Today I posted a response on AWN to a young man worried about chances of  ending up at a top company. I thought I’d share it with you, so here it is!

Studying Animation

You didn’t say what you’re studying. Do they have an animation department?

Does it include life drawing, anatomy, cartooning, character design, layout, story boarding and lots of classical animation? 2d and 3d computer animation? Acting and improvisation? Drawing for animation? Visual storytelling?

Studying all of this will definitely get you on the right path. If that’s what they offer, you’re on the way.

Once you graduate, the fact that you don’t start at Dreamworks doesn’t mean you won’t eventually get to work for them, and it also doesn’t mean that that’s the only good gig in town. Sometimes you can actually learn more working for a smaller company where you may be called on to do a number of different jobs.

Certainly in my experience, graduates have been hired based on their demo reels, portfolios, professionalism, and ability to sell themselves at an interview, not on what school they went to. When we first began and were unknown, we had some students who were hired by big companies that only learned about the school because grads had submitted portfolios and demo reels!

Companies need good employees. They don’t make more money because you went to a certain school.

Which reminds me, if some schools have so many applicants that they can take in people who already have lots of skills under their belts before they even begin (and would probably succeed no matter where they went to school) those students may end up ahead of you…but not forever!

It’s the right thing to pursue your dreams and start to develop your potential even if you’re a late bloomer. You still have the right- and the obligation to yourself- to try. If you have the curiosity and the passion and you keep animating and thinking and learning, you’ll get better and better. You’ll catch up and you may even surge ahead.

The grads who end up at top companies share passion, work ethic, and a desire to be shown where their work could be better. They can’t wait to get back at it and do it better the next time. They take direction well, which also makes them desirable employees.

With animation students, it’s also telling who does extra work, who keeps animating over the summer. . who are the students who redo exercises?

Ken is right about criticism. The instructors who have high standards are your friends. They’re telling you what isn’t working, what to redo, what to work on. That’s what you should crave! It should be expected, if you’re a student, that work will not be perfect and that you’ll need to try and try again.

If you have a positive attitude about learning, can deal with frustration, and know that you’ll need to do more than satisfy the course requirements, you’re well positioned to improve.

It’s more about working at it than anything.

This post is from Animation Magazine. We are reprinting it out of respect for Roy Disney and his fight to bring Disney back to the vision and standards it began with!  Thanks Roy.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009
By: Ramin Zahed

Roy E. Disney, Walt’s nephew and longtime exec producer and senior exec at the Disney Studio passed away today (Wednesday, Dec. 16) in Newport beach, Calif. after a year-long battle with stomach cancer, reported the Associated Press.

“He was a great man who believed deeply in the art of animation. He put his heart and soul into preserving Disney’s legendary past, while helping to move the art of animation into the modern age by embracing new technology,” noted John Lasseter, Disney/Pxar’s chief creative officer, who first met Disney while a student at CalArts. “He was a visionary and passionate supporter of the art form.”

Disney was a champion of the company’s classic animation and helped bring about the first renaissance of traditional animation in the 1980sa nd 1990s by supporting the animation teams behind classics such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. He was also recognized widely as a powerful shareholder in the company who spearheaded two successful campaigns to oust company heads (his cousin-in-law Ron Miller and later on, Michael Eisner) who he believed were taking the company in the wrong direction.

Soft-spoken and unpretentious, Disney was also seen as the “soul” of the company by many insiders. “The thing that distinguishes [Disney] from everybody else, and always has and always will, is our past,” he once said “The goal is to look over our shoulder and see Snow White and Pinocchio and Dumbo standing there, saying, ‘Be this good.’ We shouldn’t be intimidated by them; they’re an arrow pointing someplace.”

Disney grew up on his uncle’s now-classic retellings of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. He also received a sound education in finance from his father Roy Sr., who oversaw Disney Co.’s business end. Upon graduating from Pomona College in 1951, the younger Disney followed his uncle and father into the entertainment industry, working as an editor, screenwriter and producer on a host of projects, from TV’s Dragnet and Zorro to the Oscar-nominated film Mysteries of the Deep.

He would also later produce 2004′s acclaimed Destino, using mid-century animation Salvador Dali created for Walt Disney Co., and Fantasia 2000, a sequel to his uncle’s 1940 classic.

Disney, who also founded the private equity firm Shamrock Holdings, is survived by his wife, Leslie, four children from a previous marriage —Tim Disney, Roy Patrick Disney, Abigail Disney and Susan Disney Lord—and 16 grandchildren. Following private funeral services and cremation, Disney’s ashes will be scattered at sea. Plans for a memorial will also be announced soon.

• Jim Wickey : Director : Vistavox Entertainment

  Thursday, December 17, 2009

  Roy was the link to the past, a very human reminder of the importance of story, character and Disney tradition. The fact that he was unwilling to bend the Disney name and legacy for pure financial gain is sterling tribute. If all of us in the Animation community could learn from the Disney integrity our industry would be that much richer. He will be missed. As for the future of Disney, thank God for John Lasseter.

