This spring marks my fifteenth year working in the world of animation and visual effects, so I thought some might find the story of how that came to pass interesting.
In the spring of 1992, three events happened nearly at once: I turned twenty-one, I graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a degree in Physics, and my girlfriend of four years, whom I'd known since I was fifteen, dumped me.
Graduating was a lucky break, after a couple very close calls (including failing out of college in my junior year and coming back a year later). The breakup was extremely annoying, because, as it turned out, she dumped me the afternoon of the day that I'd committed to going to graduate school where she was. As of right now, we haven't talked for about twelve years, and I still miss her a lot, but my life has pretty much moved on.
Only a few of you probably have any clue how hard this piece of paper is to get. Shout out to Day[9], who's done it himself!! :D
Quitting graduate school
Since inertia's a powerful thing, I went off to grad school in the astrophysics program at the University of Arizona, hoping for the best. I didn't really realize how difficult it was going to be dealing with the aftermath of the breakup in the same city my ex lived in, however. We were trying to remain friends, and it was simply a mess -- so after about eight weeks in graduate school, I just left.
My next step might not make much sense if you don't know how tight-knit the Harvey Mudd community is: I started spending my days and nights at the college for the rest of the school year. I slept in suite lounges in the dorms with the permission of my friends and volunteered for the very small media production program there, to have something to do and to have a way to express my frustration with life.
It quickly dawned on me that I had to get a job, though, and my work in the media program reinforced to me that media production might be a very interesting field, so I focused there. However, being desperate, I applied for just about everything else in the world too.
Getting a pointless job.
I wound up working as a radar and optical engineer at Vandenberg Air Force Base, supporting the instruments they used to monitor space and missile launches there. I worked on writing a screenplay but after a couple years I'd pretty much given up on the movie business. I did move on to a job as a software engineer at Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics in the summer of 1995, and that was a good deal more fun (since the Air Force attitudes had bled over heavily into contractor work on the base.)
A surprise interview!
Some months into working at Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics, I got a call from Walt Disney Feature Animation. It turns out that my resume had been sitting on someone's desk for a very long time (probably about a year, dating from when I'd been sending out resumes to leave Vandenberg) and finally had bubbled up to the top.
So, in November of 1995, the same week that Toy Story came out, I interviewed at Disney for an imaging software engineer position on a system called CAPS, which was used to digitally ink-and-paint their traditionally-animated movies.
Pixar had originally developed CAPS, which was used for one shot in The Little Mermaid and all the movies that came after, but the deal with Pixar required that Disney take over maintaining the software after five full movies had been made with it, and I was interviewed shortly after the fifth was released. (The first five all-digital movies were: Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas.)
The interview went fine, nothing special, as I talked about my imaging software experience, but at some point one of the other guys in the group asked "Why are you interested in working in animation?" So, I started talking about Harvey Mudd's media program and everyone's eyes lit up. It appeared that I had the job.
Working at Disney
At the age of 24, on April 1, 1996, I started working at Walt Disney Feature Animation. They threw me into the lion's den, though I didn't know it at the time -- I was asked to work with a department called Animation Check that had become responsible for a wide range of both artistic and technical work in the digital system. And, as I found out later, the old-timers viewed handing off CAPS from Pixar to Disney as an opportunity to exert greater control over how things were done.
From when I started until the end of the year wrap of Hercules, I pretty much worked my ass off. Fortunately, the excitement of working at Disney had not yet worn off. I had never realized how much WORK traditional animation entailed! Everything was done by hand! Very little of the work could really be automated away by the computer.
Me and my friend Lauren at the Hunchback of Notre Dame wrap party in June of 1996.
(A note about that picture: A few years later, Lauren married a software engineer who went on to be one of the original developers of WoW, and who left Blizzard only a few months ago. For a time leading up to Starcraft 2's release, he was the Battle.net 2.0 software lead, which made reading TL and the forums hilarious. He was anxious, though, to make clear that none of what made people upset was his fault.)
Several months after I started working on Hercules (which later became my first screen credit) our group had a little meeting. A project in some warehouses over by the 5 freeway to create Disney's first fully computer animated movie desperately needed warm bodies. Was anyone interested in going?
We went around the room. I was first. I said "I would be OK doing whatever I'm needed to do." Everyone else then proceeded to say "please do not send me over there."
So, of course, I was the first one picked.
Claw chooses who will stay and who will go!! (me in the Dinosaur production's "war room," 1997)
Dinosaur
Working on the movie Dinosaur was a long, often painful, challenging, and ultimately deeply rewarding experience. Visual effects movies with lots of character animation are the norm today, but in late 1996, nobody had ever made a movie like that.
Dinosaur, 2000
Furthermore, while Disney was widely regarded as the cutting edge of animation, and they had slapped their name all over Toy Story, which was the first fully computer-animated film, Pixar, then an entirely separate company completely controlled by Steve Jobs, certainly had no interest whatever in sharing any of their special knowledge of the area with Disney and creating a potential competitor.
So, we at Disney had to figure it all out ourselves, with mixed results.
Disney hired a large number of department heads and artists from the few companies with real experience in this kind of work at the time: Boss Films, Dreamquest Images, Digital Domain (DD), and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).
The problem with this scheme is that all these companies had figured out how to do this volume of computer animation work on their own, and their ideas of how it should be done didn't fit together.
I wound up lent to the show through most of 1997 and 1998 as the "production pipeline" supervisor for Dinosaur, which generally meant that I spent hours in meetings trying to negotiate agreement between the ILM contingent and the DD contingent on critical issues like how to name the directory where quarter-sized background images went. (One supervisor famously declared that he would quit if we named the directory "qtr" instead of "r4." The decision didn't go his way -- and he stayed.)
