Expert: Russell Calabrese - 7/12/2010

Question
QUESTION: hi...
I Am prathyusha doing my engineering 3rd year.....
I'm really very interested in 3d animations...
thinking to join ANTS college banglore after my engineering......
is my decision right about the college.....?
can i expect a good future in this field???
i mean can i find good jobs???
I'm really very confused..
please suggest me.....
thankyou......

ANSWER: Hello Prathyusha,

I'm not familiar with ANTS College. If you live in India you have a better chance of getting a job in animation than I do here in the USA. There are many good jobs in animation but I'm not familiar with your country's pay scale. If you want to learn animation you really have to be interested in the art of it to be good at it. There are a lot of technical jobs in the animation/special effects aspects if art isn't what you're best at. Have something to fall back on if animation doesn't work out for you. I feel that being a graduate in engineering is a good safety net.

Hope this helps.

®©


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: how did U actually begin your studies in animation??????

Answer
Hello Prathyusha,

As a child (a long time a go) I loved watching cartoons on TV and at the movies. I started to make flip books on pads of paper and in my school books on the outside margins. I was very interested in film making and made 8 mm movies with my friends. As I got older I started to rent 16 mm films of the cartoons I liked and would look at them frame at a time with a magnifying glass to study the differences frame by frame. I bought the Preston Blair animation book, which was the only thing available when i was a kid, and studied that. It was available at the time in art supply stores.

I eventually applied for a job n a Film called "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure" Directed by Richard Williams. I was first hired as a cel polisher, then got promoted to cel painter or what was known as an opaquer. After that film was over I got a job as a general apprentice at Perpetual Motion Pictures, which was a small studio in New York City, and worked under many master animators, designers, painters and layout people to learn all the aspects of animation. As I got better I got promoted and continued to learn all the new technologies as they happened along.

I would take classes along the way such as Richard Williams Master Class, which is available in book form now. I took animation studies with Leonard Maltin and still continue to take classes to learn new software and techniques.

It's a never ending process.

Hope this helps.

Russell