Animation Fest 2021 Highlights
Written By Render Q Team: Shane Guion, Andrea Rosado, Alexis Behilo
Scad Animation Fest 2021 was packed with industry vets and knowledgeable SCAD alumni. If you missed it, here are the highlights of the events:
Thursday 23, 2021
Unpacking Bento Box: Career Paths and the Day-to-Day at an Animation Studio :
Sept. 23, 2021 12pm
The animation company behind acclaimed titles such as Bob’s Burgers, Paradise PD, and Housebroken; Bento Box came to the SCAD Animation Fest to talk about the operations and day-to-day life of people who work at the animation studio. This adult-themed animation company has two main studios, one in Atlanta and one in LA. Brooke Keesling, head of Animation Talent Development, and Jason Stiff, Producer, both talked about the similarities and differences of the two studios. The Atlanta studio was described as being animation and production focused, while the LA studio is more focused on pre-and post-production. Although both studios may be focused more on one part of the animation pipeline than the other, the two studios interact a lot with one another.
As for the environment of the animation studio, animators Allister Gainey, Carl Hilton Jr, and Jack Lavoie described it as being a safe place where everyone around you is knowledgeable and passionate about animating. They also described working at Bento Box as a fantastic resource of animation knowledge; if a person needs help, they turn around and ask the animator next to them for advice. Although because of Covid, working conditions changed, and most people had to work online from home. Even in the face of this adversity, Jason Stiff said that some people thrived during the pandemic. And the animation company doubled in size over the past year across both studios.
For people interested in applying to Bento Box, the staff gave some tips about applying and even described the testing process. Jason Stiff stated that in animators’ portfolios, they should have a variety of work. Therefore, candidates that only show their skills for only one thing are rarely given consideration. Additionally, besides a variety of work, they want to see what you are most passionate about. For the hiring process, Bento Box tests animation candidates before hiring them to the company on things such as Toon Boom, rigging tools, and Harmony. Candidates get 24 hours to complete a task given to them, but animator Carl Hilton Jr. recommended that you show what you can do in a workday and not use up the whole 24 hours.
While at the studio, the animators stated that they learned more at the studio working with others than anywhere else. As with any other career, animation is one where a person continues to learn the more they do it. Bento Box is a company that will continue to grow along with its employees.
The Lighting of Pixar’s Soul
Sept.23 1pm
The associate chair of Animation, Bernardo Warman, hosted this conversation with Max Bickley, Scad alumni, lead technical director and light artist in Soul. Max Bickley graduated from Scad in 2008 with a BFA in Visual Effects. He has worked in several Pixar movies such as Coco, Brave, Inside Out, and his most recent project, Soul.
During this event, Max Bickley went over the pipeline of Soul. Firstly, the pipeline’s pre-production stage was the “idea generator”. Max mentioned that the story development occurred with the script and storyboards in this stage. Next, during the Asset Production Stage, Max Bickley started working and testing lighting on the shaded and modeled characters produced in this stage. Lastly, he explained that during the Shot Production stage, the team added the lights to finalize individual shots. This pipeline, unique from other movies, had to be divided in two. Since there is a parallel story between the ethereal and real world of this film, their unique art style had to be approached differently dividing the process in two.
The speaker also shared a presentation of his final work and process as a light artist in this movie. The lighting team had to go through several challenges. He explained that one of the main challenges was lighting a dark character, which sometimes resulted in it being either too bright or too dull. As he mentioned, it was a new type of canvas for the team. In addition to this, they had to figure out how to light a soul. Compared to the real-world-tactile surfaces, they had to come up with an ethereal and transparent look, but that, in addition, had to be a solid shape.
Max Bickley showed different examples of how light pushed forward many scenes. For example, he had to design the light composition to enhance the protagonist’s silhouette. Lighting makes the world more visually appealing. From the tiny windows in Joe’s room to the headlight crowds in the New York City’s night shot, every challenging detail of this process brought the story of Pixar’s Soul to life.
Star Wars: Visions
Sept. 23 6pm: Disney + Presents Star Wars: Visions
On Thursday, September 23, we had the privilege of hearing from guest speaker Justin Leach. Justin is the Co-Executive Producer and showrunner for the Disney+ series “Star Wars: Visions. All nine episodes of the anthology series dropped on September 22, and Justin gave great insight into the show’s conception.
Justin had prior experience working with Lucasfilm on the show “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and said that many of the people he worked with were huge anime fans, including himself. When Lucasfilm greenlit the project, Justin got to work and sought out different studios to work on the project. Justin claimed that about two of the pitches didn’t make the final cut, and they ended up with the final nine stories.
Making a single season of a tv show is already difficult but what made this show a unique challenge for Justin and his team was that he was essentially making nine episodes of a show all at once with six different studios. Another added difficulty was working remotely due to the pandemic, which led to many of the meetings and audio recordings over Zoom.
Justin believes that the anthology-style is a great format and would love to see more anime in Star Wars in the future. The event ended with a Q&A from a few SCAD students. Some of the questions included “How do you balance creative liberty with maintaining consistency” and “How did you decide to go for the anime style for this project.”