Throughout the show, I'd been scrambling to try to get a job in either look development, which consisted of writing the software necessary to create the looks of the various characters at render time, or lighting, but it never quite worked out because I just didn't have the experience. And, since I was still on the books as a "software engineer," once my services weren't needed anymore on Dinosaur, my management didn't really know what to do with me.
So, when my work on the show ended, around the start of 1999, I was told that I should find another job by the end of the year, either within Disney or elsewhere.
Pacific Data Images
Being told to move on was a blessing in disguise. Though it took a while to find another position, I ended up joining Pacific Data Images, one of the original five computer animation companies in the U.S. This meant moving to the San Francisco area.
Up to about when I joined them, PDI was mainly known for most of the computer animated flying logos on national TV in the 80s, and the invention of a technology called "feature-based morphing," which they first used in Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video:
However, in the fall of 1998, Dreamworks released the movie Antz, which was the second-ever fully computer animated film, and had been created completely at PDI.
When I joined, PDI was deep in production on a second fully computer-animated movie for Dreamworks, called Shrek, directed by a long-time PDI animation supervisor named Andrew Adamson (who later went on to work on Shrek 2 and then Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.) We had a company screening shortly after I joined, and everyone walked out knowing that Shrek was going to be a hit.
However, I didn't join that part of PDI. I joined the live action visual effects and commercials group as a technical supervisor.
Our first project in that group was supposed to be the original X-Men. Our tests for it looked fantastic and it was going to push our limits visually -- everyone was excited. Except, it seems, for PDI's leadership, who were concerned that agreeing to the project was too much risk when they were trying to get set up for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. Remember, this was the time of the internet boom, and PDI hoped to have a wildly successful IPO, but it made them incredibly conservative.
So, at the VERY last minute, PDI walked away from X-Men (which went to Digital Domain,) and I wound up working on The Legend of Bagger Vance for a year instead.
By the time that show was over, Dreamworks had bought PDI, and Shrek was a hit.
Working with Steven Spielberg
At that time, Steven Spielberg ran the live-action part of Dreamworks, so you'd think we'd have gotten a lot of work from them. As it turns out, that wasn't the case! PDI had been involved in visual effects for George Clooney's movie The Peacemaker, and PDI, which was in the middle of making Antz at the time, had difficulty putting in the time and money to make the effects look great. This atomic explosion (supervised by my friend Paul Wang, who was a sequence supervisor on Shrek and generally does fantastic work) was a good example.
(This is a link rather than embedded video so that it will skip to the shot I'm talking about)
Anyway, Spielberg was not happy and PDI ended up not getting any work from top-end Dreamworks movies for a long time. However, around when he started on the movie A.I., we finally managed to convince him to give us a second chance.
Having PDI working on small chunks of Spielberg's movies had a hidden benefit out of proportion to our work -- since we bid cheaper than ILM, if our work was good enough, Spielberg could convince ILM to cut their price under the threat of giving us even more work.
We worked on A.I. for the better part of a year, and the crew rolled right over onto a much more memorable movie, Minority Report.
Our group at PDI worked primarily on the "Spyders," which were spidery robots that the cops would deploy to move through a building and scan the occupant's retinas, to locate fugitives.
Tom Cruise, about to have his retina scanned while recovering from an eye transplant -- very bad!
Unfortunately, despite working on Minority Report for several months, the studio was very stingy with screen credits and I did not get one, and since visual effects artists are not guaranteed credit for their work, that was that. Of all the movies on which I was denied credit, that one bugs me more than any other.
Nevertheless, we were all very proud of our work.
Minority Report Lead compositor Erik Winquist at the wrap party, who later went on to supervise on Lord of the Rings at Weta
Our supervisor, Henry LaBounta, with Mr. Spielberg himself. Henry, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for Twister, went on to become Chief Art Officer at EA. Note: This was on the set of A.I., hence the art department's brilliant "Country and Western FAG BAR" posters on the door behind them.
Commercials, and winding down
The bad news was that when Minority Report wrapped up, PDI shut down their live action visual effects division. At the time, television commercials were much more profitable, and since Dreamworks now owned PDI, Jeffrey Katzenberg's animation division was pushing harder and harder for a greater focus on fully animated films, and less on very low-margin visual effects work.
So, about half our coworkers were laid off and the rest of us moved into TV commercial production. We ended up working on spots for Intel, Kool-aid, Monster.com, and Sega.
Moving to Los Angeles
In the spring of 2002, when production for Intel's Pentium IV ads were in full swing at PDI, I was asked to spend four months in Los Angeles working at Dreamworks Animation on the movie Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Sinbad ended up being the last traditionally-animated movie that Dreamworks made.
The Dreamworks Animation campus at night
While I was in L.A., I got a telephone call saying that there had been a major announcement up at PDI: The commercials group was being shut down, and I was to remain on Sinbad for the rest of the year, after I returned.
Once I got back at the end of my four months, I started negotiating a new contract, and pushed for a sizeable raise, which Dreamworks agreed to provide -- if I'd move to L.A. permanently. I did so in the start of 2003.
A book!
Shortly before leaving for L.A. the first time, I spoke with my friend Chris about the idea of writing a book about scripting for Maya, which (then and now) is one of the most common off-the-shelf products for high-end computer animation.
While I was in L.A. for four months, I spent my free time working on a manuscript, with Chris's help, and by November of 2002, the book had been released:
MEL Scripting for Maya Animators -- a title designed to hit every possible search term an Amazon user might type
Dreamworks Animation
As it turned out, when Dreamworks bought PDI, they acquired not just a production facility, but a large, well-tuned software system that was very efficient at cranking out fully computer-animated movies. Their interest in getting me to Los Angeles was part of a strategy of adopting PDI's techniques wholesale, thus bypassing the problems Disney had had getting their own fully computer-animated movie system working.
