I was going to do a write up of the Richard Williams lecture/presentation that the local ASIFA chapter put on, but this post on their blog pretty much covers everything I was going to write:

http://cablecartoon.blogsome.com/2008/11/06/thanks-again-mr-williams/

It was a bit crowded/stuffy/hot in the theater, and I’m kicking myself for not prepping questions in advance, but overall a fun time was had by all. I’m looking forward to the Eric Goldberg event that will be happening next month.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly, but the possibility for chaos and site downtime exists.

Wow, if you thought the previous two posts were long…
There was a lot crammed into this event, which I believe was billed as a panel discussion but really was more of a presentation about the founding of a particular animation studio. Some of my notes got a bit jumbled, as the information was coming fast and furious, but I think I’ve gotten the meat of it down in this post.

The studio in question is currently called Lightstream Animation. Until recently it was known as Blu Arc, but, as I also discovered when working at various dot coms, legally unique names are a bit of a pain to come up with so Lightstream it is. The trailer they showed at Siggraph, called The Fourth Magi, was their first finished piece. Their logo (which I believe was designed by the Bay area favorite Michael Schwab) was so new that you could smell the printer ink on the business cards.

I was totally enthralled by the story these guys had to tell. The story started at ILM, where the key members of the Lightstream team worked for many, many years. They started meeting as friends for Friday lunches, just to talk things over and give each other support. As time passed, they started to realize two things: one, that they already had gathered a mini-pipeline of artists with many different skill sets; and two, that while they loved working at ILM they wanted to opportunity to tell stories they felt strongly about.

They put together a business plan for their dream studio, drawn on a napkin of course, and laid out their goals:

• To create great stories
• To build a company with a healthy culture for artists
• To produce quality work

Then, when they all felt they were kinda, sorta, mostly ready, they all gave notice and left ILM to strike out on their own. Rob Coleman, Jamy Wheless, and John Helms told their tale with a lot of humor and candor, and here are some of the nuggets o’ wisdom they shared:

• Timing and chemistry are important! Pay attention and be open to opportunities as they arise.
• Your trust in your co-workers is key. On a small team everyone must have each others’ backs.
• When you are in a big company you HAVE to be a specialist. However, always be aware of what is going on in your field because you never know when you may be in a situation where you have to become a generalist again. Starting your own studio will definitely mean that you will have to pinch hit in a different role.
• As a manager, be aware of the hidden talents and true passions of your employees so you can draw upon them later. Your artists will appreciate your interest and the opportunity to stretch their wings. You get a much needed character sculpt from an existing hire without having to go out and interview a bunch of sculptors. Win-win.
• Pick a work space that is open and has a lot of potential for interaction.
• Pick a hardware platform that will be cost efficient and easy to manage with limited technical support. For Lightstream, this meant buying Macs instead of the more traditional unix boxes. Macs are easy to care for, can run any operating system as needed, and come with rockin’ giant monitors. (OK, so they didn’t really say that last part about the monitors, but it’s true!)
• Using commercial software will save you time and money IF you build a good relationship with your vendors.
• There will be a lot of small fires. Don’t get trapped in them- always keep one eye on your long term goals so the large problems don’t fester.

They shared that the inspiration for the look of the Magi project came from Orientalist paintings, the dusty look of Gladiator, and the dark realism of Blade Runner. The pre-production art and matte paintings were beautiful. They also showed an animation test for one of the main characters, and then ended with the full length trailer. It was an extremely impressive piece of work given the small team they had.

Thanks so much to the gentlemen of Lightstream for this presentation. I attended it with my former co-worker Mike Jutan, and we were so excited as we left the hall; I really felt like we had seen something special and learned a lot about how to produce great work outside of a large studio.

Next year we need a bigger room, heh.

The AM Birds of a Feather was all about networking and it was packed with current students, students on leave, graduates, and potential students. It was a small, hot, and crowded space but as usual our fearless leaders (Bobby, Shawn, and Carlos) kept the atmosphere fun with giveaways and demonstrations of how NOT to impress a studio recruiter. Robin Linn, a recruiter with Sony’s IPAX program, was the main speaker and he quickly and very honestly laid out general guidelines for getting a job in animation, what Sony is looking for, and his own personal preferences as a recruiter

Here are some of the points he made that I found interesting; I’m going to leave out some of the really obvious stuff, like using spell check on your resume:

• It is OK to call studios and ask who the recruiters are and which you should contact as a student. You don’t get extra points for figuring this out on your own and they will tell you.
• After attending a big event like Siggraph, wait about 2 weeks before contacting a recruiter you met or sending in a reel. They need some recuperation time, same as you.
• It is a recruiter’s job to get animators hired, so, although you obviously want to get along with them as best you can, don’t feel bad about (politely) contacting them more often and more aggressively than you might another animator. They are being paid to deal with you.
• Send a quick email about 2 weeks after sending in your reel just to make sure it arrived (Are you noticing the 2 week trend here?)
• Keep your reel design and business card simple but effective. The solution Robin recommended was to put a screenshot from you reel on both on your card and the dvd case as well as your information in black and white text.
• Your reel should have a cover screen with a play button. You don’t want the reviewers to miss your best work because your dvd started autoplaying before they were ready.
• Modeling is the phase of production that happens and wraps first, so it is helpful for modelers to have another skill like Lighting that occurs later down the pipeline. Other than that one exception, if you really want to work in a big studio and feel it would be the best place for you, specialize in one skill set.
• As long as shots you worked on with a team are well credited and clearly define what work you did, it is good to include them on your reel to show your ability to work with other artists.