Friday 24, 2021
The FX of The Boss Baby:Family Business
Sept.24 12pm
During this event, Garret Illardi, Visual Effects Scad Professor, interviewed Scad Alumni that worked in Dreamworks’ The Boss Baby: Family Business. One of the speakers was Jason Mayer, who works as the head of the FX at Dreamworks. He graduated from Scad in 2003 with an MFA in Computer Arts. Next, Jinguang Huang was an FX artist in the film that also graduated from Scad in 2017 with an MA in Visual Effects. Lastly, Jim Koonce worked as an FX artist in Boss Baby: Family Business and graduated Scad in 2016 with a BFA in Visual Effects.
The guests shared multiple examples of scenes in which they contributed. For example, Jim Koonce worked on the background and ocean of the “Water Torture Chambers” scene. He explained how the team developed a tool in Houdini that permits to add more detail and movement in the water ripples as it has contact with the characters. Jinguang Huang also explains how he added the effects and detail of the ice cream and lollipop to push forward the visuals in one of the scenes. In addition to their contribution, the speakers also shared some of the challenges they had to go through. For example, they had to create dangerous weapons that looked like plastic toys in one of the scenes. In the end, the color composition helped them solve this problem.
Sometimes, 2D techniques are incorporated in 3D animation. The speakers showed how this was done in The Boss Baby: Family Business. For example, the team used 2D animations like Tom and Jerry’s references to exaggerate the story and enhance the comedy within The Boss Baby: Family Business. They also used Paint Overs done through Photoshop to establish a stylized fire shape on the background of one of the scenes.
Apart from discussing the team’s experience within the film, some interview questions were addressed from a Scad perspective. The speakers took their time to provide advice to Scad Students. They established the importance of collaborations; scaling down what each person will contribute facilitates the process and emphasizes each person’s skill. Also, collaborations help students land a job.
At the end of this event, the guests shared their Scad Demo Reel and answered questions from students in the audience. They recommended that when students share their projects in the Demo Reel, they should also share the thought process behind them. Breaking down the project shows the creative part and portrays the artist’s story, giving the interviewers a reason to hire them.
SCAD Alumni Voices
Sept.24 3pm
We had the privilege of hearing SCAD alumni give current and future students advice about what it takes to be successful in the industry. The guest speakers were Keachia Greenidge, who is currently working at Bark Bark; Ariel Paxton, currently working at Nickelodeon; Cierra, a background designer at Bento Box; and Emily Rodriguez, a freelancing artist.
The four of them offered great perspectives for future students on things that they can do to maximize their opportunities while studying at SCAD. One piece of advice they gave was to use every assignment given to you in class as a tool to help you find a job. Cierra believes that any project you do in class could possibly be added to your portfolio or demo reel. Keachia also believes that getting involved in student organizations will help as she became a student ambassador, and it benefitted her communication skills.
One important question they were all asked is what they think it takes to be successful. The common response for the four of them was to be hardworking and kind towards others. It was here when Emily brought up an important point: feeling burnt out. She claimed that it is important to be hardworking, but some people may burn themselves out; therefore, it is important to take a break and prioritize yourself when you are starting to feel that way.
The audience brought up some great questions, such as asking where the best place for animators to find work would be. They all confirmed that the internet was the best place to start with simple google searches or job postings on recruiter websites such as Indeed. Another important audience question related to finding work was about how to network in the virtual world. Keachia said to take advantage of virtual conferences; since most are free, you don’t have to travel. On the other hand, Cierra believed social media platforms such as LinkedIn are an excellent place to network.
Before wrapping the event, final pieces of advice echoed the same idea of making the most out of SCAD while you are there. For example, making time for friends, taking advantage of SCAD run programs, seeking out opportunities, and receiving from the education precisely what you put in.
Character Design in Animation:
Friday, Sept. 24, 2021 5pm
SCAD Alumni Claire Almon, Amanda Bell, Ida Hem, and Benjamin Tong all talked about their journeys and techniques of being character designers in animation. Each SCAD Alumni is similar in the fact that they all did not know at first that they wanted to do character design for animation. They took the long route before realizing that animating was not for them, and they all had passions for only doing the part of the pipeline they love the most; character design. Each of these former SCAD Bees talked about their journeys and techniques in character design.
Benjamin Tong talked about how he does lots of research before he starts working on his character design. He finds that when he creates straight from his head, the design is very generic and unoriginal. In order to put more creativity into his work, Ben researches material such as references from other artwork, movies, and real life.
Amanda Bell spoke about an aspect of character design that she didn’t know when she entered the industry. The element being; you don’t always design a character from scratch; you work with others and take people’s designs to create expressions, poses, or outfits.
Ida Hem, while working in the TV industry, described how she mostly created special poses. A special pose is where a character is in a position that has certain extravagant aspects to it. For example, Ida stated that she would work on special poses to fill in the gaps for puppet animation, extreme motion, special lighting, and special shadow direction.
