Jason Martinsen
Click image to enlarge

Animation Mentor:
What inspired you to become an animator?

Jason Martinsen:
My dad is a graphic designer and illustrator and encouraged my interest in art growing up. So I've had a fondness for art as long as I can remember. Both my parents read to us a lot and we didn't have a TV so I think that nurtured our creativity at a young age as well, forcing us to use our imaginations. In grade school I wanted to be a marine biologist and scuba dive all day. But as I began high school I started using my art skills to do or get out of certain projects. When Jurassic Park came out in 93 it completely blew my mind and sent me down my current career path. It was my dream to work on a movie like that. When I graduated high school I looked at a bunch of colleges and eventually chose Sheridan College in Ontario, where I spent four years learning traditional animation. Good ol' pencil and paper.

Jason Martinsen:
I would have been more prepared to not have a job upon graduation. I did pretty well in college and everything seemed to be going great. But a diploma in classical animation in 2002 wasn't that helpful. Traditional 2D animation was pronounced dead around then. It was frustrating to not have any real prospect. I had no money left and was living on an expired student visa in Canada, so there were some stressful days. I wish Animation Mentor had been around back then. I had to teach myself Maya on my own over the summer and I was fortunate to be able to learn just enough to get a job. It was at my first job I really learned how to animate in 3D.

Jason Martinsen:
That's tough. So many cool ones. In video games Daxter was pretty awesome. He's all squash and stretch and scurry. In feature it’s a toss up between Scrat, the Mayor of Whoville, or Vlad. I like working with more stylized characters.

Jason Martinsen:
I was hired in October of 2002 at Naughty Dog, a Sony video game company in Santa Monica CA. I was the in-game character animator responsible for all the animation of Jak and Daxter in Jak II. It was so much fun and I learned fast because I had to do so many different animations.

Jason Martinsen:
Hmmm...in college it was my classmates the most, and also my life drawing teachers, Werner and Jerry. In the working environment Josh Scherr at Naughty Dog was my mentor, and here at Blue Sky, Mike Thurmeier and Galen Chu have been amazing. Also Aaron Hartline, Dave Torres, Juan Carlos Navarro and Hans Dastrup all have taught me a ton. Everyone at Blue Sky is super talented so you learn something new everyday from different people. I just found out yesterday that Melvin Tan really can pitch his voice higher then most 4 year old girls.

Jason Martinsen:
It has been so much fun and unexpectedly, a fantastic learning experience for me. I learn a lot from the students and seeing their mistakes and dealing with the challenges of teaching each student. It’s an amazing program that I wish I had had when I was in school. I've taught classes 1-3 now and have enjoyed them all. I’d like to give a shout out to all my students!

Jason Martinsen:
Live Q&A is the most fun. Just talking to everyone is great. I love talking to a student who is on the other side of the world! It’s a great way to make new friends.