" at the Animation Mentor Industry Party. 2. Dancing like maniacs at the Blur party. AMer's know how to dance and have fun! NO DOUBT! 3. Mel's diner at 4am: singing Beatles songs, pancakes, meat earings (ha, ha!, sorry Alexiss) 4. Hanging out at the Sheraton lobby in the wee hours on the couches talking about life with AMers! 5. Eduardo, I will NEVER forget your name! 6. "Teresa, my one and only blogger friend!"
Hopefully this will get the words flowing in the comments section. I'm inspired by all of you and the friendships you share with us and with each other! This week has been a MASSIVE battery recharge!
I had a ton of cool images to upload today but the connection at the hotel is literally 56k. It's so slow I had to kill it after it was taking 15 minutes to upload an image. Eeek! Plus I was out SUPER late and have to take off in 5 minutes for day 3!
Yesterday was awesome. Each year Siggraph gets better and better. Here were some of my highlights:
2. The Animation Mentor Industry party. Several hundred AM students, mentors and guests gathered at the Elevate Lounge for an AWESOME party! We were excited to have tons of recruiters and the most mentors in one place at one time that I can ever remember! There was an awesome energy going on and the only bad thing is that it ended too early. 12:30 they were kicking us out and we were all ready to dance all night long. :( No worries. It was so great seeing some of the first ever students at Animation Mentor and we had the AM DreamWorks posse there, too. It's so exciting to see how many people are professionals now. It's like seeing your babies grow up. :)
Lots more but I've got to run! I'll try to get some photos in here later. I'll definitely repost pictures when I return home. Let Day 3 officially begin!
[This picture shows some of the schools gathered in a room to review each others top student work at DreamWorks Animation Studios in Glendale]
I flew in to Los Angeles last night. I started the day bright and early at DreamWorks Animation Studios in Glendale. I had never been there before. It is absolutely a gorgeous place to work!
Animation Mentor was amongst about 15 – 20 other schools for the DreamWorks educators symposium. The highlight was when they showed 2 minutes of each schools work for 2008. I had never seen our student’s work juxtaposed against all the other top art and animation schools and I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how well our work stood out. It hit me hard that we are doing things right and the results definitely show in the work our students are doing. It was a great way to start Siggraph!
There are a few points that I took away about demo reels:
1. Demo Reels are too long. 2 minutes maximum is plenty. They don't want to see EVERYTHING you've ever done. They only want to see the best and 2 minutes is more than plenty as any more than this and it just starts to drag.
2. Students need to specialize more. At Animation Mentor we've known this for a long time and when we started AM people thought we were crazy. The industry at large, not just the big studios, are requiring more specialization in one or two areas. Don't try to do everything otherwise you will not shine in any one area. If animation is what you want to do then ANIMATE really well and have someone else do the model/rig for you. It was awesome to hear this from theme carried through and supported by ALL of the schools!
3. Simon Otto, animation supervisor at DreamWorks explained he likes to see a maturity in students work. After many questions he explained that maturity meant animation that feels real and sincere. Not gimicky animation like overdone anticipations and characters scratching their heads to show they are thinking. I'm happy to say that at Animation Mentor we strive to teach the mature side of animation. The best way we've found to do this is by having students choose a variety of ideas and work with their mentor to focus it down to the best idea. From there the mentor helps the student really refine it into something special!
I hope this tips are useful for you guys.
Here’s a sneak peek of our booth at Siggraph this year! It rocks! We have an adventure theme going this year. Even though the show is not open yet I was able to sneak onto the floor to snap this picture of our booth! This picture does not do it justice. The Animation Mentor crew are so awesome and have really outdone themselves this year. It’s so cool and we have a lot of cool events happening at the booth this year!
Part of the adventure them is a case displaying “artifacts.” Among the artifacts is a “Mummified Tailor!” How cool is that. Our genius Art Director came up with this and it’s so fun. I love seeing the level of quality and attention to detail that goes in to every little thing that is in the booth. There’s tons of “Easter Eggs” to see in the booth!