So, I moved to Dreamworks to work on Over the Hedge, which got delayed, then Flushed Away, then Madagascar, and then Over the Hedge again.
Despite the growth pains of adopting tools that only a few people knew how to operate, by the time I worked on Over the Hedge, things were going pretty smoothly, so I managed to talk my way into having a chance to do some actual artistic work. One of the first shots they gave me was a challenging one-off shot that required a lot of thought and care about how to make something that looked beautiful.
My second shot as a lighting artist, ever! From Over the Hedge.
Still, my responsibilities were mostly technical, and when Over the Hedge wrapped up, I moved back in that direction for a while.
Thing is, in late 2004, Dreamworks Animation had had their IPO, and it turns out that my handful of PDI stock options from years before were worth something. The money from that paid off my debts and left me with enough cash to take what I thought was going to be a few months off, before I moved into a full-time lighting position.
The never-ending vacation
I left Dreamworks on a three-month vacation in the summer of 2006, right after Over the Hedge was released. I didn't have a new contract, but it all seemed very close. Until, that is, Dreamworks decided to insist on keeping me at exactly the same rate as I'd been paid before. I really, really felt I deserved a cost of living increase, which would have been maybe 3% at most.
Unfortunately, we didn't come to an agreement.
I had enough money to live for a while, so I wasn't too worried, so I decided I'd take my vacation and work on finding a job once the three months were up. During that time, I started playing WoW, which was easy considering that my days were entirely free and my bills were getting paid out of my savings. I founded and ran a guild (which lasted for about two years) and had nothing but time for it.
Near the end of the year, I interviewed with Blizzard's cinematics group, and though it was promising, it hasn't ever really turned into a job offer, to this day. However, in the spring of 2007, I did get a job offer, which I took gladly, as my savings account was by now running on fumes.
Rhythm & Hues
The job offer was for a top-tier visual effects company called Rhythm & Hues Studios, which was at that time going into production on The Golden Compass. I joined Rhythm as a freelance lighter, which meant that I was hired for the duration of the project only.
Rhythm primarily hires artists as freelance, which (in Rhythm-speak) means they get health benefits but no paid time off. Since anything to get the money flowing was appealing to me at the time, I jumped on it, and Golden Compass looked like a promising movie.
While the film ended up not performing as well as most of us hoped, Rhythm's Bill Westenhofer shared the Academy Award for the film's visual effects, which was a high point for many of us. And, I got to work exclusively as a lighting artist for the first time. (These are two of my shots)
Lyra's daemon, Pan, in the form of a cat, warns her that something horrible is going on.
Lyra examines a trapped "spy-fly" while Pan, in the form of a mouse, looks on.
Commercials, again
In the world of visual effects, feature films are where the best work happens. There's (usually) money and time to make essential effects and animation look great. However, working in feature film effects can be difficult.
Schedules have gotten shorter, so people work much longer hours. Also, like I said, most people are freelance. So, when the opportunity arrived to work in a smaller commercials group, with a team of a few people whom I'd get to know over many projects, and full benefits, I volunteered right away. Many of my younger colleagues couldn't understand why I'd want to work on projects that just didn't have the same time and money devoted to them, but in fact the work is more varied and the projects are short -- get in, do some good work, and get out.
So, since 2008, I've worked in commercials. Here's one of ours, which we animated, lit, and delivered in the course of about 8 weeks:
Recommended by Australian dentists!
I should point out that I'm at a point where I love my work, I really enjoy the team with whom I work, and I couldn't really care less about the glory of working on big name movies. The technical challenge is substantial, and it's nice to be well-regarded for being able to get good work done quickly.
It's a long way from physics, and a long way from the day I showed up at orientation at Disney, but it's been a good fifteen years and I'm hoping for at least 25 more.
Very very very cool. Really interesting and amazing. I envy you and what you get to do for a living... and if that blue 350z is urs im even more jealous lol...
But very cool/interesting to do what you do and work on some of the projects you worked on. I am uber jealous. I went to art school to try to do game art/design... and in art school i learned that art is a gift/talent that people have. I was decent..but i wasnt nearly as amazing as some of my classmates, and i eventually went back to state college because i realized that art and that "talent" was simply not one of mine... tho i wish it was lol.
but anyways im starting to rant.. but VERY COOL. You seem to have an amazing job and you love it. I am envious
This was a ridiculous read, and you've told an amazing story--thank you for sharing!
It's kind of weird, but yesterday after watching the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I stayed afterwards to read the credits. I had never really thought about it too much, but reading the long list of people--not just the actors--that helped to make the movie what it was, it hit me that it's not entirely about those who are the on-screen stars. So after reading this today, I've definitely gained a new level of respect for those who work not only behind the scenes, but on the scenes themselves as well.
That's quite a lot of things that have been done, but then again that's over 15 years of stuff, it's interesting to note how much "stuff" can happen over time. Sometimes I wish to be able to look into the future to see what's going on with my life. :/
On June 05 2011 13:12 DeepBlu2 wrote: Quite a journey you have been on. Do you see yourself in this industry 10-15 years from now?
That's a very interesting question. It's hard to say. Over the last ten years there's been a move to do more of the work overseas, both due to tax advantages and lower pay rates, but there will always be a need for people here in the U.S. I suspect that my technical skills will keep me employable, but we'll have to see.
