Animschool Interview: Sony Imageworks Lead Animator Kevin Jackson

Today we would like to welcome the talented 3D Animator Kevin Jackson. Tell us a little about yourself, what is your background? How did you get into character animation?



Like most kids I grew up on cartoons, but I’d say a turning point for me was Roger Rabbit. The baby Herman cartoon at the opening and the three Roger Rabbit shorts that followed blew me away; I knew this is what I wanted to do. Also, like most animators, I have great admiration for the old goofy shorts. Nothing teaches the principles of animation better than goofy. I have entire shorts saved out as image sequences just so I can analyze the frames, memorize the timing, spacing, etc.
In college I studied animation for four years, two of which were taught by former Disney director Hendel Butoy. Of all the influences that got me to where I am today, he is the one I have to thank the most.


Where are you currently working? What is your job there?


My first job in film was Rhythm and Hues. I started in 2007 and worked as an animator and supervisor until 2013 when I got hired at Sony Imageworks for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. I’m currently working as a lead animator on Hotel Transylvania 2, directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, but in between projects I had the pleasure of working on the Popeye test with Genndy and a handful of animators.





You have an interesting reel with creature animation but also some cartoony stuff. What do you like about each style?


The nice thing about realistic animation is it forces you to be hypersensitive. Everyone is an expert on realistic motion, specifically human faces, so if anything is off it will be noticed right away, even if the viewer is unsure of what is actually flawed. In a way you have to rely on the principles of animation even more because things have to be exaggerated just slightly so they don’t feel flat. Timing, spacing and arcs are where you really want to focus the exaggeration.
The downside to realistic animation is that most directors are not themselves animators and they have little understanding of the process. The animation is treated like a live action shot and they need to see a fully fleshed out, nearly complete version before they can give notes. It’s like someone is standing behind the camera saying, “Good! Now let’s try it this way, maybe one where you turn and walk this direction instead of that,” and so one, but in the animation world that takes weeks of work. If you get a shot that is particularly vague, meaning the director is really unsure of what he wants, you can be buried there for several months.


Cartoony animation, on the other hand, tends to move a lot quicker. In this world, most directors are animators themselves, and you get much better, more precise notes. Both Cloudy 2, HT2 and the Popeye test were a dream to work on because the notes are so clear and the director knows exactly what he wants. With those things in place, it really just comes down to how the shots are cast; making sure the right people get the shots that are just right for them. My passion is with cartoony animation, and I’m lucky to be at Sony because of all the big studios they seem to be pushing things in this direction the farthest. If you liked the Popeye test you will be blown away by what Genndy has planned for the film.



Having worked on realistic animation for about six years prior to Sony has taught me many valuable skills that I would have missed had I gone straight into cartoony stuff. I much prefer cartoony, but the former has made me a stronger animator.




Your latest “Wake Up Call” shot featuring Malcolm really caught the eye of the animation community and it’s really entertaining with some broad animation. Did you have any goals before approaching the shot? What was your process for it? Could you share your workflow with us?






My goal was to animate something just for the sake of animation. Obviously, there isn’t really much story to it. It’s “guy at work wakes up to a ringing phone and tries to answer it.” Try pitching that. “Seriously, it’ll be great! he gets stuck balancing on his chair, but can’t reach it, then he spins around and has all sorts of trouble… really you gotta believe me.” Nope, this is the kind of thing you want to do on your own, and really Malcolm is the perfect rig for it. 


Malcolm is the perfect mix of speed and flexibility. You have no idea how lucky you are to be able to play your shot in real time and get those kinds of noodle limbs and deformations until you work with crazy slow rigs in feature film. Each set of arms attached to Malcolm is a complete rig, so I had maybe 8 extra rigs in the file and could still scrub at high speeds as long as they were un-smoothed.


As for my process: animation is an interesting thing, as soon as you think you have your workflow figured out the next shot you get will force you to re-examine your workflow. Every shot is unique and so your workflow is constantly evolving. I’ll try to share a few things that worked well for me this particular piece.



