wJacobGardner.com

I have been hired as an entry-level animator at Dreamworks Animation, makers of such films as the Shrek series, Madagascar, Flushed Away, and the upcoming Bee Movie, as well as others. It is a tremendous opportunity and I’m really lucky to have gotten it. I owe a ton to Jim Levasseur and Tom Jech, in many ways. Without them I certainly would not be where I am today. They have pushed my skills and been more than amazing friends, and I hope I have done the same for them. The three of us won the SIGGRAPH FJORG! competition, and undoubtedly my opportunity at Dreamworks is a direct result. So Jim and Tom, thank you oh so very much.

I am fully confident that when they graduate school in May they will have no problem finding jobs in animation if they so choose. They are both incredibly talented and driven. Check out Tom’s portfolio site and his blog. Jim will soon have a more substantial online presence, and I’ll make an update when that happens.

Dreamworks Animation is based in Glendale, CA. On Tuesday, Sept. 18th I am officially moving to LA. It will be a huge change from Chicago, I’m sure, and obviously an even bigger change from Bowling Green, OH. For starters, I will be close to the OCEAN! Supposedly, the weather is always great, and there are constantly cop shootouts (this is information I have gathered from movies).

Moving across the country – by myself – is incredibly frightening and incredibly exciting. Then added on top of that – I have a job… or more like the start of a career… at a major animation studio! Also scary and thrilling at the same time. I’m sure I’m going to have fun, but part of me is wanting to stay home. According to Google Maps, I will be 2,003 miles away from Tom (Morgan), 2,251 miles away from Christen, and Jim, and Tom (Jech), and 2,778 miles away from Steve. These are all of my best friends. What am I going to do? And one of them is my girlfriend (guess which!), and that only makes things harder.

But. It will be an adventure for sure. Wish me luck.

I feel the need to gripe about music choice.

Alright, it’s not like I have any authority on the subject. It’s not like I am a recruiter and see hundreds of reels a week. BUT, I do like to watch demo reels and check out what other animators are doing. People post demo reels on all sorts of sites; cgtalk, cgchar, etc., and I also tend to peruse animators’ portfolio websites, as well as their ‘links’ section to find more and more animators. Sometimes it’s inspiring, sometimes it’s not.

Anyway, here’s my thing – Did I miss the animation community memo that said everyone needs to use the music from the movie Office Space? Maybe I don’t have much room to talk since my current reel doesn’t even have music. But all I’m saying is: be different. If everyone uses the music from Office Space, why do it yourself?

It is a really good movie. I own it too. But so many people have used things from it that I am going to stay away from using it for animation purposes. There was that one 10-second-club line from it:

Peter: So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.
Dr.: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?
Peter: Yeah.
Dr.: Wow, that’s messed up.

And everyone used a bar scene for it. He was sitting there with a shot glass, talking to a bartender, right? I know you’ve seen it. Once again – create something unique!

Anyway, way more often than the use of that line on demo reels I see (or hear) the music from the movie. Specifically, this song:

(just the first 2 min. of this clip, then it goes to another song – but its the only place I could find it for free online)

Now, I only spend a little bit of spare time looking at demo reels, and I still come across it over and over and over again. It gets old. So I can’t imagine what goes through the mind of a recruiter when every single day they see 20 reels that use the same song.

Perhaps there is just something about the song that screams “I go perfectly with animation exercises!”, and maybe that’s true, but I swear there are more songs out there that work just as well ( if not better)… and as an added bonus – aren’t on the demo reels of half your peers.

Try to stand out. What is more likely to happen: Someone sees your reel and goes, “I LOVE this song! you’re hired!” or “Uggh, this song again?!” *mute*. So I’m sure you’re thinking “that’s a pretty extreme example, W. Jacob, it’s just music.” Well, first of all, why are you calling me W. Jacob? Just call me Jacob. Secondly, why even risk putting yourself at any sort of disadvantage? And yes, I know, it is JUST music, and you will be hired based on animation ability not musical originality. Music choice may not help, but I think it can hurt.

Recently I was posed with this great question by Steve Derrick, Executive Group Manager at Vicarious Visions and all-around great guy.

If The Incredible Hulk were to fight Batman, who would win?

On the surface it appears to be somewhat of a simple question with more fan-type merit (I.E. Who would win – Mike Ditka or Godzilla?) than the more substantial personal revelation that results. So first, answer the question – who would win?

Why?

My answer was Batman. I’ve always been a big fan of Batman. I’m not totally sure why, but something drew me to him. He didn’t actually have super powers, this is true, but he was – to me – so much cooler than other superheros such as Spiderman, Superman, or the Hulk. He was very dark. And troubled. (These reasons may also be why I loved the X-men so much also – especially Wolverine). But with Batman, perhaps it was the film noir quality, which I still love, or maybe just that he had so many nifty toys, but whatever the case – I grew up being a fan of Batman. When posed with the ‘why’ part of the question, I thought for a second and came to the conclusion that Batman would triumph because of all those gadgets. He had lots of tools at his disposal to get the job done, while the hulk only had size and strength. Given this, I think Batman would figure out a way to beat him.

What this question actually does is reveal a little bit about your problem solving skills and theoretically reflects the way you handle stressful situations. I love it. So basically, if your answer is the Hulk, then when faced with a difficult situation (say, a crunch deadline for an animation) you would put your head down and go. Ignore the pain and just power through.  Work work work until the job is done. In this result, you clearly run the risk of burning out, and your output would suffer. If your answer is Batman, you are more of a problem solver. You use your resources, your tools, to figure out the best method to complete the task – perhaps delineate some of the work to Robin? You create a plan of attack that will be effective and efficient, whereas the Hulk method – even if you don’ t burn out – runs the risk of not even actually finishing the task due to lack of planning. There might not be too much forward thinking – such as “I still need to save time for *this*, time to move on.”

A very interesting question indeed. I found it to be incredibly intriguing.

And lets face it – Batman has always had cooler art direction (sorry Hulk fans). OK – I concede the TV shows were horrible, but look at the toon images at the top of the post, or take for example this image from the two recent movies of the respective subjects. Ignore the hideous-ness that is the two of those images side by side (oh god those color schemes next to each other! OHH the horror!) , and try to focus on only one of the pictures at a time. Each one is cool in its own way, but to me, that Batman image is… well.. awesome. It’s gorgeous.