The other day I got an email from some GA Tech students looking to do an interview for one of their classes. This is actually the third time I’ve been asked to do this for some students, so I figured for the pure heck of it, I’d post my responses to their questions since others may have questions that are similar.
1. What is the daily workload like?
I’m a bit of a workaholic, so I do animation 2 ways…at work (webMD), and at home. I don’t always get to do animation work at WebMD, but when I do, the workload is pretty intense. In fact, right now I’m doing something that I would normally get about 4 weeks to do and I’m doing it in 5-6 days. This isn’t the norm, but it gives an idea of how crazy it can get. My workload at home when I do freelance is pretty heavy too since I have a few clients, but it’s on my schedule so I can make it what I need it to be. I work nights and weekends to get projects done.
2. Do you work in a team or is your job more individual work?
The norm would be to work in a team, and I usually have at least 1 or 2 other people helping me out on things. Animation is a team effort and is comprised of so many things that it’s very difficult to do anything on your own. That said, I’m the only animator at WebMD, so I tend to have to wear the many hats it requires. I still work with a team of video producers and I can hand of tasks such as background design and character rig creation as I need to, but the storyboards, character designs, animatic, and animation are all on me.
3. What type of software do you use?
My main software are flash and after effects. I usually use this as a combination with photoshop and illustrator and once and a while, final cut pro. Flash allows for traditional hand drawn animation if you have the proper tools, and it’s also great for symbol based animation. After effects is great for compositing, motion graphics and special effects when things are done.
4. What is your favorite animated movie and why?
This is a tough one! I have soooooo many movies I love that to pick a favorite will be really hard. I’ll limit it to one 2D and one 3D animated movie.
2D, I’ll have to say Akira. It’s a Japanese movie that was made in the 80′s and can easily still hold up to even the most advanced films today. When I was in high school, I used to draw cartoons all the time and I had started going through my “anime phase” since it was all so new to me. My Art teacher saw my sketchbook and recommended I watch Akira so I borrowed it from a friend. To say my jaw was on the floor is no exaggeration. It’s a very serious, very dark action packed bloody animated movie, and up until then I had seen nothing like it. I had no idea you could make things like that by animating, and it’s when I decided I was going to be an animator myself.
As for 3D, I’ll just say anything by Pixar, especially Up, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and Wall-e. Pixar has it down. They know how to make a love story happen between 2 robots that can say nothing other then each others names. They can make you cry within 10 minutes of Up with not one word spoken as you watch Carl go through his life and see their love, heartbreak and his wife’s death. And, they can make you see your family while watching a family of superheroes save the world. That’s not easy, and they do it brilliantly.
5. Is it important to have a background in art in order to be a good animator?
Yes, it’s VERY important. When I was in college, there were a lot of kids that couldn’t draw, but figured “I’m going to be a 3D animator, so it doesn’t matter anyway”. They would quickly learn that unless they had the basic understanding of art theories and how t apply them, it wasn’t going to work. They could still use the software, but their stuff came off as lifeless, awkward or just plain bad. Many didn’t have the love and patience for the creation process, and would rush through it to see a finished product. Patience is just as important to a background in art when you’re talking about animation because even if you have great knowledge of everything else…if you don’t have the patience to create it frame by frame, drawing by drawing or pose by pose, it won’t work.
6. What is the hardest part of your job?
Dealing with people who don’t understand how long it takes to do this kind of work, haha. I did an animation for WebMD back in June called “How to save a knocked out tooth”. They came to me late in the game about it, and then asked me how long it would take to do it all. When I said 6 weeks, they just said “well, we have 4.” so I ended up working about 60 hours a week to get it done. Luckily I was still a contractor then so I got paid overtime.
7. What is your favorite part of your job?
Creating whole worlds from nothing. It’s incredibly exhilarating to have someone hand you a script of black text on white paper and then come back with them a whole world of characters interacting and living lives that before hand, didn’t exist. It’s different that making a movie because the actors are real people and most of the time are filmed in real places that may be called other places (like the lord of the rings being in New Zealand but being called Middle Earth). Animation literally creates everything from nothing. All we use that’s real is voices from other people. Those characters, worlds and emotions didn’t exist before we made them.
8. Where do you see animation headed in the next 10 years?
Animation is constantly evolving thanks to the people that love it. People like John Lassiter over at Pixar are constantly pushing the envelope on what 3D can do. Disney who once turned it’s back on 2D animation, is now embracing it again. Stop motion has been making a comeback through Ardman, and Laika studios as well as shows like Robot Chicken. It’s an exciting time to be in animation, even though the economy is holding so many jobs and brilliant people back. I can’t say what will happen in the next 10 years, but I can say it will keep evolving and what happens next will surely be nothing short of incredible. Even if the average movie-goer doesn’t notice 🙂
9. Do you have any advice for students who want to go into the animation industry?
Oh, where to begin haha! I will say this. Animation is not for the feint of heart. It’s for people who love to work incredibly hard and who enjoy the process as much as the end result. It’s for people with patience (for doing the work and for dealing with clueless clients!) and for innovative thinkers and incredibly hard workers. The pay is usually low, and the jobs are hard to find especially in the current economy. Heck, I had to create my own. I was hired at WebMD as a web designer and made them see what I can do in animation. I ended up creating a role for myself that had never been there before and they didn’t even realize they needed. The industry is discouraging, it’s under-appreciated, but the people you’ll meet are incredible. If this is the path for you, you will never want to do anything else.
Also, even though most of what you will learn will be in the field, go to a good school. The connections you will make there are some of the most important things you can have. I have several classmates that I work with when I need certain things done or they need a 2D animator or we have a common interest in something and co-pilot something together. The better schools also have the better professors. I learned to animate from 2 guys that worked at Disney and while I’m nowhere near as good as the people that work there, I have a much higher level understanding of how things should move than some people. I originally went to a small college that was close to my home in NY, and after seeing how they taught, I transferred to SCAD. The difference it made was incredible. Seeing the name SCAD on my resume also helps to get people to even look at my demo reel because most times it’s hard to make it even that far.