Hey Carlos, how ya doing?
Ill get straight to the questions:
1) Do you find balancing animating and a social life difficult?
2) Where can you see yourself or where would you like to be in 10 yrs time?
3) What was the biggest help for you to become an animator of such skill? So in other worlds, was there a book, phrase or change of lifestyle that made you a professional?
4) They say practice makes perfect, and I'm sure you'll agree. So aspects of animation do you pratice and how do you practice your skills?
5) What (if anything) would you like to change about the animation industry?
6)  Where do you see or would you liek to see animation going in the future?

Thanks for your time, and I cant wait to enroll (if possible) at AnimationMentor    

Hi Carlos!
Thanks so much for answering our questions.  Looking forward to all the insight this week!

1. How do you feel about the importance of a degree?  Clearly the work speaks for itself, but do you see this changing as the job market becomes more saturated?  In your experience do you think, it is a tie-breaker for evenly matched work or does it go as far as opening doors for an interview?

2. Can you describe your animation process?  How much time do you spend planning?  How long do you work in hold keys before messing with curves?  How much do you rely on curves?  Do you (or anyone you know at Pixar) go as far as keying every frame of the animation?

3. And a technical question:  How is the feedback system between animators and riggers?  If you simply must have a rig feature (or script) is someone on that?  And I think the question we're all dying to know:  IK or FK arms at Pixar?

Thanks Again,
Aaron Koressel

1.  When working on a shot, how much creative freedome vs. direction do you have?  
2.  What are some of the differences working at Pixar and ILM?  
3.  I was just wondering what does it take to get a full time/staff position at a major studio like Pixar or ILM?
4.  What are some common mistakes you often see young animators making, and how might we improve in those areas?
 

What's up Barry,

Ok, your questions...let me see if I can get to all of them.

1. Each director is definitely different...and that also applies to the company as well. The Directors at Pixar work considerably different than the directors at ILM, Wild Brain, Directors of commercials, etc. If you are reffering specifically to Pixar for example...some directors have more of a Film approach and other directors have more of an animation approach. I'm currently working on "Cars", our director is John Lasseter, and I'm loving working with him. Not only he knows so much about animation, Film, etc, but he also knows what's like on the computer, and the stregnths and weaknesses of the computer as an animation tool. I'm learning a lot from him. Brad Bird knows exactly what he wants, and his 2D/Animation skills are another great source of learning. Overall, directors give you freedom to animate, but along the lines of what they want in the story at that particular moment. If you are too off, they'll let you know.

2. Pixar vs. ILM...Tough one. Both places have the coolest people I've gotten the opportunity to work with. I miss my friends at ILM. I definitely do. But Pixar is something else. This place has way too many good things going on. The people, the projects (I have always loved the style of these films, and have always identified with this style myself). The general work environment, I think in both places there are crunch periods of time when you are working your ass off trying to meet deadlines and other times when things are a little slower, and you can breath again. Pixar has been the one place where I have noticed team effort the most, specially when trying to finish a movie.

3. What does it take? Honestly, I don't know anymore. With so many companies laying off people (friends of mine are being layed off from other studios), it seems pretty unstable sometimes. I've been more than lucky myself. I think the two important things are skills (obviously), and also work experience.

4. Animation vs. Software. Young animators seem to focus too much on the software part of things. Plug-Ins...curves...keyframes...bla blu bla.
Animation is a visual medium. Period. You make things work from a 2D point of view.

A few new animators at Pixar come from a strictly 2D animation background, and they freaking kick my ass. This French Animator Bolhem, sits next to my best friend Rodrigo Blaas and me. Well, Bolhem is a freaking animation bible. He'll sit with you and start drawing on your shot, and to me, that's when the learning starts. When I step away from the computer again, and try to look at things 2D.

How to improve animation in the mistakes...definitely practice. The more the better. Also, don't be afraid to get feedback. Your shots will only benefit from feedback. Put your ego somewhere else. It's not about egos, but about making your shot that much better when you can't see it anymore. Also, learn to observe and learn from observation. Start studying people, what makes things move, don't be afraid to stare at things. If you can, make this a habit, and it will become an obsession...and eventually, this will be your best learning tool as an animator.



 

1. Is it true animators at pixar are assigned certain shots??
2. How do you act out a shot??
3. What do you do when your stuck in a shot?? how do you get out of this?? ex.. by this i mean when you think your shot is done but there is still somethin missing from it..
 

Hola Julian,

1. Animation Supervisors assign shots based on your strengths as weaknesses. It makes more than sense. If you have strong acting skills, of course the supervisors will want to use your skills to make the movie that much better. However, the BEST part about working at Pixar, has been, that if there are other areas where you want to improve, you can totally talk to the supervisors, and they'll give you chances in improving yourself.

2.How do I act my shots out. Man, if you saw me acting shit out. The shots that I got a lot out of, have been the shots that I acted shit out a ton, before jumping on the computer. When I act a shot, I'll go nuts. I'll try to think about every possible idea I can think off. Is this acting good enough? Is this funny enough? Not so cliche? Most important, is this something people haven't seen before? You have to think that audiences are not stupid, they've seen it all. They have seen jokes/gags in other movies. They get bored easily if you throw them the same thing a lot. You better come up with something in your acting, that goes pass that...while still making your points accross or the poitn of the Director.

3. What do I do when I'm stuck in my shots? I usually start out by hitting my head against the wall about 10 times. Jk. Every single animator I know of gets stuck in their shots at some point. Sometimes it helps to start fresh. To come back to your shot a little later, look at it with fresh eyes, and tell yourself, this part is just not working. It sucks when this is the case. But you have to remember how important this is. For me, animation is no joke. A lto of people are going to see this particular shot. I better make it work whether I like it or not.

Don't worry about being swamped with questions Julian.
We are all here to help as much as we can.

C.
 

Hi Carlos,

What do you think of the 'Stop Staring' book by Jason Osipa?

How does the relationship between modelors and animators go as far as making models better suited for animation?