Claire Almon worked in many different industries, such as television, children’s books, and mobile games. Her main takeaway was to be flexible with the designs and to not be precious with them. In this industry, designs need to be made for animation; therefore, certain clothing designs or intricate details can’t be added to characters.
Each SCAD Alumni had great stories about their journeys and great advice to give to current SCAD Bees. As seen by their paths in life, it can take a while to get to where you feel you are most passionate about your work, but once you are, the journey will have been worth it.
2021 Award of Excellence Presentation to Everett Downing Jr :
Friday, Sept. 24, 2021 6pm
Oscar-winning director, story artist, and passionate animator Everett Downing Jr. received the 2021 SCAD Animation Fest’s Award of Excellence. As a young boy, he loved reading comic books, which eventually led him to discover his love for animation. Everett continued to follow his passion and became the best he could be at animation. His efforts led him to where he is now; a passionate animator and director of a proclaimed animated short.
The SCAD Animation Fest screened the animation “We The People,” where Everett directed it and worked with the producers: the Obamas. Audra Price Pittman. The vice president for SCAD Atlanta interviewed Everett about his life journey and work on “We The People.” When asked how the animated short was created, Everett said he was given the music the animation would flow with and would listen to it over and over. He listened to the music and felt how it would combine with animations, wanting it to be a moving montage of images. He gave prompts to the studio he was working with- Buck Studios -and they took his prompts and ran with it, adding their creativity to the mix. The result? Beautiful storytelling, a work of 3D art that looked like a 2D montage of moving images.
Describing his life journey and path with working projects, Everett stated that you should have a connection to the project or love the story you’re telling. “To feel the love coming through the screen” is the type of art Everett works on. Additionally, the animation industry is all about collaboration. The advice he gave to students was to collaborate as much as possible because the more it’s done, the more skills are gained to be a good participant.
Everett’s next work is on a new Netflix series called My Dad the Bounty Hunter, soon to be released. He stated that it is his “love letter to science fiction and black families.” Everett’s passion for animation resonated with everyone watching the presentation, and he will continue in the industry to follow his passion.
Saturday 25, 2021
SCAD Student Showcase Spotlight: ‘The Ocean Duck’
Sept.25 12pm
Joining us to showcase their short film titled “The Ocean Duck” was Director/Producer Huda Razzak and a few of her team members. The showcase started with the film screening about a young woman and her connection with her elderly grandmother.
The film has a visually unique art style which the director claimed the initial inspiration came from illuminated manuscripts from the 16th century. Huda spoke about keeping a consistent art style, saying that the art direction came primarily from one person and by sticking close to the source images. However, even though they stuck close to the source images, each artist that was brought on was able to transmit their style, which helped evolve the film’s overall look.
The panel wrapped up providing advice to people looking to work on collaborative projects, such as starting work as soon as possible to avoid things getting rushed. One way to help get started early is to have a clear vision of the project so that you can give clear instructions to the team on what you would like them to do. It is also essential as a leader to empower the people working for you and make them feel like their work matters for the final version of the project.
Animating Music Videos and Documentaries: Telling a Story that Live Content Can’t
Sept. 25 2pm
The final event of the Scad Animation Fest was hosted by Christina Maloney, Motion Media Design Professor. She had a conversation with the guest speakers Sean Donnelly, Animation Director of the documentary The Lady and The Dale; Konee Rok director of Phife Dawg’s Forever; and Joseph Wallace, animator in The Sparks Brothers.
As the conversation began, the speakers discussed the importance of quality in animation. They emphasized that anybody with a computer can provide content for music videos during this century. However, the significance behind the official music video of any artist is to provide quality content. Konee himself mentioned that during his project, he focused mainly on the presentation of the video.
The speakers narrated their experiences during their respective music production. All were hybrids between pictures, animation, and videos. As Sean Donnelly went over the creative process of his project The Lady and The Dale, he mentioned that this documentary was a very heavy Adobe After Effects workflow. The pandemic pushed forward this video creation to be entirely animated, making this production much more interactive. In addition, the stop motion animation technique made the project much more detailed and visually appealing. He advised Scad students to learn to animate the traditional way, frame by frame. Even though it might not be used as much during the career, because the computer automates the process, learning the traditional way is a valuable tool to push forward stories, something that a computer cannot do.
Christina Maloney asked the speakers what triggered their dream to be part of the animation industry while they were young? Even though the speakers had different experiences in their youth, all three of them shared something in common. They spent their time playing, mixing media and storytelling, something that today in their careers was very rewarding.
The speakers shared advice, particularly on dealing with client’s feedback. For example, even though an artist should consider their clients’ notes, it is also important to defend the vision and convince the client why a particular video aspect is essential? Finally, the event ended with a Q&A session, and the speakers deepened their advice for the audience.
The SCAD Animation Fest is one of many amazing events that you can attend throughout the year. If you like reading this article be sure to follow and like us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we will post updates on new RenderQ articles.