I will say one thing: I'm not afraid of having to move into a different field, should that become necessary. However, I can't quite imagine what I'd like more than what I'm doing, unless it's as much fun and many times the money.
if that blue 350z is urs im even more jealous lol...
I bought it in 2003, and I'm still driving it. I hope to keep it running at least another 10 years.
From an earlier blog post, here's the license plate I have on it right now:
If you're looking at that and wondering what's fake, here are some things to watch for:
* Any wide shot of a person on a moving trailer is entirely fake.
* The whole thing was shot on a nice wide road with perfectly flat shoulders -- all the hills and cliffs and walls of rock were painted in Photoshop and projected onto 3D geometry.
* Any spraying gasoline is computer animated.
* Any "liquid nitrogen" spray is computer animated.
The one thing that's real is at the end of the sequence they did blow up the cab and the first section of the trailer and knock it over a cliff. The footage from that was pretty mind-blowing. Most of what's surrounding it is, however, our work.
Oh, and fully-loaded gasoline tankers PROBABLY do not bounce like that. My physics background tells me that they'd crack open like an egg, but hey, I'm no expert, lol.
Then, if you want a laugh, watch this "making of" featurette in which they liberally intercut our CG shots with people talking about how it was all real and very scary:
This is completely amazing and engrossing, thank you very much for sharing. A bit ironic that read this to procrastinate studying for my physics final! Pretty crazy career path you had right afterward but it gives me hope that my future isn't too doomed. Definitely have a great appreciation for your work.
BTW a couple notes to connect this back with what we're all here for:
I originally got into WoW because most of the Dreamworks lighting department had a guild together! In the early days I used to tease them about wasting their time on "World of Snorecraft." When I eventually played, I got sucked right in, but I didn't have the presence of mind to roll on their server until much later.
Their guild name: "The Betty Horde Clinic," currently on Shu'halo. They've mostly moved on to other activities, probably Portal 2.
Also, when I was in lighting at Dreamworks, they used to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory in these crazy 15 on 15 team games. They'd play at lunch and in the afternoon. There was a game going on with the IT folks where the IT folks would try to find the ET binary we were using, so they could delete it, and we'd move it around and make hidden copies. Production management on our movies looked the other way as long as people got their work done.
Currently, in the commercials group at Rhythm, our office has the Blizzcon 2010 SC2 and Diablo 3 posters up on the walls. Hoping to get more when I attend this year.
Edit: BTW on re-reading this post, my nostalgia meter goes through the roof watching the morphing in the Black or White video, because I absolutely remember when that was a completely badass "OMG HOW DID THEY DO THAT" visual effect.
Funny thing is, today that technology is used all the time in completely invisible ways to cover up mistakes and resolve technical problems, but it's very rarely front-and-center like that.
Man I loved Golden Compass, great job on it! I really appreciate the work that you did in the film, thanks so much for making a story from my childhood come to life!
On June 05 2011 14:48 Endymion wrote: Man I loved Golden Compass, great job on it! I really appreciate the work that you did in the film, thanks so much for making a story from my childhood come to life!
Thanks. We were somewhat disappointed, actually, because the movie (and our work) originally covered the entire ending to the book
specifically, Asriel killing Roger to power his machine, and Lyra repudiating her parents and walking into the portal to Citagazze
but test audiences hated it and so the decision was made to cut the story a bit short and end on a high note, leaving those bits for act 1 of a second movie.
The sequence supervisor from the sequence that got cut got to go to the Academy Awards with our VFX supervisor. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I were him, but that would be a nice gesture.
On June 05 2011 14:48 Endymion wrote: Man I loved Golden Compass, great job on it! I really appreciate the work that you did in the film, thanks so much for making a story from my childhood come to life!
Agreed!
I loved the visual adaptation of one of my favorite stories (though i wish they could have made the whole trilogy.)
I'm going to school for computer animation starting this fall and although I'd like to get into something more sci-fi based, I hope to have a story like yours some day!
On June 05 2011 14:56 Backpack wrote: I'm going to school for computer animation starting this fall
One suggestion: PLEASE do not borrow a ton of money to do this. You're welcome to PM me and we can talk over your plans. I say this because there are a lot of computer animation programs that are enormously expensive, and it can be very difficult to pay off the loans once you've taken them out.
That said, I support your effort to achieve your dreams. Just that there are many ways to go about it.
On June 05 2011 13:24 flamewheel wrote: It's kind of weird, but yesterday after watching the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I stayed afterwards to read the credits. I had never really thought about it too much, but reading the long list of people--not just the actors--that helped to make the movie what it was, it hit me that it's not entirely about those who are the on-screen stars. So after reading this today, I've definitely gained a new level of respect for those who work not only behind the scenes, but on the scenes themselves as well.
Typically, a large visual effects movie might have 500 to 1000 people working on the effects alone, across several companies. It's a lot of work!
Just to put it in perspective, my personal lighting work on Golden Compass was about one minute, and it was a two hour film, of which maybe 90 minutes required visual effects. And, lighting is only one small part of the process!
So yeah, don't feel bad about leaving the theater before the credits are over, but if you can take a moment to think about how much work went into even a crappy visual effects movie, I'm sure the people who worked on it would appreciate it.
Interesting turn of events. I just took my bachelor degree in mechanical engineering and starting at a consulting firm tomorrow. Maybe ill write my story in 15 years.
I have often wondered while watching advertisments like that last one linked, who was making them, and how they ended up in that field... I never would have guessed that there would be people such as yourself with degrees in physics and working in the industry for 15 years of all things making them.
A truly wonderful read, I thank you again, and wish you all the best for the future.
Man this is an awesome story, it's funny how you originally did a physics degree yet go into a media oriented career, sometimes i wonder if i'll turn out like that haha.