Here is some of the more controversial points Robin made, i.e. points I have specifically heard other recruiters disagree with:

• Put your best work first
• Reapply as often as you have significantly improved work to show
• No one looks at life drawings, paintings, etc. when looking at your reel so leave it off (There was an audible gasp that went through the room when he said this)

Robin ended by encouraging us to contact him early and often- on Facebook, by phone, through email, etc. It was great of him to come and speak to us, and I hope he or someone else who was at the event will correct any errors I’ve made in putting these notes together.

This was a great panel. Tom Sito, Dave Burgess, Don Hahn, Kevin Koch, Andreas Deja, and Frank’s son Theodore all gave awesome insight into Frank & Ollie and their work.

Tom Sito, who recently directed PBS’s first animated show - the wonderfully silly As the Wrench Turns, - moderated and kept the conversation moving along at a good pace. I was pleasantly surprised that they really didn’t rehash much of the Frank & Ollie documentary that T.Thomas had done, but instead jumped right into their personal reasons for admiring Frank & Ollie’s work. Each of the animators brought clips and/or drawings to show so they could point out specific moments they admired. Here are some of the key points that were hit upon:

• Frank and Ollie were fearless contemporary artists who studied the work of other artists and generally paid close attention to the world outside of animation. They were whole people who drew upon their lives outside of Disney for inspiration
• Frank and Ollie spent a lot of time commuting to work together, talking about their problems, and just general being a sounding board for each other. This kind of interaction with your fellow artists is key.
• One of the hallmarks of Frank and Ollie’s work is how the characters interact with each other physically. Touching, hugging, jabbing, etc… all add so much to the emotional reality of a shot. I think Dave was talking the most about this, especially how hard this traditionally has been to accomplish in CG and that only with movies like Ratatouille are we beginning to see the technical advancement that will allow these kinds of fleshy-feeling interactions to happen.
• Frank & Ollie did not treat each shot as a potential demo reel piece and neither should we. They tried to figure out how to do each scene so that it served the needs of the larger story and the picture as a whole.

Specific scenes that were called out:

• Sleeping Beauty, Merryweather says “Hoptoad”
  a use of broad squash and stretch that is still very graceful, working within the design of the character to make interesting shapes
• 101 Dalmations, Nana patting and hugging Pongo
  A specific example of characters touching
• Alice in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts croquet sequence
  These scenes are broken up beautifully between large extremely cartoony moves and smaller subtle moments. Since not everything is pushed all the way, when the Queen breaks out into one of her broad angry movements it is very effective.
• Song of the South, Brer Fox plans to cook the captured Brer Rabbit for dinner
  When Brer Fox pushes his whole body into a giant curve to look through a knothole at his victim, it really shows how broad you can be and still have the character feel “real.” Every part of Brer Fox, ears, toes, etc., is used to express the character and every part moves in beautiful arcs while maintaining the silhouette

Also mentioned as favorites:
Baloo’s first entrance, and Smee in Peter Pan (Ollie)
Lady and Tramp’s spaghetti dinner, and Wart and Merlin as squirrels by Frank

For me, one of the highlights of the panel was when Andreas Deja brought out a stack of drawings from his personal collection and just started putting them up on the overhead projector one at a time. It was great to be able to see so clearly the differences in their styles; how Frank’s drawings were so strongly lined and searching, while Ollie’s were lighter and freer. When I briefly ambushed Kevin Koch after the panel to say hello (sorry Kevin, I know you needed to get out of there but I didn’t think I’d get another chance) he mentioned that it had been decided in advance that this part would have to go last because Andreas just had so many to share that it could have eaten up all the time. Tom Sito did eventually make him stop so there was time for questions. I would not have minded if he kept going though.

The Animation Mentor team did a great job putting this together, and it was a well attended event. I was pleased to see that the audience was more than just AM students, but also included students from other schools, professional animators, and technical folks. Thanks so much guys!

I’m back from my week long trip to Los Angeles, and rested up from the marathon animating session that was required to get my AM homework turned in on time Sunday. So, I will try and get started with turning the doodles and scratches in my notebook into coherent posts about what I saw and learned. Expect part 1 later today!