• Wayne Sung :

  Thursday, December 17, 2009

  If it weren\’t for Roy we wouldn\’t have gotten Fantasia 2000. It goes to show how much Roy believed in his uncle\’s dreams, making them his own. I still remember how surprised I was at how much he looks like Walt. I hope he got to see the final version of Princess and the Frog before he passed. I would think he\’d approve.

• Tom Sito : animation director :

  Thursday, December 17, 2009

  In his softspoken way, Roy guided the animation dept into the 21st Century. His modest folksy demeanor masked a shrewd businessman, who masterminded two revolutions in upper management in 1984 and 2006. He was a billionaire who seemed genuinely in awe of creative people. It\\\’s rare to find a photo of him with us where he was not smiling. We animators loved him, and when he appeared at our Guild holiday party in 2005 he cheered him like a returning Caesar.
  Through his humility he repaired old feuds like the one between Art Babbit and the Disneys, something Art never forgot until his death in 1991.
  Roy didn\\\’t draw, but he could lead. And without him, we would have No Ariel, No Belle, No Roger, No Buzz, no Simba and no Tiana.
  See ya, Roy!

• Seymour :

  Thursday, December 17, 2009

  Roy didn\’t always have it easy at the company his dad and uncle founded but he persevered and was there to make a difference when it really counted.

Written by Free Audio Books – Free audiobooks on December 10, 2009 – 9:28 pm –

Teachers trying to get students interested in molecular biology or space now have a new tool — video games.

As more children grow up playing video games, educators are partnering with game developers and scientists to create new interactive experiences for the classroom.

A trio of new games were developed to make subjects like world culture, molecular biology and space exploration more accessible and fun for young minds.  Reuters

Starts August 23, 2010

Everyone has a story to tell and Joan believes anyone who has the desire or wishes they could visualize and draw a storybook….can!

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Princess and the Frog Opens Nationwide

Friday, December 11, 2009
By: Thomas J. Mclean

Having completed its limited, debut run, Disney’s long-awaited return to 2D animation, The Princess and the Frog, is about to run wide.

The studio’s return to its fairy-tales and princesses roots opens in more than 3,400 theaters this weekend amid solid reviews and high box office expectations.

The film has earned a 78 percent positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com and a score of 69 on Metacritic.

Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, The Princess and the Frog stars Anika Noni Rose as Tiana, with Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen and Keith David as Dr. Facilier. Also providing voices are Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard and John Goodman.

This article is reprinted from Animation Magazine. Max the Mutt had several graduates working on this film!

Classical animation has it’s own special feeling and will never be out of style.  The only threat to its existence is the need for animation artists who can DRAW.  Max the Mutt’s animation program is dedicated to drawing and classical character animation, and the use of those skills in classical, 2D and 3D computer animation.

Ryan Henson Creighton has  good things to say about Max the Mutt students.

“Hi Carla. I’ve contracted work to a few of your students – Kelly Conley and Andrei Skarine – and I’ve worked with T-K Labus on a few funding proposals.  I would take Andrei as a summer student in a chicken minute.  Check out the phenomenal work he did for our upcoming trivia game:”

Work done by Andrei Skarine – a second year Max the Mutt Concept Art student.

Click Here to view site

Click Here to view site

Link for the work done by Kelly Conley. Click Here to view site

Graphic Storytelling – mornings with Ken Steacy

Ken’s morning sessions will cover visual storytelling in comics, graphic novels and storybooks. Joan’s afternoon sessions will  take the pages done in Ken’s class and focus on traditionally and digitally rendering in gray-tone and colour for completion of the final artwork.

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Digital Rendering – afternoons with Joan Steacy:

Joan’s afternoon sessions will  take the pages done in Ken’s “Intro to Graphic Storytelling” morning class and focus on traditionally and digitally rendering in gray-tone and colour for completion of the final artwork.

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This past  Saturday our friend and publicist Pat Christmas  lost a battle with cancer we never knew she was waging. My first reaction was regret: I hadn’t had a real talk with her in a long time, and I wished I’d had the chance to thank her again for all her support, advice, and generosity.  I’ll always regret not having had that last conversation.  Pat had an upbeat personality and a love of life.  The last time we saw her was at our industry evening in May 2009.  We never knew anything was wrong.  Pat believed in what we were trying to do and was always excited by the student work.  Her contacts in the world of publications trusted her- she was a publicist who worked for causes and companies she believed in, many of them non-profit.  It was her enthusiasm about us that brought a reporter from the Toronto Star to Max the Mutt. We ended up with a feature story about us and half a page of photos of student work.

We will all miss her, and in her memory we will establish a scholarship, the Patricia Christmas Memorial Scholarship. The first award will be announced this spring. We are in the process of working out the details.

Pat, it’s hard to think that we will really not see you again. Thank you for all you gave us.

We were told that she spent her last week with her husband and best friend watching her favorite comedienne, Lucille Ball, in old episodes of I Love Lucy. She left this world with the same positive spirit that energized her life. She will be missed.