thescratchpost.com

Dariush has been farting around LA for a few years now. After getting a masters in animation at USC fim school, he began by working at places like Sony Hi Def, South Park, and Rhythm & Hues to keep the USC student loan man happy. He is currently working as a staff animator in Maya for In Sight Pix in Venice during the days, and teaches 3d Studio Max, Maya, and After Effects at The Art Institute of LA, Gnomon, and UCLA Extension. He is bald and likes talking to small furry animals.

**********

Keeping up with the special effects animation industry is quite a feat. Aside from the obligatory ear you have to keep to the Hollywood ground, there is a more important aspect of education that calls us up off our coaches and into classrooms.

I’ve been asked several times what I think is the best way for an animator, amateur and professional, to keep up with the constantly updated and revised software suites. And that’s relatively simple: work your ass off. The best training anyone will ever get in this field (and almost any if not all other fields) is work. Walking into your office, sitting down at your desk, and being handed storyboards and concepts drawings, and being told, “Go! You have eight seconds to tickle the client and make him feel like he’s a God for coming up with this absurdly stupid animation idea.”

Well, let’s start from the beginning. How do you get into that office? How do you let the potential employer that you know your stuff and that you’re king of your digital domain (no relation)? The first step in showing your prowess in any animation software is a demonstration of your work in a demo reel. And that brings us back to my point. Most amateur or inexperienced animators venture into the animation classroom hoping to walk out with a VHS they can send off to a company with which to be hired. Well, frankly, that ain’t gonna happen. Demo reels are culled from extensive practice and work on a particular animation package. Whatever your choice is, Maya, SoftImage, 3D Studio Max, Houdini, etc., your best work will simply come from outside the class. It comes from you sitting at home or at a lab on a workstation, working your ass off on your own animation or modeling project.

* “Well does that mean I shouldn’t take a class?”

No! Hell no! And this brings me to my point again. Classes offer quite a few valuable assets to a novice’s quest for the digital grail. Firstly, and most importantly, it is quite difficult to sit with a 3D package and learn it out of a book or a manual. A class gives you an invaluable asset, a teacher who will in face-to-face high broadband interaction, show you the buttons gizmos and gadgets that clutter up the user interface. They will help you understand where everything is and what everything does. Secondly, a class gives you a structured time and place to work on your education of your chosen 3D software. It gives you a valuable excuse to expand your knowledge base and a good short-term goal of finishing a class project, or doing an assignment. Thirdly, a classroom gives you access. Not just to a computer running the latest version of the software, but also to a classroom full of fellow students, with brains full of opinions and knowledge ready for the picking.

* “Yes, but didn’t you just tell me that I won’t walk out of there with a demo reel?”

Yes I did, and it’s true. You won’t walk out of a beginning class with a reel. What I hope my students will walk away with from one of my classes, is not just a better understanding of how to use the software, but a genuine vigor to experiment with the program and continue their own learning, which will inevitably lead to that demo reel.

* “Well then, are classes just for beginners? I already know the program, I already have a job, why should I spend the dough for a class?”

If you have a job in the field, you should already know the answer to this one: maintenance. Pure and simple, you have got to keep up with the Joneses. For success and longevity, you need to keep up to date on what’s out and what’s hot.

Hollywood is a fickle place. New software becomes the new “hot thing” about as often as you change your underwear, and for a working professional, one of the easiest ways to update their skills and broaden their professional horizons, is to take a class. Whether it’s a refresher, or it’s a beginning level in a new program, we can always benefit from learning.

* So what the hell am I trying to say?

Aside from the fact that I like to listen to myself type, I want to make it clear that a class is only a step. It is not an end and a means, but just a place to plant your foot on your path to getting into this business. The most valuable time you can spend on your animation is by yourself. But a class can be integral in teaching you how to use the proper tools for that.

Good luck!

Be Sociable, Share!

•