I started by posing out all the key pose Ideas I had in my head. I do this on ones, so each pose is a new frame. I’m not concerned with timing yet, I just want to get the ideas on screen so that I can step through them manually and try to visualize if the idea works or not. After a couple days I think I had about 70 poses, each one representing the pose Malcolm strikes for each balancing act. With all the poses in place, all you have to worry about is timing and how your going to transition to and from each pose. At this point, no constraints are set up. If you set up your constraints from the very beginning, you may find out later on that you wish you had set them up differently. In my blocking, I usually just put things where they belong, and then when I’m ready to spline I can figure out exactly how things need to be setup to enable the smoothest transition of my curves in the graph editor.


The next step was to get the timing down. So keeping the keys in stepped, I began adjusting them throughout the timeline until I had roughly the timing I thought was right. It’s never quite right going from blocking to spline because your mind fills in the gaps for the blocking even if there is not enough frames. Once the computer fills in the gap for you, you find out that you need a lot more time for a transition.


Next I figured out the constraints. I set it up so that the feet could be attached to the chair no matter which leg of the chair was the pivot. From there it’s just a matter of filling in the gaps, making sure each transition happens the way you want it.


The extra limbs and smear frames were the last thing to add. For the limbs, I took an extra Malcolm and deleted all his poly faces except for his arms. Then I referenced that in as many times as needed and parented them to his body. Whenever needed I just snapped them in place, then hid them afterwords. For the end there are about 8 rigs wrapping around his body. It proved too difficult to hide the connection point of each arm so instead I painted that out by hand in photoshop.


The most important part is the blocking. Make sure every part of each pose is deliberate. You want clear shapes and pleasing curves to move your eye where you want it. If something is not quite straight then commit to one or the other. Either make it obviously straight or not. Nothing should live in between shape ideas.


That’s it for now! I have another one in progress with lots of new exciting ideas, but who knows when that will finish. HT2 is getting busier and busier so it may be a while.

Thank you very much for your time, Kevin!!

AnimSchool Interview: Jorge A. Martinez Teran

We’d like to welcome AnimSchool Graduate Jorge A. Martinez Teran. Tell us a little about yourself, what is your background? How did you get into character animation?


Growing up  I knew I wanted to have a job where I could create things for people to appreciate and enjoy. I tried traditional painting and some sculpting when I was a teenager, but eventually the thought of getting a bit more profit from my skills put me on the path to become a graphic designer, where I got a good foundation of Art and Design. 


As for how I got into animation, I think I would need to blame my parents. It was an unintentional indoctrination process. 
Every morning in order to get me ready  for school they would wake me up and put VHS tapes with cartoons to get my attention. From Disney movies to good old Looney Toons cartoons, and some crazy anime, most days would start with a cartoon. 


I’ve met  friends that have similar interests and love for animation, and we’ve always had the idea of  developing our own web cartoons, but it was more of a hobby back then. It has never occurred to me I could make a living out of it since there were not a lot of opportunities to work in animation in Mexico at that point.


One day at university walking through the halls, I saw a poster saying: “Get a career in Animation! Come study 3D Animation in Vancouver”. And BAM! It hit me right there. I had to give it a shot.  A year later, with the help of our families, my friends and I jumped on a plane to Vancouver to start our animation journey. 


After an intense year, I finished a short film that landed me some interviews and got screened at a small film festival in Oregon. From there on I had the chance to work in a couple more short films doing visual effects and character animation. I enrolled in the AnimSchool program to become a better artist and I landed  my first studio job right before starting on Class 7 at AnimSchool. 

Are you currently working in the animation industry? What is your job there? Tell us about it.


Yes I am! I work as a Senior Animator at a studio here in Vancouver called Nerd Corps where, if we are not fighting with nerf guns, we make TV shows for kids.



I’m currently working on the new Max Steel TV show.  From an animation point of view, That show provides great opportunities to try different styles of animation.  On a normal week I could go from working on emotional serious acting, to quirky comedic acting, to a full on fighting action sequence.  There is always something fun and interesting to work on. 