After I got to check out the booth I had to rush over to our hotel where the Animation Mentor crew got together for a staff dinner to gear up for the next few days of insanity. I love our team and everyone is pumped and rarin’ to have fun! It’s always nice to get out of the office and simply have fun with the team.
I snapped this candid moment of the crew in mid-joke! I love the energy of the team and am so completely pumped for the next few days as I know we’re all going to have a blast. More to come, soon! Enjoy and I hope to see some of you at Siggraph soon!
Tomorrow we unveil the new Summer Student Showcase reel which will come online next Monday for the world to see!!!
4th Graduation at Animation Mentor a HUGE Success!
This year we held the graduation outside at a new location in Berkeley. It was fantastic! The weather was great and the energy was SUPER high. The graduates were bubbling with enthusiasm and it kept the mood on the highest note!
There are so many details that go into an event like this and I have to thank Molly our super NINJA event coordinator for making this one of the most memorable graduations we've done at Animation Mentor yet! And leading the fantastic team of Animation Mentor staff! This was one of the coolest yet!
Chris Derochie and Luci Napier hang out backstage with one of the Mentor Choice awards! This year we had a host of mentors present awards and it was so great! It was super touching for them to see their students glowing eyes and enthusiasm. They all explained it was a tremendous experience for them too as it really made the impact of what they are doing as mentors so much more powerful to them! COOL!
Glen McIntosh was our special guest speaker and he did an excellent job inparting his words of wisdom to the 7th and 8th graduating classes of Animation Mentor! Thanks Glen!
We took all the mentors to lunch before the graduation which was great to chill out a bit and exchange stories about their experiences at Animation Mentor as well as some cool inside scoop on what's going on in the CG world!
Here's a snap of Shawn, Carlos and I at the graduation event! WOO HOO, it was so great, we all spoke from the heart and it made the experience one of the most memorable graduations for me yet.
At the end it was so much fun as the graduates put together a video of them all saying, "Thank you" to us in their own words and different languages. It was so touching. Shawn, Carlos and I thought we'd get through a graduation without shedding tears, but when this went on it really hit us again at how many lives this place changes and even though the 3 of us came up with the idea and got it rolling, we owe the success all the many people who make it so great; The Staff, them Mentors and the Students. Honestly, I'm in awe of what we are doing here and I'm proud to be a part of it!
It was awesome hanging out with the graduates and getting to meet everyone and hear their fanstic stories of the journey they've been on to get to this point. Meeting the spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends and families is so outstanding. I feel a close connection to each one of our graduates in so many ways. I told many of them that these events are equally as much for us as they are for them. It keeps up in check on what we're doing and where we're going!
After the graduation we had dinner with Robin Linn from Sony Imageworks. It was great! We were able to finalize some of the details of a fantastic addition to Animation Mentor with Sony IPAX which we will be announcing at Siggraph. I met Robin Linn in Siggraph about four years ago which was my introduction to the cool things they have been doing at Sony and in particular with IPAX. Robin has been a big instigator in fostering the relationship between Animation Mentor and Sony and we're excited to be growing that relationship to the next level! WOO HOO!!!!
See you guys at Siggraph soon! I'm off to the airport now. Expect daily updates with images. This time I'm bringing my battery recharger so I don't have an excuse. :)
Animation Mentor: An Alumni's Journey into the Industry
I love getting emails like this one. I wanted to share this with you guys because I thought it was a great story about Arne’s journey into the industry and what happened. It’s an exciting tale and one I think a lot of people could learn from. We’re so proud of Arne and when we go see Hellboy in the theatres we’ll all be cheering when your name comes up! WOO HOO!!!
Hi guys!
[Arne here], yup, it is the Norwegian dude again.
As this was my first real studio job I really didn't quite know what to expect, if I would be able to keep up (as I started at the time of crunch) or if I would be way over my head. Actually I would say it worked out perfectly, and that Animation Mentor was the perfect preparation for the real world of production. Here's how it worked out:
During the show I got some very demanding shots, which surprised me as I really was the "newbie" after all (and the only AM alumni). My very first shot was a 500 frames long shot featuring about 35 pixie characters I all had to animate individually... Talk about shock! I had only animated 2 characters in a shot at the most earlier. Lol! I had no animatics or storyboards to work from, and was given carte blanche to do whatever I wanted with the scene, based on a short brief by Guillermo del Toro. All my previous AM classes on staging a shot really helped me getting through that one. And 6 weeks later the shot was done and approved by Guillermo. That was an exciting moment! My first shot done! Who-hoo!