Despite the fact I cringe every time I see a new CGI movie come out, this was an interesting read. It's depressing that traditional animation (hand drawn) has become so rare on the big screen...
Ah thats fantastic! Amazing read. You've really done well in the field and I can only hope I get that far. Inspiring
I'm currently in my third year doing animation at a college in Cape Town, South Africa. Funny enough, we have just come out of a MEL scripting lesson and my lecturer mentioned your book! Which is weirdly coincidental. Sadly the industry has died down here alot, the company I was hoping to go to at the end of the year for an internship closed down the other week (Clockwork Zoo) and there are hundreds of experienced, talented animators wandering the streets looking for jobs, which is a very frightening prospect to face after all the money and effort that has gone into this course in the first place.
On a side note, to all those wanting to get into animation, prepare for long hours of hard work. When I was told it was alot of work I brushed it off lightly thinking high school was alot of work. It was nothing compared to the many all nighters i have pulled since starting this course.
Amazing story I knew TL got cool members , but not that cool ! 6 pool plate must scare all the cars around! Love reading people story's , its absolutely stunning what kind of difficulties one must go through to be where he is right now, helps me to work even harder on things i do. Thanks again for sharing this.
I'm really glad I came across this on the frontpage under spotlight. I'm still very young and I've recently been interested in becoming some sort of animator. This has given me a lot of insight on what it's like in the field from one's personal history. Definitely has opened my eyes to people who are at work but aren't necessarily given any credit for it. At the same time, you seem happy and content with just that and I respect that, a lot.
I think this post is really cool and really interesting, because I think its amazing that I live in Ireland and ive seen most of the movies mentioned that you've worked on and that I have seen your work many times without knowing it... hmm I dunno if that sounds stupoid but whatever.
This was a great read, and that number plate is sick good :D
Just want to thank you for taking the time to write this blog. I start my course in Computer Visualisation & Animation at Bournemouth University in September, literally can't wait.
Wow that was just an amazing read, very exciting life you have led! And to believe you worked on so many classics and movies I and millions of others enjoyed... it is an honor for TL to have you here
I am a motion graphics / vfx freelancer for about 6 years now and your story is truly inspiring! Was almost as if i was reading my dream come through. But it was your life :D Got any tips for fellow film creators that want to expand their horizon?
On June 07 2011 00:59 s.a.y wrote: If you got an imdb page, your some sort of a celebrity. Congrats on that :D
Not exactly -- anyone can add data to IMDB!
Go out with a camera, shoot something, give it a name, and make your own page, and by that standard you can be a celebrity too. :D
I've added a slightly-out-of-date demo reel of my work that you might enjoy. Sorry for the low resolution -- I used what I had on hand rather than making a new one.
Heading off to work now, but I'll answer some of the last couple pages of comments this morning, if I can.
Such an amazing blog 5 stars, I have always wanted to get into animation been going to school for it for a while now, due to having to slow down school to work to help my family it's been tough but your story is so inspiring thanks you so much :D any help or advice would be amazing. Again congratz on making it !!!
This is incredible. Thank you for taking the time to post this and share such a wonderful story. I'll be pointing this out to a few friends who are studying graphic design, and I'm confident they'll be just as inspired by it as I am.
I was so mad when I saw Golden Compass... they cut out everything that could be subversive for the audience. It felt empty compared to the books. I'm even more mad right now if you say that you worked on the real and actual ending ! Do you think we can see your work ?
Sorry for the rant Thanks for sharing your story It's very inspirational especially for me who's looking for a job in the VFX world. Compared to when you were freelancing, do you have more free time now that you have a contract ?
It's depressing that traditional animation (hand drawn) has become so rare on the big screen...
I think that Disney may be working on a new traditional project right now. Can't recall the details though.
Got any tips for fellow film creators that want to expand their horizon?
For visual effects people in particular: get a camera and do some of your own photography. I can't tell you how useful it's been to have experience with real-world photography in figuring out what will work in a visual effects context. Everything from white balance to depth of field to composition to dynamic range and the color of light and shadow, it all applies.
OMG im also from rhythm and hue xD
That's great! Feel free to IM me sometime on the company network and say hello!
There are quite a few of us who work in film & television that post here
Very nice blog Mark! Hopefully we run into one another sometime!
PM me and let me know more about what you're doing! I'd love to hear about it.
I'm currently in my third year doing animation at a college in Cape Town, South Africa. Funny enough, we have just come out of a MEL scripting lesson and my lecturer mentioned your book! Which is weirdly coincidental. Sadly the industry has died down here alot, the company I was hoping to go to at the end of the year for an internship closed down the other week (Clockwork Zoo) and there are hundreds of experienced, talented animators wandering the streets looking for jobs, which is a very frightening prospect to face after all the money and effort that has gone into this course in the first place.
I'm sorry to hear that! Assuming you're willing to travel elsewhere in the world to work, though, there should be opportunities out there. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, PRC, Taiwan, the U.K., and the U.S. all have lots of animation going on, and the demand for it will probably not decrease anytime soon.
Man, some good memories from all the movies you mentioned Interesting to see your perspective of the movies that I grew up with
In a very real sense, I kind of grew up with these movies too -- each one I worked on was a huge learning experience for me, and I think back to those times pretty warmly, both because I was working with incredibly brilliant, creative people, and because in many cases the projects were a lot of fun in their own right.
I was so mad when I saw Golden Compass... they cut out everything that could be subversive for the audience.
Thing is, they really didn't! About all they did was refer to the "magisterium" instead of the "church" in a few places, and the book uses both terms. It was an incredibly faithful interpretation of the book.
