Interview at a Studio: What Was the Interview Like?

My interview with ILM was a bit strange because I wasn't actually there to do it in person. I was in Tennessee at the time, which is a bit far from San Francisco. So, they decided to have a phone interview with me.

The interview started with everyone introducing themselves to me, at which point I realized I was in a conference call with anywhere from four to seven people. It's kind of a blur now, but from what I remember the group consisted of a couple of the recruiters, the associate animation supervisor for Transformers 2, the animation supervisor, possibly a producer for the film (can't remember for sure), and Shawn Kelly who was nice enough to be there for moral support. Fortunately, they couldn't see my hands shaking or how I was pacing around the room.

Once the formalities were over, the real interview began. They started by asking about my workflow and how I approach shots. They were especially interested in whether I used video reference and how I plan my animation. Letting them know that I use video reference when starting nearly every shot I do definitely put me on their good side... just a little tip.

The next batch of questions focused on what types of animation I was comfortable with, where I felt I could use improvement, and what types of animation I hoped to do in my career. I was honest with them about areas that I felt I was less confident in without making myself seem inept. I also stressed to them how excited I was about animation, and that I had a huge drive to want to tackle those areas of inexperience. I told them that, at the time, I was more versed in body mechanics than I was with facial performances. They asked me which I would choose if I was given the opportunity to animate either a body mechanics focused shot or a mostly facial performance acting shot. I told them that on a movie like Transformers I was of course hoping to animate some crazy action scenes, but at this point in my career, I would choose the acting shot because it had the most potential to improve my skill set as an animator. I think that was the right answer.

I made it very clear that I wanted to learn as much as I could about all areas of animation and had no desire to be typecast into only the things I was already comfortable with. They asked me if I was interested in "hard surface" animation, to which I replied "umm.... what?" So, after laughing at me and being reminded of just how green I really was, they explained that it meant things like cars, planes, boats, etc. Fortunately, most companies that hire recent graduates are aware that you don't have years of experience under your belt, and a lot of what they are looking for is potential and drive. I definitely wanted to sell myself to them in the interview, but I was also very careful to be honest and not make any claims I couldn't back up. Besides, if I tried to misrepresent my skill set and was hired, it could only end in failure if my work didn't live up to the hype. Basically what I'm saying is, don't try it. I've heard stories of guys that have, and it usually doesn't end well.

Next, they asked if I was excited about Transformers 2. I proceeded to go mega-geek on them and explain the toy collection of my youth and my enjoyment of Leonard Nimoy's voice performance as Galvatron in the 80's Transformers movie. Shawn Kelly was actually the person who told me to not be afraid of being enthusiastic. He said that dorking out over a project was actually preferred, and that nothing was worse than an interviewee who seems uninterested. So I let loose with some enthusiasm, and fortunately he had given me good advice. So listen up when the man writes a blog post... it may get you a job.

After that they let me ask any questions I had. I was too afraid of asking something stupid, so I declined. They uttered the greatest string of syllables that I had ever heard in my 26 years of living: "Can you start on Monday?"

Alumnus Guest Blogger Travis Tohill

How Do You Deal With Curves in Character Animation? Should I Be Cleaning Up Curves and Deleting Unnecessary Keys?

That's a good question and one I've been asking myself lately. I used to tweak most of my animation in the graph editor, which is the way I learned it at school. Keeping the curves clean and organized was the way to go, and a workflow I'm still following. All of your animation is represented through curves, and even though you have multiple options of how to edit your animation, your curve editor will give you the most detailed information about your animation.

And yes, I would keep curves clean. It makes it a lot easier to edit and reorganize sections of your animation. It's like your work area. If it's messy, you will have a hard time finding specific items. You know roughly where it is, but if the area is clean and organized, you will have a much easier time. Same goes for curves.

It will also be a lot easier for other animators to deal with your shots if you keep curves clean. There are moments when another animator has to work on your shot, either because you are too busy with other shots or because you are no longer on that show, and if you are one of those animators working on someone else's shot, you will appreciate it when the curves are clean. Part of being a professional animator is not just being able to animate well, but to be conscious of the show pipeline and company structure. You have to be aware that other people will deal with your files, so keep them organized, including your curves.

However, I've noticed recently that I rarely go into the graph editor. The only time I manipulate curves is for moving holds and technical fixes. The rest of the time I work out my animation through my viewports and set keys to edit my animation. I build overlap and other details into my poses during blocking, so I have less and less need to edit the animation in the graph editor. By keeping my curves clean and by organizing my keys, I can work out the timing by shifting around keys in the Maya timeliner, which also lets me convert my curves from linear to spline.

In a few years, I will probably have another way of animating, but this is my current approach to curves.

Guest Blogger Jean-Denis Haas

How did you get your first job at a studio? Do you have any tips on what to do?

