SNEAKING INTO ANIMATION…

I get about a million emails a day asking me how to get into animation, and what schools and whatnot. And since I’d hate for amazing artists to end up doing something they hate for the rest of their lives when all they need was a few tips and some secrets and support… I'll try to do those things.

My parents drilled into me that artists can't make a decent living. They wanted me to be a bizzzzzznesss maaaan. Real bad. (vomit) I’d rather be homeless. A homeless adventurer!

I hoped to figure out some way to have adventures and do art and live off the land (and dumpsters). I spent about six years traveling around hopping trains, exploring jungles in South America and working on fishing boats. Traveling and writing and drawing and painting. I wanted to turn that somehow into illustrated adventure books... but I never finished anything.

I tried to settle down and go back to school. Went to the University of Utah for illustration. It sucked. Went to the Community college a little. Never got much out of either (well the community college did have a pretty good figure drawing program). I figured I was better off just learning on my own again... But I stopped getting any better, and it was hard for me to get out on paper the kind of stories I wanted to tell…

Eventually I realized I wanted to get into animation, and focus all the things I loved into one path. I researched schools, went on a road trip to check out a ton of them and found Calarts. I met Jorge Gutierrez [link] on a tour, who was doing some amazing shit, and had total freedom to make whatever he felt like making. I was sold.

Calarts was everything I’d been looking for in school, and had never gotten. My teachers were actually successful at doing exactly what they wanted to do (not people who gave up and then went into teaching as a plan B). And there was almost complete freedom. AND you got to make a film every year. This is especially awesome because at the end of the year you have to sit through everyone else’s shitty films. For over 8 hours straight. It is almost unbearable to watch so many shitty films. But it ingrains in you the difference between super entertaining films, and films that nobody really wants to watch. Plus at Calarts you get to see people naked all the time.

After 2 years I couldn’t afford school anymore. And with no experience, I couldn’t get a job. With no job I couldn’t get experience. Tricky.

(this is a secret: ITS NOT REALLY ABOUT EXPERIENCE. Its wether the person hiring likes hanging out with you, AND how good you are...)

A guest lecturer gave me the advice to find someone that is doing exactly what I wanted to do, and I look up to, and work for them for free. Then you get an education that’s tailored to exactly what you want to do. And its free! (AND YOU MEET OTHER PEOPLE WHO WOULD WANNA WORK WITH YOU... if you've proven yourself)

I pressed cartoon network to start an internship program until they let me in. I worked on Powerpuff Girls, where most of the people I looked up to were working. (Aaron Springer, Chris Reccardi, Craig Kellman, Dan Krall, Craig McCracken). I worked my ass off and asked for lots of advice and feedback, and it made all the difference. Everyone loves telling you their secret tricks if you’re appreciative. Plus they’ll feel for you and maybe help you get jobs. I was working on the show writing and storyboarding within a few weeks. Then I started learning my own tricks, at the craziest pace of my life...

If anyone wants em, I'll post up some secret storytelling tricks and show pitching secrets…