Animation Mentor is putting the student highlight back into the hands of the students themselves.  We let students create whatever they want – revealing themselves by sharing video, text and anything else they feel is appropriate.  If you are currently an Animation Mentor student and you’d like to participate in this, send an email to newsletter (at) animationmentor.com and we’ll do our best to fit you in!

What Inspires You About The Art Form?
As artists we draw inspiration from many different places.  I appreciate the technology of animation, but much of my inspiration comes from the history behind it and relaying what I love about animation to other people.  Glenn Keane is a huge source of inspiration for me.  He gave a lecture where he stressed that animators need to live within the skin of their characters.  He suggested that as animators we’re not just technicians that move a character from A to B, but rather that we have a responsibility to expose the internal dialogue of a character through emotions and to entertain our audience by bringing them along on a journey that they’re going to relate to.

There are a few feature length animated films that I watch over and over for inspiration.  The Secret of Nimh, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Incredibles, and especially The Iron Giant.  There’s a scene from The Iron Giant that inspires me every time I watch it.  I’m sure you all know the scene I’m talking about…and if you don’t, hopefully I won’t spoil it for you…the Giant thinks his friend Hogarth has died literally in his arms because he wasn’t strong enough to protect him.  Leading up to this scene Hogarth has taught the giant what it means to be alive and have emotions.  The Giant becomes outraged and lashes out with anger!  As an audience we see and relate to the Giant’s pain and grief.  We feel through the character and this completely draws us into the story, into the acting, and we forget that we’re watching a movie.  That is the essence of animation for me. Ever since I saw that shot in the theater I’ve realized the potential animation has, not just as a children’s medium, but as an art form capable of relaying greater emotion to a much broader audience. 

How Has Animation Mentor Affected Your Education?
During a Q&A session, one of my mentors broke down the similarities between 2D and 3D methods.  Something clicked for me right there.  I was finally able to understand how to think of my posing in CG as individual drawings or frames of animation that could be roughed in very quickly and the timing could be fleshed out later in my process.  This is almost identical to how the masters of animation worked throughout the Golden Age.  This workflow has empowered me to use the computer as a tool and I’m no longer confined by its complexity.

One of the first experiences I remember was at a Q&A session where we had an opportunity to have questions answered by guests from a feature film company.  Here from San Jose I had asked a question through our web cam feature. Then someone asked a question from Brazil and then someone from France!  It made me realize that Animation Mentor is truly a global campus with endless boundaries and networking opportunities to meet people throughout the world who we’ll hopefully have the opportunity to work with in the future.

In the summer Animation Mentor threw a BBQ and students from all over the world flew to the Bay Area to meet one another. When we met it was like we totally knew each other because of the communications that we had in our classes. During the summer semester I got to know a classmate from Saskatchewan, Canada in our Body Mechanics class.  His plans to go to Siggraph had fallen through so I invited him out to spend some time here in the Bay Area and make it to the BBQ.  We had a great time and our friendship will last long into our careers.  So many friendships have been built over the last year that would have never come together without Animation Mentor.

If you’re presently an Animation Mentor student, I’d like to encourage you to take advantage of the peer buddy system, and to keep up with the Forum threads.  If you’re not a peer buddy and you can afford the time, I’d suggest becoming one.  Search out and give crits as often as possible to help train your eye to spot problems in your work faster.  There’s always something interesting being talked about in the forum threads.  There are things like links to short films, and current trends and discussions related to the industry.  When I run into technical problems, the forums are usually a fast way to find an answer.  You can do a search to find an answer or ask a question if no answer is available.  Because the forum is archived there is a wealth of knowledge from current students as well as alumni who’ve graduated and moved into the industry.  Most importantly it keeps me working so I can be efficient with my time.  If you leave a crit for someone, take the time to watch their mentor’s crit to see what you might have missed.

If you’re considering a career in animation, I’d recommend starting a reference library with Art-Of books, DVD’s, and anything that will help you analyze movement. 

CREDITS:
Thanks to Laura, my family, Bunny, Courtney, Konstantin, Tim, Samer, Jane, and Don.

Their help and guidance throughout the process of constructing this interview was invaluable!  My appreciation also goes out to all of the staff, my mentors, and my fellow colleagues at Animation Mentor.

Gary Rig supplied by Wayne Gilbert.