The process of landing my first job had a profound effect on my life. I call it the “Build Your Own Crowbar Approach.”

A bit of back-story: I entered animation school at the ripe old age of 33. At that time I had a wife, a one-year-old child and another on the way. People were telling me how difficult the industry was to break into and that I'd probably never be able to feed my family.

I graduated in February 2003, and immediately hit the streets. I began by mailing out 50 demo reels and waited. Nothing. Not a single response. My first thought was, I needed a better cover letter and a flashier DVD jacket. Oh, and color labels! I opened Photoshop and worked through the night, and in the morning I mailed out 25 more reels with new and improved packaging. Problem was, the content was the same, and (no surprise) so were the results.

Two months passed, and I had two hungry children and no job. Around that time a friend showed me some animation from another student who had just landed an internship at Pixar. I couldn't believe what I saw. I initially felt completely dismayed by the high standard of his work, but after I calmed down, Cameron Miyasaki's animation became my personal yardstick. I closed Photoshop and got back to animating. I would bump into people who knew someone who worked in the industry, and I would hunt them down and beg for their feedback.

I called an animator at Radical Games in Vancouver who looked at my work and told me the quality was such that it would be a waste of time to show his supervisor. I fortified my ego and asked him for specifics. He gave me a list of notes and brushed me off. I hung up the phone and worked through the night. The next morning I dropped off a new reel with his revisions. He called me that afternoon and said he'd try to get me in for an interview. It never happened, but I knew I was on the right track. A few days later a friend introduced me (via email) to a character designer at Pixar named Jason Deamer. Through Jason I was put in touch with Victor Navone who graciously agreed to look at my work and provide me with feedback. I was already a big fan and completely blown away to be receiving his input. Over the next few weeks, I slaved over my computer, determined not to waste Victor's time. He was extraordinarily generous with his critiques and my skills began to rapidly improve. During that time, I would occasionally mail out a reel or two, but I was so fixated on the work, I kind of forgot about the job search. Eventually I received a phone call from Brian Moylen, head of the VFX department at Rainmaker Animation. They were gearing up for the first Garfield movie and he invited me in for an interview. It was not only my first interview, but my first response of any kind from the industry.

When I sat down in Brian’s office, he reached into his desk and produced my demo reel. I was struck by what I had submitted... a clear DVD jewel case with a blank CD on which I had scribbled my name and phone number with a sharpie. No inserts, no labels - nothing. When he played my demo reel, I was struck a second time by the absence of my school work. It had been five months since I had graduated, and in that time, I had replaced two years of student work. I landed the job, fed my family and eventually worked my way up to the position of animation supervisor. At one point, shortly after I started working at Rainmaker, a fellow artist approached me and told me the tale of his friend at Radical who talked about a guy who asked him for a critique of his reel and then resubmitted a new reel the following day. Small industry.

Guest Blogger Mark Pullyblank

How many types of blocking are there? How many frames should I leave for blocking of a normal character?

Hi there! Thanks for swinging by the blog!

The term "blocking," simply means the process of "roughing in" the animation. Of course, because every shot is different, there is no "set number of frames" for the blocking of a shot. The frame count of a shot is usually predetermined by the Director and Editor of the project, or else the length of a piece of dialogue you might be working with.

However, the goal of your blocking should be two-fold:

1) Completeness (which, by the way, IS a word. I checked two dictionaries to be sure!)

Your blocking should be "complete," for lack of a better word. By this, I don't mean that the blocking should be complex or finished animation - not at all. Rather, I mean it should contain everything about your animation that you want to pitch to the director. Ideally, you should be showing all of your main poses, all of your main ideas, the full body language of your character, and all of the major timing decisions with as few poses as possible.

This likely includes all of your key poses and most, if not all, of your breakdowns, so that you are properly describing the weight and movements of the character, all of the acting decisions, and all of the ideas of the shot.

2) Usability

The other goal of blocking is to have something usable that you can continue to improve on. While it's important to show all of your ideas and actions in the blocking, it's equally as important to work "cleanly" and in a way that will let you easily edit your blocking once it's approved. You want to end up with a foundation that is strong and ready to be built upon.

As such, my recommendation is to avoid over-complicating your blocking whenever possible. Hopefully you have a supervisor or client who can understand what blocking is (and what it isn't) and you can show your rough blocking to them for buy-off before really fleshing out all the bells and whistles.

If you are working freelance with a client who just doesn't understand blocking, then my advice is to put together a little presentation for them to show the various stages of animation. It's good to have something around (from a previous gig or an animation test you've done) that you can use to show what previz (pre-visualization) is, what blocking is, what it looks like while it's being refined, and then what it looks like once it's polished. If you can get them used to this process early in the project, life will be a lot easier for you!

Best of luck! I hope this was helpful for someone...

shawn :)

Guest Blogger Shawn Kelly