What Type of Training Did You Receive in Animation?

When I went to school, no one taught animation. It mostly involved teaching students how to use software.

Back then, I wanted to become a traditional animator, so I went to an art school to hone and improve my art skills. Even after I graduated from college, I continued talking figure drawing classes and continue to do so to this day.

Learning to see with an artistic eye allows you to pick up subtle nuances in poses, how to design a pose and what makes for good composition. It also helps you build your confidence when you are sketching out poses for your scene.

Guest Blogger Joe Mandia

How Important Are Social Skills in an Animation Career?

Social skills are very important because you're not a one-man-show.

You have to work on a team and get along with the group. Everybody is there to help the client finish his/her movie. Every project will go through crunch time, where everybody has a lot do and people are stressed out.

It is during those moments where you have to be able to stay calm and get your work done, regardless of what is happening around you. You will depend on other people's help and vice-versa. Again, it's all a team effort.

There is no room for an ego, jealous behavior, or other attitudes and your animation skills alone won't save you. You also need to be comfortable receiving feedback as well as giving feedback, especially once you become a lead animator, supervising animator or beyond that. Sooner or later you will have to deal with production people around you-- producers, directors or whoever is involved with the project you're working on. Having no social skills is not going to make those moments very enjoyable.

I haven't been involved with interviews but I would definitely look for appropriate social behavior in an interview. People will judge you and if you come across as arrogant, awkward or selfish, etc., then your chances of getting hired will diminish.

Guest Blogger Jean-Denis Haas

What Skill Sets are Needed for the Different Levels of Animation Positions?

The skill sets an animator needs for video games, special effects, and feature film studios differ greatly.

In film, junior animators need to be able to suck up knowledge like a sponge and be willing to work on background characters and reaction shots without feeling upset that they are not working on more challenging shots. Patience is the key. With time, all animators at a studio will get the chance to work on longer, more challenging shots.

Special effects animation is similar, but it is easier to be typecast into doing less character-driven shots and more creature or object animation. That is fine, but if you want to try other things, I encourage doing challenging physical and acting tests with the rigs provided and showing them to your supervisors for feedback. This may allow you to move on to different types of shots. Just asking for something isn’t always enough. You have to show you want it, and prove you can handle it.

In games, the same is true. Do a test to show what you are capable of. Being productive and showing constant improvement will quickly turn a junior animator into an animator or senior animator at a game studio. Being able to work and make changes quickly is more paramount in games than at a feature film studio.

For all animators, the same rules apply. You still need to be humble about your shots and listen to advice in order to improve. It is often at this level where many animators find they have a certain skill that makes them better at some things than others. Some are strong with subtle acting, others with physical weight, others with more cartoony movement. Some animators find that they are great with birds, monsters, four legged creatures, females, or heavy characters. Certain people have a feel for certain things. It’s good to know who has what strengths. When you are assigned a shot that someone you know would be great at, ask them for advice!

Senior animators have to have confidence in their ability to do all kinds of animation at a high level consistently. Leads and supervisors have to have this same confidence, along with the ability to communicate well with the crew and director. Their job is to help get the strongest performance out of everyone, keep morale high, keep the quality high, and be clear and honest about how a shot is working. They need to understand and visualize multiple ways that a shot can change to improve, and understand how to translate the often cryptic and difficult notes from a director to the animators.

Guest Blogger Jason Martinsen

When Looking for an Animation Job, What is the Best Way to Approach a Company?

It should go without saying that your demo reel should be your best work, but once you get the interview, how should you act?

I feel like being yourself is the best approach. It sounds like common sense, but sometimes you get nervous before an interview. Stay relaxed, be professional, and the rest will fall into place. Also, do some research about the studio where you are being interviewed. Having a general knowledge of the studio's work is a respectful way to approach the interview.

Guest Blogger Josh Riley

How Important Was Schooling For You In Your Animation Career?

My school was essentially the nine old men. I wore out my first copy of The Illusion of Life. I flipped through those pages like they were gold. I went over and over and over and over all of the principles until they were burned into my grey matter. Those principles were turned into exercises. I tried to slowly incorporate what I learned into each animation I did.

The hardest part about this was not having someone critique my work. I had to be my own harshest critic. I guess that explains why I can’t stand my animation about ten minutes after it’s done. My eyes constantly find something wrong. Something that could be better. Something that could be stronger.

The other part of my “schooling” was learning what came before me. I was lucky enough to find a laser disc player (do they make those anymore?) that had a remote control with a little disc on it. This tiny circle allowed me to go through films frame by frame – letting me see little nuances in animation that I would have never seen at speed. I would roll through backwards and forwards…thousands of times. Watching arcs. Watching timing and spacing. See how an anticipation would actually make the action stronger. I looked at the animation with not only the question of HOW but of WHY. Why did it work? Why did certain poses make an emotion stronger? Why did a silhouette make the drawing more exaggerated?

The hardest part was making this transition to 3D. (In an old man’s voice) – “Back when I was learning animation, there was none of this new fangled three dee moving characters to watch and learn from.” So I had to translate some of the things I was learning into my 3D cartoons. I never had to worry about staying on model or appealing drawings but I did have to work with strong poses and clear in-betweens.

It did take quite a long time to figure out this art called animation and given the chance, I would do it all over again. However, if I could do through animation mentor? I’d do that in a heartbeat.

Guest Blogger Mike Gasaway