Later on the show I was given what I would consider to be more senior animator shots. Full-on action hero shots with huge robots fighting and stabbing head-on with Hellboy. Everything you learned me about weight came to good use in those. And this wasn't just background characters, but full-screen primary characters in the climax of the movie! I just felt so incredibly lucky.
A funny story is that the first robot action shot I worked on got approved the first time Guillermo saw it. First pass. Done! I was told this was one of only two shots in the entire movie Guillermo had approved on first pass, as he normally sees at least 5-10 versions of a shot until he's happy. So I was teased by the other animators and was nick-named "First Pass Arne" after that... Lol! Beginners luck I call it.
We were about 25 animators finishing about 800 shots of animation in the movie (I did about 5 myself and worked on 5 with others).The film looks awesome and I think you'll love it when it opens in the US in July!
As I had no character animation experience before Animation Mentor, I'd say this is also a great testament to [the program] - It works! And it works incredibly well! I possibly couldn't have been better prepared in any other way. When I got there, I pretty easily got into the workflow and pipeline, getting crit's from the supervisors felt familiar and was like being given feedback from the mentors at Animation Mentor. And the terminology used by sup's and others was familiar as I had heard it all so often during my time at Animation Mentor.
Both my supervisors and colleagues thought I had worked in features before, and that was the best feedback and testament I possibly could have gotten.
You guys really did a great job putting Animation Mentor together the way you did! And I owe you more beer than I can afford... lol!
Thank you!
All the best, Arne :-)
PS! Enclosed is a pic of "da man" Guillermo del Toro and me, taken the day before I left London. [See Image in blog post, above]
"… i thought i was crazy since i started all i dream is to work in big studio like Pixar or ILM and everyday i come to work people are cynic and sad, and me always happy to work in a company where i always wanted to work, but people always look at me like why are you so happy ... or stop to be so optimistic, life is harder than you think, or stop dreaming you will never achieve that, seriously this is so good to hear that i'm not the wrong one, and that people have to be optimistic and stop to complain about their life but start to move and change what they don't like and not drown the people surrounding them." - Samy aka Oddjob
In response to “Oddjob’s” reply to my “what is your potential” post I wanted to elaborate on this. I will tell you that the industry is definitely a tough place and many people are indeed jaded. However, I don’t think this is limited in any way to just the animation industry, nor do I think you have to become jaded to be a great animator or to “make it” in this industry.
My wife often tells me that I’m a magnet for “negative people.” Ha, ha! It’s funny but somewhat true. (If you haven’t read my “what is your potential” post that will give you some context) A lot of people can not deal with positive energy so they try to crush your spirit and I’ve had so many tough times dealing with this issue. At one point in my life I actually tried to change this part of me due to peer pressure and I can tell you a big part of me died. After much struggle and conflict in my core being I had to really build this part of me back up and I can honestly say that this is me; “I’m genuinely happy! I’m a positive person, so what!? Take it or leave it!”
Positive energy CAN throw people off. It can come off as “too loud,” or “obnoxious.” I think professionally you do have to keep yourself “in check,” but know who you are and never lose who you are at your core. You can be positive and energetic without being loud and jumping on tables. But, the cool part is, if you do want to jump on tables just close your office door and do it!
It’s important to be aware of the overall energy of the group/team and that took me some time to figure out. Ultimately I will tell you that there are GREAT studios out there where your enthusiasm will be admired and encouraged and many that will not take to it. You’ll have to find a match that works for you as this is key to being fulfilled as a person. There’s no worse thing than continually being crushed for who you are. You NEVER want to lose who you are, no matter what! No matter HOW cool the job is.