Before Joining Nerd Corps I had the opportunity to work as a freelancer doing some visual effects, motion design, and character animation on some fun independent short films like “Overboard: At The Helm Of An Animation Crew” and “Be The Snow” that have been hitting some Film Festivals here and there during their festival run. 



 

“Overboard: At The Helm Of An Animation Crew”

In what ways do you think AnimSchool has helped you to be a better animator? What was your journey like?


I enrolled on AnimSchool after a period  where I felt my animation skills got rusty and I reached a plateau. Even though because of my background I could have the chance to skip a class, I decided to take the full course and start from scratch, that would give me the opportunity to learn from more instructors during my journey through AnimSchool. And it was probably the best decision I could have made.   


It was during that year and a half at AnimSchool when I truly understood performance, appeal, and how to push myself creatively to find the best acting choices. This also helped me develop a good workflow and an eye for animation. The process also allowed me to get better at giving and receiving constructive feedback.


Any particular tip or advice from an instructor that particularly stuck with you?

“Animate within the pose”, That advice was mentioned a couple times during each term, and it’s something I try to live by now. It’s a common occurrence for starting animators to over-animate their shots and make the characters move all over the place all the time for fear that their shots might feel dead or too simple. It’s a hard thing to do, but once you do it, you find so many other subtle ways of keeping your characters alive. 


One more thing that got stuck is something that Rahul Dabholkar mentioned; he learned it from one of his colleagues at Disney. I don’t remember the exact words but it goes something like this: Every shot has a special moment that will make it shine, if you can find that moment and emphasize it, it will make the shot amazing.  


What’s the best part of online education?

Learning from industry experts from the best studios around the world is great and you learn so much, but I would have to say the best part of online education is the community.  You become part of a big family, and even if you haven’t met in person, you know every single one of them will do their best to help you grow as an animator, giving some feedback on personal shots,  and help you get opportunities in the industry. Or, you know, go out for a meal and talk about animation if you get the chance to meet them in person. 


What part of the animation process do you enjoy the most?


I really enjoy every part of the animation process, planning a shot is always fun, exploring acting choices and shooting reference is a nice challenge. 
Blocking is where I put most of my time getting the  timing right and pushing my poses over and over. 
But, when I really get in the zone, is when I start polishing a shot. I can easily lose track of time bringing the characters to life.


What type of animation inspires you?

There are some amazing animated shows and movies out there that it would be impossible for me to choose just one type. From the jaw-dropping stop motion animation from the guys at Laika, with their beautiful and refreshing movies, going all the way to the hand drawn 2D fighting sequences from Avatar The Last Airbender and The legend of Korra. In 3D, I favour the cartoony style of Sony’s  Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania, it’s so appealing and every shot looks like it would be a ton of fun to animate. Moving on to more realistic VFX animation, I love creature animation. Believable weight, power, and great physicality are things that I love to focus on, and hope to fully master as I keep animating. Pacific Rim and the new  Godzilla are two movies that keep coming to my mind every time I think about VFX animation.

How do you see yourself in 5 years time?

I definitely see myself animating on feature films, I don’t know if it will be an animated feature or doing some creature work on a live action movie. Right now I’m still undecided on what path I want to take. I love acting shots, but the challenge of nailing an action shot is so rewarding… I want it all!

I have also considered, after a couple more years of experience, that I would like to start teaching animation too.

Any hobbies, sports or other activities that you would like to share with us?

Scuba diving. It’s the closest thing I know to an out of this world experience. It’s relaxing and very exciting at the same time. A good way to stay in touch with nature.
Also, I recently started practicing bouldering with some friends from work. Great workout to strengthen your arms after working all week on the computer, my forearms have been feeling great after a couple of times. No more computer pain. Our goal is to do some outdoor climbing soon.

Any quote to get yourself motivated?

I really like the part when Dory is trying to cheer Marlin in Finding Nemo. After the mask fell into the deep and she says: “When life get you down you know what you got to do? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”. That song comes to my mind every single time something goes wrong, and it always keep me going no matter what. 
What is your ultimate goal?

