Why 3D Animation?

A friend recently asked me, "Why computer animation?" Why would a farm kid from the state of Washington want to work in computers and make fuzzy animals dance and sing?

Well let's face it, up until a few years ago, Pixar was and still arguably is, the pinnacle for 3D animators. That's what people were working towards. In other words, a vast majority of those of us who were wannabe 3D artists and animators were influence by Pixar and wanted to work there for a living. They wanted to make the next "Toy Story." Sure there were some that would much rather be working on "Star Wars" or making the Dinos for "Jurassic Park 12: Electric Boogaloo" but for the most part, if you were in 3D animation, at least a small part of you would love the chance to work for Pixar.



I was no exception.

Things have changed a great deal in the past few years, with big studios such as Dreamworks and Sony creating computer animation branches that have come close to rivaling, and in the case of films like "Shrek" equaling, the level of product released by Pixar. So while Pixar may not hold quite the appeal it once did, it's still considered by many to be "the show" and a pretty fancy feather for anyone's cap.



I'm no different. I think it would be an incredible experience to work for Pixar. Not only due to the fact that I would learn more there in 3 years than most people learn about animation in a lifetime, but also because I would know that so many people would be entertained by my contribution, if only for a few frames of animation.

And that's my motivation.

I'm an entertainer. While I'm not out juggling chainsaws or telling jokes on a stage, my goal is still to make people forget about their problems for just a bit and enter the world of the characters they are watching. If I make a simple model of a dog, it's not for people to marvel at how I was able to achieve the look with a limited number of polygons or how great my textures are, but instead I want them to look at that little model of a dog and say, "Wow... he's cute!" I want them to immediately begin to visualize what this dog would talk like and walk like and think like.



And kids? Well forget about it. Seeing a child's eyes light up at the site of anything I've created is about the best feeling in the entire world. I was drawing in a park one day, not far from the art school I attended, and a mom brought her little boy up to me. We smiled and she asked if they could see what I was drawing. I showed them some of my little cartoon characters and then sat back and watched as the little boy's eyes danced across the images I had crudely sketched out. He whispered something to his mom, and she asked if I would draw him something. So I drew a little cartoon depiction of him, holding a giant pencil. When I ripped the page out of my sketchbook and handed it to him, he looked down at the drawing, then back at me, and then the drawing, then me. The look on his face was as if I was a magician who had just produced a rabbit from a hat, right before his very eyes.

His mom said, "I think he likes it!"

And they were gone. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was just a hack artist, trying my best to make it from one drawing to the next, and frankly for this kid it didn't matter. He made me realize that the means of getting from point A to point B are important, but the ultimate goal is what your audience thinks of your work.

If we have the power to entertain one little boy, let alone millions watching a feature film, that's a pretty damn amazing thing.

All this being said, while Pixar or Dreamworks would be amazing, to me it would be just as rewarding and fulfilling to work on a short film such as Blur Studio's "Gopher Broke." While a major feature film may reach a wider audience, a film like "Gopher" was obviously made simply to entertain people. Of course Blur couldn't continue to power their computers off of knowing they entertained people, should they choose to make nothing but short films, but it's obvious this film was not created with profit as the number one concern. This was a film created to make people laugh.



With only seeing this industry from the outside, I can't speak with a fully-educated voice, but I know that as with any business, decisions are often made based on the bottom line and not the final product. The same thing happens in the videogame industry, which I can speak from experience on, as well as just about any other big business. Those "in the know" who back projects financially are often only concerned about turning a profit in a timely matter.

If I make it into the business of animation one day, and find myself animating, be it in games or shorts or feature films or anywhere for that matter, I hope I never forget the fact that entertainment should be the first priority. Whether it's a Lucky Charms commercial or a Dreamworks movie, the bottom line should not have anything to do with money. It should have to do with making people forget, even for a second, about their world and instead step into the one that the team that I'm a part of created. If you can pull that off, there will be plenty of profit for everyone involved.

I'm a realist, believe it or not, and I know that little boy has long since tossed that piece of paper away with my drawing on it. That's okay, because I know that for that moment, that kid was entertained by what I had done, even if he's long since forgotten about the dork he met in the park that day.

At its core, that's my motivation.

I will entertain you.

Deal with it.