Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1153535
"Getting to talk to my teachers about their day jobs was a fun peek behind the curtain." "[Teaching] helps you relearn things. It's made my work much better." 36 KEYFRAME DAVID CHLYSTEK For more than 20 years David Chlystek has worked in the animation industry as a storyboard artist and director with credits on Batman Beyond, Ultimate Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy TV series. But a strong desire to give back led him to teach at the American Animation Institute, as well as offer his own "The Story Whisperer" seminars at The Animation Guild. "I had a lot of good teachers and mentors when I first started in the industry," he says. "They gave me information that I don't think most schools really cover." By this, he means the "why" of animation rather than the "how" of it. Yes, he wants his students to know how to create a shot, but he also wants them to know what they are trying to make their audience feel and think. "That's a better question to ask when you work," Chlystek explains. "A lot of artists don't understand the psychology of the camera. Whether you want somebody to have an emotion or not, they're going to have a reaction so you better be in control of that." For Chlystek, teaching keeps him from becoming set in his ways: "You get into a pattern of doing your work but when you're teaching there's a heightened awareness—[it] helps you to relearn things. It's made my work much better." In the symbiotic space of the classroom, Chlystek provides his students with a comprehensive understanding of storyboarding while they inspire him to be a lifelong learner too. Beyond drawing, his lessons are far-reaching, from relieving deadline stress to acting so storyboarders can learn how to convey emotion and action through their boards. Each lesson has its own purpose, and together they hopefully lead to what Chlystek feels is the greatest compliment a student can give him: "I want to be a storyboard artist because I took your class." SAMANTHA KING As a storyboard artist for Cartoon Network and a teacher at CalArts, Samantha King takes her job into the classroom and her classroom back to her job. "In TV the work is so fast- paced, sometimes you hit a certain level of autopilot," she says. "Taking a few hours a week to prep [for class] and then giving a three-hour lecture on visual storytelling means I get an in- depth personal refresher every week." Another part of King's give-and-take approach to teaching is offering her students what she craved when she was in their place, such as role models: "As someone who watched a lot of behind the scenes featurettes growing up, I rarely, if ever, saw women in the story departments." She also wanted to understand what it was really like working at a studio job. " While I was a student, a few of my teachers were also working studio jobs. Getting to talk to them about their day jobs was a fun peek behind the curtain, but also a relief," she says. "The unknown is scary, so having a teacher who was able to talk about their job as part of their daily life made thinking about the industry less paralyzing." Teaching provides a great deal of satisfaction for King, but she also believes that she and her fellow professionals have an obligation to help guide those entering their industry. " When we share what we know with students," she explains, " that gives them the space to not only absorb that knowledge and develop skills, but to surpass what they learn. If they can get into their first job already knowing what's needed, they can focus on doing their best work and creating something special. When generations can build on each other's expertise, the artform evolves. I think that's a win-win for everyone." F E AT U R E