Animation Mentor:
What inspired you to learn character animation?

Aaron Gilman:
It took me many years to discover that animation was a synthesis of so many of my passions growing up. During my childhood I pursued acting, but knew I never wanted to be an actor. During my university years I pursued film making but knew I didn't want to become a director. During my early 20s, I experimented with photography and worked in film production but couldn't see a career in either field. It was only after reconnecting with my sister, whom I hadn't seen in 15 years, at a studio in Montreal where she worked as a visual FX producer, that I started to understand what animation was and how it fused together my passion for computers, acting, cinematography and performance. By then I was 26 years old, married, and with very little money or prospects. I took a risk and borrowed the tuition I needed from a bank to put myself through the Vancouver Film School 3D Animation Program. Within three months I knew animation was what I had been looking for. The fact that I was much older than many other students that enroll in animation programs has never bothered me. I have always appreciated the years of life experience I acquired before discovering animation, and how my experiences helped develop my understanding of movement and performance.

Aaron Gilman:
Every step was equally important. There wasn't a single concept, activity, or exercise during my schooling that wasn't critically important to my training as an animator. However, one thing that will always stick out in my mind is the classical training we went through. Drawing had never been my forte, so forcing me to develop my drawing skills while also breaking down the fundamental concepts of key poses, breakdowns, squash and stretch, etc. was an incredibly difficult yet rewarding phase of my education. Sketching lines of action, drawing thumbnails, and attending life drawing courses were very difficult for me. Actually, I think I may have failed my life drawing course, which should give you an idea of how bad my drawing skills were. But learning to break down poses through rough sketching has been an invaluable skill which all started during my schooling.

Aaron Gilman:
I would have never left Tippett Studio. Tippett was the first animation job I got that really opened my eyes to the world of quality animation in a very professional environment. When my wife and I decided to leave and return to Canada, the decision was both impulsive and emotional. We had just had our son, Ezra, and I was working long hours at Tippett and my wife was home alone with our new baby and no social or family network to help her. We thought that getting back home to Canada and being closer to family would solve all of our problems. But in the end we just needed to adjust to being new parents. After the dust had settled, I found myself working in gaming studios back in Montreal and not particularly happy with the type of work I was doing. I think if we could have had greater perspective on our situation at the time, we would have stayed in San Francisco and I would have continued to grow as an animator in such a stimulating environment as Tippett Studio. My time in gaming was great in so far as I met wonderful and talented people, learned new animation software, and explored a whole new pipeline vastly different from film. But in the end I didn't enjoy the process, and I was desperate to get back to feature work.

Aaron Gilman:
I am currently working on a very cool project called Avatar directed by James Cameron. I sold my house in Montreal and moved my family to gorgeous New Zealand about 1½ years ago to work with Weta Digital. Prior to that, I was the animation supervisor on Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D at Meteor Studios in Montreal. Before that, I was an animation director at Ubisoft where I worked for 2½ years supervising a fairly large team of animators on Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas. I was in charge of the look of all key frame animation as well as overseeing the motion capture for the game. Prior to working in games, I spent time at Tippett Studio in California where I was an animator on Matrix Revolutions, Hellboy and Constantine. And finally, before that, I was back in Montreal where I got my start at Meteor Studios as an animator on various Discovery Channel dinosaur projects. As the years went by, I was eventually able to become a lead animator and animation supervisor.

Aaron Gilman:
My favorite character is definitely the Banshee in Avatar. I can't give away too much except to say that it is a really cool flying creature, like a giant bird. I had always wanted to animate flying creatures and working with the Banshee has been a super fun process.

Aaron Gilman:
When Dinosaurs Roamed America. This was my first job out of school. It was a two-hour Discovery Channel special. A lot of the animators on the project had just come off Disney's Dinosaur feature. They moved up to Montreal for six months to help Meteor do the project. It's a very exciting time for me. I was learning enormous amounts every day and was surrounded by animators that had way more experience.

Aaron Gilman:
As sad as it sounds, I never really had a mentor. I have been inspired by great animation. Glen Keane and Chuck Jones come to mind. But I never really had a single individual that I could look to for guidance as I fumbled my way through my early years as an animator. Absorbing the work of other professionals around me with greater experience, and moving from one studio to the next, were the principle ways I learned and grew as an animator. There have been animators I have worked closely with that have inspired me, for example, Don Waller who directed the animation for When Dinosurs Roamed America, my first project out of school. Or Todd Labonte, animation supervisor on Hellboy, who I now work with everyday at Weta. He was a great source of inspiration for me.

Aaron Gilman:
My day always begins with a massive cup of coffee. Then I usually prepare any animations I am working on for dailies, which is probably the most important part of my day as I can clarify any issues I am having on shots with my supervisors, or get new notes from Mr. Cameron explained to me, or get introduced to new shots coming my way. The rest of the day is about hunkering down and animating. Work hours at Weta can be quite long, especially during crunch time. So it isn't unusual for me to animate until about 11 p.m., putting in a solid 15-hour day.

Aaron Gilman:
I love the students' enthusiasm for learning. There is an incredible amount of respect that the students have for each other and the mentors which is a very important aspect of working in any visual FX studio. Helping to teach students how to accept critique maturely, and how to grow from their mistakes in a non-competitive environment is very fulfilling for me. The growth process at Animation Mentor is incredibly self-reflective in that it forces the student to improve themselves with each exercise.

Aaron Gilman:
I love the freedom of travelling around the world doing what I enjoy most. Animation is so much fun and so fulfilling creatively, but combining it with travel and meeting so many different people from all over the world, makes it the greatest job I could ever have.