Featured Mentor: Darrell Johnson
Animation Mentor:
Who would you consider your mentor to be in animation?
Darrell Johnson:
The only official mentor I had was after I was already working at Disney. Jason Ryan was my mentor during my transition from assistant animator to animator for about 3 months. Most of the people I've learned from has been from a more indirect method...just by studying and learning from what they've done, looking at animation from folks on the internet, as well as a lot of careful self-analysis.
Animation Mentor:
Who is your favorite character that you've animated and why?
Darrell Johnson:
I don't know if I have a favorite character, but I really enjoyed my time on Treasure Planet working on the Silver mechanical arm crew. It was so educational being able to look at the traditional drawings that Glen and his crew did...studying the timing charts and their spacing and timing, and try to interpret that into the computer.
Animation Mentor:
What was your first animation job?
Darrell Johnson:
My first job doing character animation was when I was at Sierra On-Line on S.W.A.T. 2. I was in charge of most all the character animation for that game. The animation consisted of things like runs, walks, shooting, dying, and a whole host of other actions that the characters needed. The final renders for these were about 12 pixels high or so, rendered from 8 different directions, usually at about 6 frames per second or so. It helped me to learn the basics though.
Animation Mentor:
How has the Animation Mentor experience been for you so far?
Darrell Johnson:
It's been great so far! It's very inspiring to see the progress of the students, and see something that they have been struggling with click into place. I always find myself wishing that there was something like this when I was starting out... I would have done it in a heartbeat.
Who would you consider your mentor to be in animation?
Darrell Johnson:
The only official mentor I had was after I was already working at Disney. Jason Ryan was my mentor during my transition from assistant animator to animator for about 3 months. Most of the people I've learned from has been from a more indirect method...just by studying and learning from what they've done, looking at animation from folks on the internet, as well as a lot of careful self-analysis.
Animation Mentor:
Who is your favorite character that you've animated and why?
Darrell Johnson:
I don't know if I have a favorite character, but I really enjoyed my time on Treasure Planet working on the Silver mechanical arm crew. It was so educational being able to look at the traditional drawings that Glen and his crew did...studying the timing charts and their spacing and timing, and try to interpret that into the computer.
Animation Mentor:
What was your first animation job?
Darrell Johnson:
My first job doing character animation was when I was at Sierra On-Line on S.W.A.T. 2. I was in charge of most all the character animation for that game. The animation consisted of things like runs, walks, shooting, dying, and a whole host of other actions that the characters needed. The final renders for these were about 12 pixels high or so, rendered from 8 different directions, usually at about 6 frames per second or so. It helped me to learn the basics though.
Animation Mentor:
How has the Animation Mentor experience been for you so far?
Darrell Johnson:
It's been great so far! It's very inspiring to see the progress of the students, and see something that they have been struggling with click into place. I always find myself wishing that there was something like this when I was starting out... I would have done it in a heartbeat.