Animation Mentor:
What inspired you to become an animator?

Dana Boadway:
I was in acting school (Ryerson University in Toronto), and I saw Toy Story in the theater.  I walked out of there with my jaw on the floor thinking, “that… is the BEST… acting gig… EVER!!”  So I immediately looked into ‘how-do-I-get-there-from-here?,’ left acting school, and went to art school!  I found I was going to have to go through an art degree to qualify for a computer animation graduate course at Sheridan College.  It was the best choice I could have made.

Dana Boadway:
My first animation job was doing animation fixes on the Disney series “Rolie Polie Olie.”  The animation for that show was mostly done in France, and when the main production studio in Toronto didn’t have time to send shots back for fixes, I did it for them, in-house. I was one of the only people in the studio who knew Softimage, which is what the French studio used for animating (we did the modeling, shading, rendering, etc in Maya), so that gave me the ‘in’ I needed to move into the animation department.  I was originally hired as a modeler.  Just goes to show you how the best thing to do is get your foot in the door however you can!

Dana Boadway:
I don’t think I would do anything differently.  I found the perfect way to express my passion for acting and movement (I was a dancer for around 18 years as well), and it also satisfies my interest in problem-solving, technical stuff, logic, right and left brain working together, and mass hysteria!!

I wish Animation Mentor existed back then though…

Dana Boadway:
My first in-person, real-life mentor was Glenn McQueen, a supervising animator from Pixar.  What a stand-up guy, and so talented.  He was very generous with his time.  He came to Toronto for his vacation between film productions to visit his parents and stuff, and he spent two weeks of his month off in the classroom with us at Sheridan College, giving us pointers and advice and helping us with our assignments.  I will never forget how much he inspired me, and that’s also part of the reason why I mentor the student volunteers each year at SIGGRAPH, and why I joined Animation Mentor. 

Other than that, to just pick a ‘favorite animator’ would be impossible.  There are SO many amazing animators out there.  I’ve been fortunate enough to work with lots of them!

Dana Boadway:
Hmmm.  That’s a tough question.  I recently did a weasel character for a jeep ad, and he was a blast – he had so much personality.  Very Pepe-Lepew, he did a lot of tango/salsa moves and he tried to be very sexy and manly.  I haven’t even seen the spot finished – it was that recent.  The ad was in Spanish, so I may never see it unless I get the studio to send me a copy!  LoL.  I got to use a lot of physicality and really work up the personality, and we had lots of time to do the work, so the quality was allowed to be very high.  That being said,  I have to say, it was *also* the most frustrating animation job I’ve ever done too, because there was a bit of a language barrier between me and the director, in terms of what he wanted for the dance moves.  I did that shot several different ways before we realized that in the end, the rig was really stopping me from getting what he was looking for – so we had one of the TD’s fix it up for me, and BAM!  …Bob’s my uncle.

I also really enjoyed the chameleons in The Wild, and the koala bear.  They had excellent voice acting – and when the voice acting is good, the shot almost animates itself!  The voices can really guide what you do.

One of the most challenging characters I did was the baseball in Everyone’s Hero… this character had to act and emote with no body, no arms, no legs.  But with Rob Reiner doing the voice, it was great!

Dana Boadway:
I’m loving Animation Mentor!!  I hope I can stick with it for a long time to come.  I feel so satisfied when one of my students has an ‘a-ha’ moment and I’ve helped clear up questions for them, or shown or told them something that excites them.  The interface of Animation Mentor is fantastic.  I love the flexibility of the job too, because it fits in so well with my other freelance work.

Dana Boadway:
My favorite part so far is the live Q&A's. I love talking to the class 'in person'. It's a fun environment.