The more I get involved in the industry the more I keep thinking I want to be an Animation director one day.  Working with the directors at Nerd Corps has been great, I’m learning so much from them and the way they approach the shows. 

Also, every time I give feedback or I receive feedback from coworkers is a great and valuable opportunity to learn. Weather is learning something new about acting  and performance, an animation trick, or just simply better ways of communicating with people. Each one of those information exchanges is a learning experience that put me a bit closer and better prepared to reach my goal. 

There is still a long road to cover to get there and so much more to learn, but I believe I can get there if I keep working hard. 

Thank you so much for having me!

Check out Jorge’s Demo Reel:

AnimSchool Gaming Interview: Carbine Studios Cinematics Lead Seth Kendall

AnimSchool Gaming Instructor Jarrod Showers interviews Carbine Studios Cinematics Lead Seth Kendall.

Seth tell us about his career journey at Carbine, working on the MMO game Wildstar!
http://wildstar-online.com/en/

AnimSchool Video Interview: Animation Student Allen Ostergar

In this opportunity, we had the pleasure to have a Video Interview with one of our students, Allen Ostergar.

Allen is an Animation Student who has just finished an Internship at BlueSky Studios. He talks about what made him choose an online school like AnimSchool, his inspirations and some other activities he’s been doing besides animation!

He shares with us his Internship Reel and some cool stuff he has learned during his time at BSS, so you won’t want to miss it!



Watch it here:



Allen’s Demo Reel:


Animschool critique time – Manuel Bover

In AnimSchool’s Body Acting class, our instructor – Manuel Bover critiques early blocking of student’s work, pointing
out things to improve in later stages. In Animschool, you get these critiques once per week, and if you need additional directions – you can always head over to General and Animation critiques, offered to our students for free.


          


Students learn to take critique in a positive way, in order to prepare them for real life scenarios where their shots will get changed, edited or even discarded. Students are also encouraged to critique each other, which helps them advance in their animation skills. 

AnimSchool Classtime: Cutting with Moroni Taylor

During the Summer Term, our supplemental general Art Class was Story Class with Moroni Taylor, free for all AnimSchool students! 
Moroni has storyboarded on 14 features including Iron Giant, Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who, Rio and recently Epic. 
In this clip, he talks about Cutting and how to put your shots together. Cutting helps you direct your audiences attention to the information you want them to see.  Some really interesting stuff! Watch it below: 






Come join all the students learning online at AnimSchool: http://www.animschool.com

AnimSchool Interview: Milian Topsy

We’d like to welcome Character Animator Milian Topsy. Tell us a little about yourself, what is your background? How did you get into character animation?



I discovered the animation world by visiting a small 2D Animation Studio in Paris when I was still in High School, and it was kind of a revelation! It looked so cool to work on fun projects, with passionate people. 
I entered a school in Lyon, called Emile Cohl, where I focused for 2 years on traditional animation, drawing, painting, sculpting, etc. Then I entered a new school for 3 years, Supinfocom Arles, where I specialized in CG Animation.
This allowed me to put together my love for animation with my love for technology and computers. It was also a way of not being handicapped by my “not so good” drawing skills, and really focus on pure animation. 
I’ve graduated 1 year ago, and I’m now working in London, trying to keep improving.


What are you currently working on?


I work at Passion Pictures, where I’m an animator on different commercials, I also do some freelance work here and there. I keep animating personal tests, in order to work, hopefully, on feature films at some point.




What is the “Croco” project about? What was your part in it?


So “My Little Croco” is the graduation short we did at Supinfocom Arles with Etienne Bagot-Caspar, Yohan Cohen, François Mancone and Maïckel Pasta. It’s about a crocodile who adopts a green bean (looking like him) and will take care of it, like his own baby; it should be online soon. The production took us 9 months, and I was responsible for the main part of the animation. There were a lot of characters (crocodile, sheep, otter, monkey, fox, rabbit) and we tried to find a different way to act for each one of them. For example the sheep is an old lady, the otters were a bit dumb, the foxes crazy kids, etc. So it was really fun to play with all theses characters. We also had to animate a lot each day, so it’s really great to have now the time to plan and polish my personal shots.