It felt empty compared to the books. I'm even more mad right now if you say that you worked on the real and actual ending!
What they did was save the ending of the first book to be used as the opening of a second movie. Test audiences, who mostly hadn't ever read the book, found the ending a total depressing downer (which it pretty much was!). Had there been a sequel, their choice with this would have worked pretty well, because the ending of book 1 set up a great conflict for book 2.
Edit: Thanks so much to the TL mods for the place in the Spotlighted threads section on the main page, and thanks to everyone who's said something nice in the thread. It means a lot to me.
Hellz yeah, HMC! I just graduated from Mudd last year as a Math Major, so I know how it is. :D (except of course that you graduated when I was only 4 years old.)
I wish your story for finding an awesome career was a little less bumpy so I could just follow, that, though. Times aren't all that great for a math major who wasn't planning on going to grad school. Either way, thanks for the story! Fun to read, and even more fun to watch all the amazing clips!
Hellz yeah, HMC! I just graduated from Mudd last year as a Math Major, so I know how it is. :D (except of course that you graduated when I was only 4 years old.)
I wish your story for finding an awesome career was a little less bumpy so I could just follow, that, though. Times aren't all that great for a math major who wasn't planning on going to grad school.
Congratulations!! Send me a PM and we can talk a little bit, I might be able to put you in touch with some Mudd alums who might know about job leads.
How did you get into the TL community/SC scene? I'm sorry if you already answered it.
I got an SC2 beta invite because I'd attended Blizzcon '08, and quickly wound up on Teamliquid because it's really the only place for serious analysis of the game.
Any of you who have seen my posts on the game know by now that I'm pretty damn bad by TL standards (MMR in the high Gold to low Plat range based on whom I'm playing) but I've satisfied myself reading other people's analysis and occasionally posting on areas where I feel I can contribute something, like the League and Ladder threads, which benefit from a little knowledge of statistics.
I've also enjoyed following the exploits of fellow Mudders like qxc and Day[9], who have become such an important part of this community.
Wow amazing read, really interesting the careers turns you made Seems a bit harder today though to jump into something new with a very different education, but perhaps that's more true here.
This is all amazing Great read, and I'm glad you've found somewhere where you can do what you enjoy instead of working at big name companies for the ego. Good luck with everything!
OMG IM SO JEALOUS YOU HAVE <THE> ABSOLUTE ONLY LICENSE PLATE WITH 6 POOL !!!
<3
This is really great and a bit inspiring too! Thanks for sharing :D
It's a bit amazing how you went from a Science degree to movies! Which you sort of wanted from the beginning. Very interesting... I bet it was hard I hope i can work just as hard!
On June 07 2011 04:12 Clearout wrote: Wow amazing read, really interesting the careers turns you made Seems a bit harder today though to jump into something new with a very different education, but perhaps that's more true here.
I'm not sure that it's ever really easy -- people will always want to hire the person whose background is EXACTLY like what they're trying to do.
If you go through my post and take careful note of the timeline, it took me from 1996 to about 2005 to start doing artistic as opposed to technical work. I spent almost four years at Disney getting nowhere in that regard (but having a lot of people say encouraging things!) Then, when I was at PDI, I got a firm promise that I could move into lighting by the end of the year 2000, but unfortunately that commitment didn't really come to pass once they started laying off my division.
Finally, it took forging a really close working relationship with my sequence supervisor at Dreamworks on Madagascar, in 2005, to get a chance to light a shot. Fortunately, he and I continued working together on Over the Hedge, so it was possible to pick up a bunch of shots on that show, and that was enough of a body of lighting work to get a job elsewhere.
On June 07 2011 04:30 Yoshi Kirishima wrote: Oh my god, what an AMAZING READ
I love you!!!
It's so awesome how Starcraft is! (semi-joking)
OMG IM SO JEALOUS YOU HAVE <THE> ABSOLUTE ONLY LICENSE PLATE WITH 6 POOL !!!
<3
This is really great and a bit inspiring too! Thanks for sharing :D
It's a bit amazing how you went from a Science degree to movies! Which you sort of wanted from the beginning. Very interesting... I bet it was hard I hope i can work just as hard!
On the contrary, I've worked with all walks of life in film: astrophysicists, heart surgeons, criminologists, firefighters, etc. The industry is great because of the trade exchange.
I was so mad when I saw Golden Compass... they cut out everything that could be subversive for the audience.
Thing is, they really didn't! About all they did was refer to the "magisterium" instead of the "church" in a few places, and the book uses both terms. It was an incredibly faithful interpretation of the book.
What they did was save the ending of the first book to be used as the opening of a second movie. Test audiences, who mostly hadn't ever read the book, found the ending a total depressing downer (which it pretty much was!). Had there been a sequel, their choice with this would have worked pretty well, because the ending of book 1 set up a great conflict for book 2.
Yah thought it was pretty faithful to the book too, except for the ending... such a shame that we probably will never see part 2 or 3. Maybe someone will start a new attempt in 10 or 20 years.
So today you're working exclusively as a lighting artist or do you still do some technical work as software engineer? Which do you prefer, being an artist or engineer?
What do you think of the potential of open source software like Blender 3d on professional development pipelines? (I made some small code contribution there ^^)
On June 07 2011 04:12 Clearout wrote: Wow amazing read, really interesting the careers turns you made Seems a bit harder today though to jump into something new with a very different education, but perhaps that's more true here.
Although a lot of people indeed end up working in a job they did the education for there are (at least here) also a lot of people ending up in jobs unrelated or having little to do with their original education.
