We’d like to welcome our friend Matt Roberts. Can you tell us a little about your background and how it has helped you in your position as a recruiter at Disney?
I
was actually adopted by a family of astronauts who found me on the
doorstep of their lunar base and raised me as one of their own. Life
amongst the cosmos was swell–beautiful night skies, exotic breathing
helmets, food in tubular paste form. It was excellent. But then when my
astrofamily brought me back to earth with them, things changed. I had
difficulty adapting to the new-found force of gravity and I subsequently
bounced from job to job: ratchet hygienist, latter day viking, I even
used to dress up and scare people away from abandoned amusement parks
until a group of meddling kids put an end to that REAL quick. It seemed
like I was out of options when I came into the acquaintance of a mouse
in red shorts who decided to take a chance on me and the rest, as we in
the astro business used to say, is history.
I
wish any of the above were true but I don’t know how to finish this
sentence. Believe it or not, I actually come from an animation
background (a glorious, uproarious medium that I’ve wanted to go into
since I was in the 8th grade). Needless to say, coming from an artistic
background helps me as an artistic recruiter because I can use all my
training and experience to recognize appeal, entertainment, and solid
foundational skills and somewhat know what I’m talking about. Since I am
an artist, I can really relate to the artists that I represent as well
as the artistic leadership at the studio which really helps facilitate
communication to both sides of the review process. Before I became a
recruiter at Walt Disney Animation, I was actually a caricature artist
at Disneyland, a job that entails a lot of conversing with people from
all over the place which has definitely helped prepare me for the
outreach side of the job where I travel around to different conferences
and schools where I give presentations about our studio and just talk
craft in general with artists from all walks of life. I could go into
further detail about my weird, winding path of evolving from artist to
recruiter, but I’d say the above covers the broad strokes without boring
your readership with my autobiography.
that literally changes by the day. There’s always a whole lot of reels
and portfolios to assess and of course a lot of answering emails.
There’s always a regular influx of candidates submitting their work and
at Disney we try to be as communicative as possible lending feedback and
keeping applicants up to date with our latest hiring needs. Even when
we’re not hiring, I keep in touch with many artists who we feel could
fit in well with our studio culture to both encourage their talent as
well as learn what’s happening in the industry today. I do a lot of
collaboration with our studio talent as well to discuss what our needs
will be for our current and future projects so I can anticipate
searching for the most compatible talent. We’re also very hands on with
our new hires and keep up an active dialogue to make sure their hiring
process is as smooth on them as possible.
How do you prefer an artist submit their work? Do you prefer an online portfolio format?
What is the process a portfolio/reel goes through when you receive it and what’s the average time the process takes?
days the bulk of our reviews are digital. Anyone interested in applying
with Disney Animation should create a candidate profile at www.disneyanimation.com and
either upload a digital copy of their reel or upload a link to an
already existing web reel. Once you’ve created a profile, you can
literally update it whenever you want so ideally, we should always have
your most up-to-date work and info handy.
are considered by both recruiters as well as the artistic leadership in
the studio. Candidates whose work interests our leadership are usually
contacted for an interview, and from there if all has gone well, we’ll
want to proceed to hire the applicant. The process really depends on our
hiring needs and the timing of the application. I’ve hired artists
within a week of applying with us, I’ve also tracked and held onto reels
for months until we’ve started hiring again.
you say something about the timing of submissions and the hiring
process? How much of getting hired is due to applying at the right time?
How much time should one wait before reapplying?
Timing
is definitely part of the equation, but honestly, if we think you’d
make a marvelous addition to our studio, we’ll wait what it takes until
we can bring you aboard. There are so many great studios active in the
industry today that availability doesn’t always align with our needs but
that’s why it’s so important to maintain strong relationships out
there: to stay informed as to what’s going on in the industry and to be
prepared to apply for an opportunity once it comes along. Along with our
production hiring, we also have a summer internship designed for
current college students. We also have a 3-6 month long Talent
Development trainee program for newer talent that’s 0-3 years out of
school and happens twice a year: in the spring and the fall. We always
post our current positions on our website so check us out regularly to
make that timing align to your advantage! It’s always a good idea to
apply every 6 months; that way it’s more likely a new opportunity has
come along but even more important, it gives you enough time to
significantly update your reel with your best and latest work.
you seeing more qualified applicants in the last few years than before?
Is the bar raising for everyone as the 3D animation industry matures?
would say the bar is definitely and steadily rising. Not only are there
more studios developing quality content, but potential animators have
more resources at their fingertips than ever before. From online schools
such as the very host of this interview, to books on art-of and how-to,
to affordable software, to blogging/tumblr/social media communities,
you have a lot of options in developing your craft and receiving quality
feedback to strengthen your craft.
really receive an equal amount of applications across disciplines. The
majority of reels come in response to posted open positions so the
number of submissions really varies depending on when we’re hiring and
for what.
With
our studio, the 3 most important recommendations I can give to
animators are acting, acting, acting!!!!! A reel demonstrating a solid
versatility in performance and entertainment value are the best way to
get noticed. Don’t give us any gimmicks, don’t worry about putting music
to your reel, just show us your full range as an actor. Give us a
multitude of personalities on your reel that feel like genuinely
different, thinking characters that even ideally, come off as done by
different animators. Give us a variety of acting techniques: broad,
subtle, comedic, dramatic, dialogue, pantomime, cartoony, realistic,
etc. Think in terms of subtext and making scenes with at least two
characters interacting with each other so that they can play off each
others personalities. A recommendation I often throw out there is that
if you have access to a quality quadruped rig, do an acting test with
that to show you can believably move a different set of anatomy yet do
so with attitude and expression. Give us genuine emotion and specific
nuance, not generic expressions. We’re looking for actors, so treat your
reel like an audition and wow us with your versatility.
For
modeling, the 3 most important recommendations are appeal, appeal
appeal! We have very high aesthetic standards at Disney so we need to
see that a modeler has a keen artistic eye and can tackle a multitude of
stylization from simple to complex. We want to see that you have a
strong grasp of anatomy and form but that you are very comfortable
sculpting stylization. Give us not only a variety of artistic styles,
but a variety of characters and/or environments as well. On your reel,
we definitely like to see turntables so give us the finished model, the
grayscale, and the wireframe so we can see how you go from topology to
completion. It’s also a good idea to include the original art your model
is based on in the corner so that we can see how you actively adapt
two-dimensional appeal into CG form (if you’re modeling from another
artist’s work, just accredit the art to them in the image). Since we are
such an acting centric studio, if you’re an organic modeler make sure
your characters show potential for acting and expression, something
appealing enough that once rigged, an animator can jump in and get a
full array of expression out of it. Knowledge of ZBrush and Mudbox is
definitely a plus. For rigging, like the previous disciplines, show us
your versatility. Examples can be a human, a quadruped, a crab, a
bridge, etc. Remember that a Character TD’s job is really to service the
animator, so when showing off the articulation of your rigs, make sure
it’s in ways that are believable and appropriate to the character and
how it would move and show us that the articulation is efficient and
intuitive to an animator’s needs. We like Character TDs who are real
problem solvers, who anticipate issues even before they arise so showing
us custom tools you’ve built is also an impressive plus. I often
recommend making friends with animators and giving them your rigs to
play with; you won’t really know how efficient and smooth your rig is
until you let an animator test it to the point of breaking and embrace
their notes to make it all that it can be. Showing your rig in action
also helps demonstrate its full potential via applied use. Again, we
love acting so give us characters that are set up for a wide range of
expression and appeal.
We would like to thank Matt for taking the time to answer our questions.