You have an interesting reel with some shots from the popular Nike Soccer commercial, what was your job there?


Thank you! Yes this commercial was really interesting to work on, especially straight after school! I was a junior animator on this, so it was very challenging to work amongst more experienced animators, and to receive great advices from them. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to work on another project like this one soon! 







You have also worked with a cool Malcolm Mod. Who made it? What was it like to work with Malcolm?


A friend of mine did it, Maïckel Pasta (who studied at Supinfocom with me). He’s an amazing artist, from drawing to CG Sculpting. He managed to create a very appealing character, and it was a real pleasure to give him life. I didn’t have as much flexibility as on the genuine Malcolm (the face and the shoulders were quite different, so the rig wasn’t matching exactly). It required a bit more work to find the right shapes, but nothing too dramatic. 

Malcolm is a fantastic rig, the best I’ve used so far! Very appealing, amazing facial rig; you can do everything you want with it! That’s really great AnimSchool allows everyone to use it, and I can’t wait to work with it for my next animation!
The next shot I’ll be working on (still using the Malcolm Mod) it’s going to be kind of a tribute to “The Incredibles” that I loved so much! And it’s also a way to practice a more dynamic shot and body acting too.



Thank you very much Milian and all the best in your animation career!

Check out Milian’s demo reel here:


Lecture on smear frames – Jeremy Lazare

In AnimSchool’s Body Acting, Blue Sky Animator Jeremy Lazare talks about smear frames, their advantages and disadvantages.

         

Smear frames are commonly used in animation industry. Our Instructor will point out some of the successful examples. This is just a short take from 2 hours lecture that can be available if you join Animschool.

Come join all the students learning online at AnimSchool: http://www.animschool.com

New AnimSchool Character: Marshall

For Immediate Release

Orem, UT  United States – September 11, 2014 — AnimSchool is proud to present our newest character, Marshall, exclusively for AnimSchool students!

AnimSchool is the leader in appealing, flexible characters. Our students animate with the most refined, advanced characters, using the popular AnimSchool Picker.

Marshall has clothing options: shirt, jacket, pants, shoes, poseable toes, as well as fat controls and UV’s for textured rendering.

AnimSchool rigs are built with each part and control being tested to extreme levels, making the strongest poses possible.

You can see the range of motion and poseability students can achieve with Marshall.

AnimSchool students are using him to great effect, like this shot below from graduate Ricardo Puertas!

To use Marshall, apply to an AnimSchool program or individual class.

AnimSchool characters and the AnimSchool Picker are used by more
than 20,000 users worldwide, and have been used to win numerous
animation contests and for commercial needs. AnimSchool is known as the
most trusted name for appealing 3D characters.

With over 200 students, AnimSchool
was founded in 2010 to bring character-focused 3D animation instruction
to students all around the world, through live online sessions with the best film professionals.

Contact:
Isaac Nordlund
AnimSchool
admissions@animschool.com
560 South State Street, Suite F3
Orem, UT 84058

801 765-7677

###

How Do I Choose the Right 3D Animation School?

What Should I Look for in an Animation School?

In order to shoot for the top in your profession, you need
to learn from the best. Look for instructors who are
currently working at some of the most popular studios in the
industry. From Dreamworks and Disney to Pixar and Blue Sky,
make sure the level of instructors prepares you for the 3D
workforce. Students should have full-time pros available
that provide continuous interaction and help with
problem-solving.
Are the sessions with the instructors live–not stale,
out-dated recordings of past lectures?

Any fair comparison will show: from animation, modeling and
rigging to drawing and art classes and additional open
review sessions, AnimSchool offers many more hours of live

teaching than any competing school, dollar for
dollar.

What Aspects of Learning 3D Animation are Important?