A lot of where you end up has to do with either who you know or what opportunities you get in your company. I personally studied Information Management (working as a administrative assistant next to the study) but somehow never ended up working in that field. Instead I rolled into a job as a Business/Operations Analyst and from there towards Financial Administrator and currently looking into Project Management as a next step.
You always take your background with you and use it to bring some fresh perspective to the table but that doesn't mean your education has you firmly locked into a certain path. You just have to formulate clearly for yourself why you want to go in one direction or another and try to see what positions / people you can use to take the steps to get there, shifting the horizon step by step.
So keep that always in mind while cramming for an exam. It provides you with a fallback. It's not there to keep your life in a death grip.
On June 07 2011 05:48 VIB wrote: So today you're working exclusively as a lighting artist or do you still do some technical work as software engineer? Which do you prefer, being an artist or engineer?
Actually, with the move into commercials I'm more of a generalist, because we try to get by with a smaller number of people. My main areas are look development, lighting, and compositing, but I occasionally dabble in layout (camera animation), character animation, or effects animation depending on what we need and how confident I am about being able to do a good job.
Also, as the senior lighter on most of our jobs, I'm involved in helping bid new work, estimating how long tasks will take to complete, identifying when we need specialized skills we don't have in our group to get the work done, and helping plan where we're going technically on future projects.
What do you think of the potential of open source software like Blender 3d on professional development pipelines? (I made some small code contribution there ^^)
I haven't tried using Blender in many years. My impression at the time was that it had a lot of interesting features but that the user interface was enough unlike other tools out there to do the same kinds of work that it would be difficult to transition from, say, lots of Maya experience to working in Blender or vice versa.
However, enough time has passed since then that I'm sure it's greatly improved, and I have seen some awfully nice work that's been done in Blender. If someone's looking to work on their own project, it's absolutely an option I'd recommend they look at using.
On June 07 2011 04:20 Stijx wrote: This is all amazing Great read, and I'm glad you've found somewhere where you can do what you enjoy instead of working at big name companies for the ego.
I've certainly spent enough time doing all kinds of work in this industry to be past the point of having much of an ego about it, though at this point I'm pretty confident in my essential job skills.
That said, Rhythm & Hues is certainly among the top five visual effects companies in the U.S. right now, so it's not a bad place to be for name recognition. Over the years, R&H has won two visual effects Academy Awards (for Babe and Golden Compass) and consistently employs about a thousand visual effects artists on a wide range of projects.
Also, Rhythm has a fancy new website now, I recommend taking a look!
Edit: Another interesting note: Blizzard's cinematics group has a large number of ex-Rhythm artists working there, because both companies have a heavy emphasis on digital compositing. So, next time you see some great work from them, chances are a few of my friends worked on it!
I was in an animation class that used maya in high school, and we visited Rhythm and Hues. It seems like such an awesome place to work! I remember a lot of people would bring their dogs to work, haha. Anyway, congrats on 15 years!
You sir have just earned a fan... ME!!! Great job dude!!! I have watched every single thing you say to have taken part in and enjoyed it a lot!!! Thanks for making my life more enjoyable with such an amazing work!!!
Awesome story. Looks like we both have kind of the same interests (technical media, visual effects) so I found this read to be very inspirational. Now if I only could live in California...
On June 07 2011 08:13 euroboy wrote: Awesome story. Looks like we both have kind of the same interests (technical media, visual effects) so I found this read to be very inspirational. Now if I only could live in California...
Hey, London is a major center for this kind of work, and as an EU citizen, you can work there without a visa!
On June 07 2011 08:13 euroboy wrote: Awesome story. Looks like we both have kind of the same interests (technical media, visual effects) so I found this read to be very inspirational. Now if I only could live in California...
Hey, London is a major center for this kind of work, and as an EU citizen, you can work there without a visa!
Well I want to live in California mostly for the weather though :D But London yea sure it's a cool city might check it out if I want to deal with the rain
Wow, incredibly interesting and enjoyable read. Thanks for sharing! (I never knew that it was your license plate even though I've seen it a million times!)
hi, i may be an unknown person to you but you have brought your passion and interests to me. I am now also currently taking CS course, will do more with graphics later. I just want to say what you've done was totally awesome, keep up the good work!
This blog is so cool. Had fun reading it. Thanks for the insight regarding this industry. I don't have a lot of clue of what goes on behind movies. hehe
On June 07 2011 16:42 Invoker wrote: So as a professional yourself, you can easily notice various fake scenes or mistakes while watching a movie? :D
Sometimes! The very best work can be extremely hard to spot! But, there are some key things to look for.
A big one is if you happen to see a region of the image where the darkest blacks seem oddly more washed out or deeper than the rest. That's a good sign that something was digitally composited, and the compositor didn't do their best work making things match. For a good example of this, see if you can get your hands on a copy of the original Star Wars movies, before they redid them in 1997.
Awesome blog post! Thanks for taking the time to do it.
First off all I was so happy that Golden Compas won the oscar over pirates and transformers. The visual work in compas is just jaw dropping good. And Minority Report is one of my favorite movies.
Its fun how people change work from one direction to another.
I started being interested in the 3d graphics in the early 90ies and buy my own copy of Impulse's Imagine 3d for the amiga. People look so wierd when I told them I spend so much of my hardearned money on software.
My interest also started from following the demoscene, not sure if you know what that is. (realtime running productions running on back then c64/amiga later on pc and tons of other platforms.)
Personally I have gone from ArchViz -> Product Viz to now working on virtual brick support for LEGO Digital Designer.
Though my main enjoyment from the past 10+ years has been Blizzard games, demoscene and movies/series.
Thanks again for posting. Was quite interesting to read.
