Careers in Computer Animation

Interviewee: Scott Clark
Job Title : Supervising Animator, Pixar
Years in Field : Over 10 years

I really enjoy my co-workers. They have the same interests I do, and they’re at least as talented, if not more talented, than I am. As animators, we have to be collaborative. It’s hard for an artist’s ego to get in the way when you’re collaborating like that.

The bulk of my career as an artist is producing footage. I get a scene and it’s my job to animate the scene, to bring it to life, to convince the audience that the character exists as a living, breathing entity. It’s kind of an invisible craft.

Animation isn’t new, we’re just using a new medium. It’s different from 2-D animation, though we still use similar design elements as a drawing caricature. But at Pixar, we caricature these things with 3-D models. It’s like being an actor or puppeteer. In my department we animate humans, we don’t animate the wrinkles on the shirt, or the hair on the monster, or what water does. We’re all animating the same character and we have to collaborate to ensure the acting remains consistent.

As a supervising animator, my job is to help the director and work with the other departments: story, layout, set direction, lighting. There are all these pieces of the production pipeline, and I’m constantly in contact with people who are before us and the people down the line.

Entertaining the audience while giving them something new or surprising, instead of the easy solution. We have to do something new to make the character more believable because they have a human flaw. It’s believable because you’re not doing it perfectly; you’re doing it the way a person would do it. The best art is not predictable. It has surprises in it. The spine might be a familiar story, but layered on it are all these surprises that give the audience more than they expect.

We’re working in slow motion, 24 frames a second, beat by beat, pose by pose, to create this performance that’s very considered, but it goes by in seconds. It should feel like it’s happening for the first time. It’s the same thing an improv actor does. It’s an introverted form of acting; we’re hiding behind the bug or monster. Which is why I like animation. I’m interested in caricaturing things, because caricature shows more truth than if you’re trying to be realistic.

One of the skills people don’t realize is important is acting ability, being able to put yourself in another character. If you haven’t tried taking an acting or improv class, give it a go. A sense of design is also important. You aren’t animating a hologram; you’re animating one camera angle, projected on a flat screen. It’s the same thing as a play where the actors are on a proscenium, presenting themselves to the audience. I tell students to take life-drawing classes, animation classes. It helps to have a good sense of humor, a good sense of story. Animation is a very specific and odd craft. You’re combining a lot of different elements into one art.