10 Quick With Patrick Beaulieu

Today's 10 Quick interview is with talented Mr. Patrick Beaulieu.

When I stumbled upon Patrick's website, I was blown away by his work, as I'm sure many have in the past. I was all set to ask him to participate in the 10 Quick interview, when I saw this on his resume:

"Snakes on a Plane (2006) / animator (Layout)"

That sealed the deal. I had to get Patrick to do a 10 Quick no matter what.

Patrick was a bit concerned over the language barrier, as his first language is French, and I conduct my interviews in English. Once I explained to him that his English is FAR better than my French, he agreed to the interview! ;)

Honestly though, I think you'll find Mr. Beaulieu's answers to be quite informative, as well as inspiring. It's nice to see someone who has their priorities so in order.

Here goes...


1. Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you break into the business?

My name is Patrick beaulieu , I am borned in Quebec (Canada) in 1981. I've had been interested since I'm little about artistic skills so I decided later on to get a 3D formation here in Quebec city in 1999 at Institut Athena , at school I discovered animation and character creation so I decide to invest my time in animation and cartoon design . Im currently working at Ubisoft as animator. In my spare time, I like create cartoon character , make new animation and forever planning out my next project.

2. Which of your work are you most proud of?

Its Freaky bird. Ive created this character since a long time now, but I always prefer this one to all other character ive done. I don’t know why, but I really love this character , that’s was my first real character , that’s was the start of my style, so now I try to evolve with this style .. Im proud to all my character and animation to, I always try to make my best in what Ive created but, freaky will always be my best one.



3. What are the main tools and/or programs you use to create your work?

At Home, I always used 3D studio max. I used shag hair / fur for the fur or feather on my character… for the texture part, I use photoshop or painter , depend on what kind of texture I need. I’ve work with Xsi and Maya at home when I’ve work at Hybride and Interstation for practice my skills for my professional work. But in general, that’s all the software I always use.

4. What's a typical day in your life like?

A typical day in my life… its quite simple but here’s my typical day. I wake up a 6 o’clock, I start to work at 7 o’clock, I start to read my animation task at work and after begin some animation. During the day, I try to put some time to check all animation my animator’s collegue done. Im currently in charge of the animation approuval process… so everyday, I need to comment all animation and try to push more all animation to have everyones animation uniform (for the style) and have a great animation quality. After my 8 hours of animation and approuval, I go back home , play with my dog, have good time with my girlfriend and make some 3D personal stuff. That’s my typical day. Ubisoft, thats a really cool environnement where its fun to work, that’s a new studio and everyones is really talented and great worker. That’s a video game compagnie so , these a lot of great thing like playing during work. I work here since one years now, as an animator and I really like it .. In addition to being a animator at Ubisoft, I am also 3d teacher at College Bart (14 hours a week) so, sometime when I get back home after working, I need to prepare some 3D stuff for my classes or go the College Bart for teach 3D to my student..

5. Who or what are some of your artistic influences?

As an animator Im influenced by some animators like Bobby Boombeck ( Ive meet this guy during a day at Ubisoft and that’s was a really great experience), or other animator like Cameron Miyasaki, Mike Thurmeier. As an artist , im influenced by talented artist like Oli Josman, Bobby Chiu. Im influenced to by some studios like , Pixar, Blu Sky, Dreamworks for all 2D and 3D movie they done… I like to watch these movie, every aspect of their art are perfect !



6. Would you say that you're a 3D artist who dabbles in 2D from time to time, or a 2D artist who happens to work in 3D?

Im a 2D artist who happens to work in 3D. Ive always like to draw and work on 2D, but since Ive meet the computer and all possibilitys, Ive change a bit and completely turning my eye on the 3D. I try to keep and focus to have a great image or great animation based on 2D animation or drawing principle but with 3D , everything is possible, if you whant , you can do a really cool animation with great character great render and nice animation really fast. In 2D its possible to but its more longer… That’s why I love 3D.

7. What are 3 of the best things about your job, and what are 3 of the worst?

The 3 best things about my job … First, be an animator, that’s a really cool, you just need to move a character, that’s simple , find a great idea and that’s it… That’s better than flipping bugger at Mcdonald. Second, working in a creative environment, I work at different studio since 5 years and I always love all the team where I have working, so, its really cool to work with other who love the 3D as much as me. Third, working on great CG production… thats really interesting, you can learn many things about cinema, video game and everything, that’s cool.
The 3 worst things about my job, First , always working to be up to date I currently have a job 4 hours a week but I always feel that I need to work at home to try new soft and create new animation or new images… Its maybe not necessary but I always think about created news things so I need to work a lot of time, it’s a work for passioned people. Second, rush time on project, That’s not always like that but in the end of a production, you need to make overtime to finish the project, that’s not funny to put all your personnal project on the side and personal life for making overtime. Third, I try to find a third worst things about my job but I don’t find it… maybe because I really like my job.

8. Alright, I see on your site that you worked on the highly-anticipated, "Snakes On A Plane." How were you involved in this upcoming film that has already become a pop-culture staple?

I don’t work a lot of time on this movie cause I’ve quit Hybride at the beginning of the production of this movie. I participate to the pre-production, working on the snake animation test to determine the style or the way to animate a snake, That’s seem to be really easy to animate a snake but its not like that. Created a rig to animated a snake can be really complexe. At Hybride, they work really hard to make a perfect rig for animators can brings these 3D snake to life. I participate to the first step of this movie, the layout part in the beginning of the project. I really hope to see the final result, I think that’s will be a great movie, I know some detail about the movie and I’ve see some footage to, so I thinks that’s will be a great entertainment movie.



9. Your personal work seems to be very cartoony in nature, while your professional work tends to be more realistic. Which style do you prefer working in and why?

Depend on the project, I really like to created cartoon character, find a great design, start the modelling and everything for make a small animation… but created something really realistic at home , that’s a lot of job, created a hi-resolution character, created realistic texture and great rig…. For finally finish to make my animation, at home is to much … So in the industry, I just work as an animator so I just need to animate the character, an other guy created the mesh, an other the rig , an other the texture.. so when I receive the character ready for the animation so I can focus only on the animation. In animation, its always interesting to animate different style.

10. After many film projects, you recently made the switch to games. What was the reason for the switch?

The main reason I decided to move in video game is really simple. I always live at Quebec city, where all my family and friend currently living. Since 3 years ago, I’ve decided to move to Montreal for working in the film industry. At Montreal , you can work in film, video game and publicity … finding a job is really simple, these a lot of 3d company. After 2 years working at Hybride, I’ve discuss with my girlfriend about ‘’have a baby’’, buy a home and have a really stable life. So we decided to return to Quebec to buy our house and have a baby and live at Quebec. But working at Quebec is really different than Montreal, I don’t have a lot of choice of compagny for working, I can working in small 3D compagny or working in big video game compagny so I decided to switch in video game for come back in Quebec city. Its totally different to working in video game but that’s a really cool job to working at Ubisoft as an animator and I really like it. Im really proud to have working on film, that’s was a really great experience but now I have a new challenge , it’s the video game animation. In two month, I will be a father … that’s will be a little girl (Amy). We are really happy to have make the move to Quebec cause now I have a house, im close to my friend and family, I will have a girl and I like my job so Im Happy !


A big thank you to Mr. Patrick Beaulieu for answering the 10 Quick for this week. Make sure you swing by his website when you have time.

If you'd like to see more of Patrick's work, check out his demo reel:

Patrick's Demo Reel

Thanks again, Patrick!