There a number of animation courses out there, so look
closely at what they offer. Your school should provide
students with the highest quality character rigs,
the best instructors in live classrooms, then the
access to watch recordings of all of those classes,
the chance to get multiple review sessions each week,
extra classes to develop your art and drawing skills, a
place to collaborate with other students, see each
others’ assignments and leave comments.

A 2009 study, “The Development of Professional Expertise” showed the best way to learn at the highest
level is to get expert coaching. Have the student’s
performance evaluated so the student begins to notice
the differences — the gap between their performance and
expert-level performance.
The process is repeated so
the student’s perception matures along with their ability to
follow any set of steps. To use this approach it isn’t
enough to just watch lectures on your own, so look for a
school that can provide this steady feedback loop.

Look for an actual registered school, so they have
a long-term commitment to your education, helping
advise you through the program and advocate for you after
graduation. A school can provide that continued support and
relationship of trust, more than any loose set of workshops
or standalone classes. Learning animation isn’t a quick fix
— it’s a long process, so you want a school that is there
to assist you along the way.

Look for a dedicated support staff. People ready to
answer the phone whenever you call
with a problem.

The school’s curriculum should give students a broad
overview of the animation field, while focusing on specific
skills that will qualify the students in a competitive
field. You may not want a school that teaches too broad a
curriculum: by the time you’re done, you may be a
jack-of-all-trades and master of none– and unable to
find a job.

A school that is too focused one one job only may leave you
with limited options to branch out to neighboring skills.
A school teaching more than one narrow job title may be a
big benefit if you ever want to try a different job in 3D
animation.
Or if you may want to make your own 3D animated short
someday.


AnimSchool offers the best environment for aspiring
students of animation– we offer our students all of the
benefits listed above. But remember that while your school
provides you with opportunities and tools for
success, it is up to the student to apply the teaching with
many hours of focused effort, daily.

Are Drawing Skills Important for Learning 3D Animation?

Can you learn 3D animation skills even if you can’t draw
well? Even if you are not skilled at drawing now, look for a
school that is committed to teaching the art as much as the
technical skills involved in learning 3D animation.

You can apply to animation schools with limited drawing
ability, but you should plan on becoming a better artist
through your schooling — and beyond! The animation world
needs artists with a confident vision of what they want to
create, more than technicians looking to others for artistic
vision.

You could get by without drawing, since it’s true that some
animators, modelers, and riggers don’t draw well. But
developing drawing will develop your artistic ability, which
increases your skill and makes you more attractive to
employers.

As Pixar and Disney president Ed Catmull says, learning
how to DRAW is really about learning how to SEE.

AnimSchool offers our students a free live drawing or
art class
most terms, and free access to all previous
drawing and art class recordings — hundreds of hours of
learning.

Is Location Essential to Learning Animation?

You may look for animation colleges close to your home, or
one close to the places you’d like to work someday. But did
you know you can also learn right from home on the web?
Some students supplement their studies at a brick-and-mortar
college at an online school like AnimSchool. They may attend
at the same time as they’re attending college, in between
terms, or after they’ve graduated.

Since 3D animation is a competitive field, many find they graduate

traditional college only to discover it’s very hard to
land that first job without the close mentorship of top
animation pros.

Some students choose not to go college and go straight for
the highly successful learning model available at an online
animation school. Far from being disadvantaged, many of
those students find they qualify for top animation jobs —
over their brick-and-mortar peers.

AnimSchool is all online–on your computer, over high-speed
internet. Using the latest in web conferencing technology,
students can learn the craft of 3D computer animation right
from home.

Will I be Certified?

Look for a school that offers certification for
their instruction. That means they have complied with all
state regulations and tax laws for operating a school,
follow licensing laws designed to protect students from
fly-by-night classes that may be here today and gone
tomorrow, and have the proper infrastructure for
administering student needs. But remember, the most important qualification is not a piece of paper, but the skills you present in your portfolio!

AnimSchool provides students with a 21-month certificate
program
, and employers are recognizing the quality of
our graduates who’ve earned those certificates.

Whatever choice you make, AnimSchool is here to help if you
want to learn 3D animation at the highest levels.
Click here to apply to one of our programs (or take a single class).

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