Ps. Note that no one is "wrong" in who they are. They just are who THEY are. Please see my post below about "Role Models" for more info on the only thing you are in control of in life (yourself).
Wow, we're so proud to know that we had 22 graduates and former students from Animation Mentor work on Fox/Blue Sky's latest feature animated film, "Horton Hears a Who." 22? Yes, 22 from Animation Mentor!!!!
For more information and full list of names click on over to Carlos Baena's Blog! It's in his news section dated March 21st. Enjoy and CONGRATS!
I made a visit to the PDI DreamWorks campus in Redwood City on Friday, 11/16/07. It was an outreach visit from Animation Mentor to DreamWorks and it went VERY well. I met primarily with Marilyn Friedman (head of outreach) and she organized a lunch with Melanie Cordan, Cassidy Curtis and Jason Schliefer. All good friends of mine and people I respect very much, not to mention Mentors at AM :)
It was great having lunch and sharing great stories. Overall I'm super happy with the visit and am pleased that DreamWorks is ecstatic with the Animation Mentor hires they've made; 5 to date!.
The office is great, the environment is super fun and creative. Breakfast and Lunches are free! and the food was amazing. What I liked about this is that it really encourages everyone to be together at lunch time. The cafeteria was packed and people were enjoying themselves completely. I can see that they care VERY much about the work environment and about keeping the talent level super high. They've gone to great lengths to make it possible to run a seamless production in both Glendale and Redwood City and I'm continually impressed with the professional and fun balance I've had in my dealings with them. They get a HUGE A+ in my book!
I wanted to take a few moments to write about something I get asked quite often and that is, “Do you miss animating,” “Do you regret leaving Pixar?” or “Do you plan to go back to Pixar?”
Leaving Pixar was not a tough decision for me. I was there for 7 years and worked on 5 amazing feature films. I saw the company go from a relatively small shop to a large, well establish animation studio. I have been and always will be impressed with the way they keep the company so alive and so exciting. I’ve done my best to infuse Animation Mentor with the qualities that I liked most about Pixar; namely the atmosphere being fun, nobody looking over your shoulder, allowing people to make mistakes and not being too hard when they make them, as well as a philosophy that I’ve come to call “inspired people create inspired results.”
It’s a fantastic feeling to see your name in the credits of a film and know that this will be there forever. It’s even cooler to work with an amazing team on something you believe in and know will be enjoyed by millions of people around the world.
However, my Pixar experience was not all smiles and monkey’s in the hallways. It has its clicks and difficult people to deal with. By-and-large I feel proud of the work I did there and wouldn’t change much about my overall experience.
On Finding Nemo I knew I was getting antsy and wanted to grow, but there were so many amazing people in line in front of me for the “high-level” positions, so I was trying to take a different route. I asked my animation supervisor if it would be okay for me to make a video documentary of what it was really like to be an animator at Pixar to be released with the Nemo DVD. This came about because Monster’s Inc. was such a special film to work on but the DVD extras didn’t have much about animation at all. In fact it had a monkey running around the studio, which I guess was good for kids. Many of us were upset because we wanted it to be something more.
I wanted to be able to help give back some nuggets of animation knowledge to the world. I even explained that I did not necessarily want to be in the video, but rather just be in charge of shooting and editing it together and that I would do it on my own time and for free. I was denied as Leslie Iwerk’s was doing a documentary about Pixar at the time. I’m happy to see that she did a great job with the Mark Walsh piece on the Nemo DVD. I was happy to see that there was something on that DVD that would be able to inspire people to want to become animators and a little about the magic and struggle behind it all.
Instead of getting frustrated and stopping my pursuit I decided to direct my energies towards teaching. Around that time Shawn Kelly asked me to co-teach with him at AAU. In doing it I found my calling. My calling is a marriage between animation and education. I love them both so much and seeing someone learn and “get it” is huge. No joke. It’s more magical to me that creating a great shot or having my name in the credits. It’s not that I do not love animation; it’s just that I feel so much life in seeing someone’s dreams come true and seeing their life changed forever.