Thank you so much for the great read. I am a VFX artist also, with (only) 2 and a half years experience, and i remember reading through your book at a previous job, that an animator showed me. Full of fantastic info. I had no idea you were also a TL'er ^^ It's great to see an insight into this (often disheartening ) industry, from an experienced professional. I hope i have the pleasure of working with you someday. P.S. Have you ever tried applying for Blizzard cimenatic department? I don't imagine it's easy to get in. I'm visiting LA soon, so perhaps i'll try and apply for a n00b position there in the hope they like my reel ^_^
On June 08 2011 11:43 Tingles wrote: P.S. Have you ever tried applying for Blizzard cimenatic department? I don't imagine it's easy to get in.
I think I mentioned this somewhere in my post, but yeah I interviewed with them back in 2007, and we've talked a couple times since, but it never quite came together and I'm pretty settled where I am for the time being. The Blizzard cinematics guys are smart technicians and first-rate artists, and the friends I've had who have gone there have had nothing but good things to say about the team and the work (which is also first-rate.) I do know that they work very, very hard.
On June 08 2011 11:43 Tingles wrote: P.S. Have you ever tried applying for Blizzard cimenatic department? I don't imagine it's easy to get in.
I think I mentioned this somewhere in my post, but yeah I interviewed with them back in 2007, and we've talked a couple times since, but it never quite came together and I'm pretty settled where I am for the time being. The Blizzard cinematics guys are smart technicians and first-rate artists, and the friends I've had who have gone there have had nothing but good things to say about the team and the work (which is also first-rate.) I do know that they work very, very hard.
Yep i remember reading it, but apparently i didn't commit it to memory ^^ Would it be ok if i PM'd you with a couple in depth questions ? I'd very much like to know some more detail about the stuff you worked on ( if you are allowed to disclose). Cheers! Good to hear Blizzard treats you well. From all reports to people I've spoken to, they echo your sentiments.
On June 08 2011 13:10 Tingles wrote: Would it be ok if i PM'd you with a couple in depth questions ? I'd very much like to know some more detail about the stuff you worked on ( if you are allowed to disclose).
Sure, PM me if you like, or ask here. (If I wouldn't answer here, I probably wouldn't answer in a PM either.)
Cheers! Good to hear Blizzard treats you well. From all reports to people I've spoken to, they echo your sentiments.
I think you misunderstood, I have never worked at Blizzard. They treat me OK as a customer, though!! :D
On June 08 2011 13:10 Tingles wrote: Would it be ok if i PM'd you with a couple in depth questions ? I'd very much like to know some more detail about the stuff you worked on ( if you are allowed to disclose).
Sure, PM me if you like, or ask here. (If I wouldn't answer here, I probably wouldn't answer in a PM either.)
Cheers! Good to hear Blizzard treats you well. From all reports to people I've spoken to, they echo your sentiments.
No no no, i just didn't want to clog the thread with my crappy questions. It'll be easier to PM.
I think you misunderstood, I have never worked at Blizzard. They treat me OK as a customer, though!! :D
Oh no didn't mean you ... i meant it in a "glad they would treat you well" ... not you specifically. Yet another example of my brain not comprehending basic English today T_T
BTW, thanks so much to everyone who posted a kind one-liner about having enjoyed reading the post.
It's tough sometimes when I'm up to my ears in the work to remember that I have the good luck to have an interesting, fun job, but the responses to this thread have reminded me of that.
This was a really great read. I knew the industry was pretty tough and went through a lot of changes over the past two decades, but reading this really put it into perspective for me.
I normally stay behind to watch the credits of movies, so in the future I'll try to see if I can spot your name!
I actually laughed a bit as I went through this, as I've seen almost all of the work you mention in your blog in class (finishing up my two years to become a Motion Designer) and if I recall correctly, were you named in the Dinosaur behind the scenes? Your name just sounds so darn familiar and I'm terrible with names.
Anyways, great read, always enjoy reading other people's experiences from the business, just so I know what might lie ahead of me (if I'm any good, that is ) Honestly can't wait to get into the line of work, as I love absolutely every aspect of it.
Oh and of course congratulations on 15 years in the industry!
Might as well do a third edit while I'm at it:
What also fascinates me a lot about your life story, is that it sounds a lot like what I'd love to do myself. I'm also that guy that does all the technical stuff rather well (or so I keep being told), but would also like a shot at the artistic things. Hence why I chose motion design, a rather wide education, rather than a more specific one like Animation.
Also, if you have any opinion on the subject, what do you think of Gnomon? Is it a necessity at the moment if you want to be the best? Or any other thoughts?
This is a terrific and fascinating write-up; the journey to where you are now is an exciting and intriguing one. I myself have worked in a different type of lighting and video for the past decade: that for the live stage.
I would echo an earlier post that the industry is filled with all types of people; many of us are self-taught or learned on the job and I love hearing about other people and how they came to it.
I'm so hyped right now. This was a great read and I would share it with all my friends, if they'd be just a little more interested in animation. My dad and I used to talk about animation movies on end, and now I learn that a fellow TLer actually is in the business. Thank you for sharing your experience with us and all the best for the years ahead.
Thought it might be fun to share my most recent project, which just showed up on Youtube. My responsibility was lighting the birds and instruments to integrate them with the photographed beach environment.
(We made Adweek Magazine's "Ad of the Day" for May 23rd, and they gave us a brief write-up.)
On June 02 2012 22:22 Lysenko wrote: Thought it might be fun to share my most recent project, which just showed up on Youtube. My responsibility was lighting the birds and instruments to integrate them with the photographed beach environment.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BOxrW.jpg)
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) Honestly can't wait to get into the line of work, as I love absolutely every aspect of it.