Almost every single day I get an email thanking us for creating Animation Mentor. A school who really does care very much about quality in what we are doing. It is not perfect, nor will it ever be, but we are constantly doing what we can to make it truly an amazing place to learn and fulfill dreams and spread animation knowledge around the world.
It does shock people, but I do not animate anymore and for that reason I have decided that I do not feel comfortable giving outside talks about animation. I don’t want to be false in this way as I’m not as in touch with it as people who do it regularly. I feel that I’d rather leave the teaching up to our amazing mentors and co-founders who animate at their jobs day-in-and-day-out. They are much more in touch with it and will be better equip to teach people what they really need to know right now.
My job as the CEO of Animation Mentor is truly to make it an industry school and make it the best school for animators in the world. To make sure that what we are teaching is relevant to what the industry needs and that our graduates are coming out with solid skills and an inspired attitude. This is an art in and of itself. I pride myself now more on learning how people learn, the tools they need to learn, the environment they need to learn in and that it all makes sense and is rewarding to them all; mentors, students and our staff. We have a long way to go, but we will continue to push forward and will never get comfortable as we always want to keep it fresh and exciting.
Animation Mentor is a different kind of company and it’s something that challenges me on many levels. I am truly AWE inspired by the team of people behind Animation Mentor who put so much passion and energy into it; and leading them is an honor for me. For this reason I do not ever question leaving Pixar, nor do I have any plans to go back. Starting Animation Mentor and marrying my wife are the two things in life I have no regrets about at all. Life is awesome and I’m so proud of the choices I’ve made.
I hope this make sense and gives some of you an understanding about how I feel on this subject.
Jim Brown is an amazing animator at Tippett Studio. He wanted to animate Bishop (One of the AM characters) as a test on his own for fun. The whole time he worked on it he was so excited and emailed me about it. When he was done he came over to the HQ and showed it so he could see our reactions to it. Althought he did this several months ago it just went up on youtube. Check it out as it's pretty darn amazing. Great animation and amazing camera work, too! Nice.
Dan Jeup is an amazing story artist at Pixar Animation Studios. He recently pubished this amazing article about being mentored by Eric Larson. Eric Larson was one of Disney's "9 old men" and was the last of the "old men" to be at Disney. Eric stuck around the Disney studios mentoring the newer talent so that he could help pass on the knowledge the the "9 old men" all learned through the years of making such amazing animated films. This article is a great read and is loaded with excellent tips that still hold VERY true today. Thanks to Flip Animation for putting this together. Enjoy the read:
Okay, I may be a tad biased but I think Animation Mentor has the most amazing student body on the planet! Seriously! I love them all like crazy and have been hearing so many amazing success stories from them and the support they have for each other is truly outstanding.
I've been pretty deep in job placement duties lately as I'm happy to say the industry is very strong. We have now brought on a Career Services manager, Bridget Haley and she is rockin'. I've been helping her out with placements and training. We track our placement numbers as the Board of Education requires that we do so and I'm extremely proud of where we are at which I will reveal soon in a post.
I caught up with Mike Stern "Sternio," AM graduate as he just wrapped up on "The Bee Movie." He sent me this picture of him and, YES, Jerry Seinfeld!!! How cool is that!!! Wow, Jerry is so amazing and cared enough to be deeply invloved with the whole process including animation dailies! Mike had a great experience working on the film and continues to be rocking out at DreamWorks. We could not be more proud of him!
I got a chance to hook up with Stephen Melagrano as he was finishing up his internship at Pixar! He said the whole experience was amazing and the experience he gained there will definitely help catapult him into something amazing!
There are so many success stories like this that it makes every day so special. I wanted to be sure to spread some of these good vibes out to the readers here so you can get inspired and excited about the journey you are on as animators!
I have heard from some that they fear there are "not enough jobs" out there. I have to say that animation is growing and not just in the U.S. but world wide. Not everyone will go and work at Pixar, but it is important to believe in yourself and know that you will be successful. It is a "leap of faith" you have to make, but honestly, if anyone wants it they will get it. Work hard, practice and support each other and you WILL be successful.
ps. Stay tuned for a blog overhaul soon. It's coming VERY soon!
