Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/22917
Education he based the mo vement on action mo vies. His first short films took months to complete. Boivin animated the figures frame by frame, then composited the scenes into the back - ground. Using YouTube’s annotation feature, he made an interactiv e fight sequence: “You- Tube Street Fighter.” It worked. Boivin’s film got him 70,000 fol- lowers on YouTube and attracted the attention of Google, which commissioned him to create “Ninja’s Unboxing” to promote its phone. I n addition, his films have pulled in almost two million views. So, what’s next? “My real goal is to make liv e-action feature films,” he says. “But I will keep on doing shor t stuff for You- frames betw een key animation frames. H e moved up thr ough the ranks to become an animator, and then ev entually became head of the special effects department, leading a team of up to 20 animators. Ov er the course of three years, they worked on approximately six to eight studio projects. Alas, the hectic job drained his energy. “Te amount of work you do is staggering,” he points out. “At the end of the day, I barely had anything left.” Nevertheless, the work at Disney had a pos- itive influence on Phillips: “It is why my work features lots of elemental effects like water, fire, light, and shado w,” he explains. “ After I dis - covered Flash, though, I actually r esigned as stand on his o wn and pursue his cr eative en- deavors. “Te Internet is the world ’s biggest free art gallery, with millions of people walking through the doors every day,” he says. “If you can do something special, then your name will be remembered and doors will open up. It’s an exciting time for animators.” Learning Online Virtual schools, such as Animation M entor (www.animationmentor.com), ar e fueling a strong online community of both aspiring and pr ofessional animators, too . F ounded in 2005 b y Bobby Beck and his two best friends—Shawn K elly (ILM) and Carlos Short-film maker Boivin created “AT-AT Day Afternoon” using various postproduction skills, including bringing the robot to life by compositing a hand-controlled puppet head atop a physical model. Tube. Who knows, in 100 y ears those little movies might be there for people to see.” Like Boivin, P hillips has used the I nter- net to launch his independent car eer, but he has followed a different path. Te Australian animator was a born ar tist. “My mom r eck- ons that I could hold a pencil befor e I could walk,” he says. Phillips kept right on drawing through school. H e actually left school early to accept an internship with a local graphics design company. Ten he did some freelance work for local firms. Disappointed with the way things w ere going, the ar tist stopped drawing and wor ked on farms, in kitchens, and at factories until he was 20. “I broke my left arm in a factory accident,” Phillips r ecalls. “I had six months off work at full pay to r ecover quietly on the beach. I slept all day and dr ew all night. It was one of the most amazing times of my life, and it im - proved my drawing skills considerably.” In 1992, P hillips hear d that D isney was looking for animators. “Like ev ery kid who loves to draw, I was drawing D isney charac- ters,” he says. “I sent in my drawings. and, thankfully, they hired me.” Phillips started as a “tweener,” drawing the 38 December 2010 FX director and went back out onto the floor as an animator , before eventually leaving the studio altogether. So I suppose, for me, 2004 was a gradual backing out the door.” Still, Phillips found the energy to learn F lash animation in his fr ee time. In early 2000, he launched his own Web site and started posting shorts. Within a fe w months, he was getting freelance job offers—up to three a week. Even- tually, the artist saw that he could br eak away from Disney. “It was a big decision for me, but I truly wanted to work on my own projects,” Phillips says. Phillips created Bitey, a beast that occupies the fictional forest planet of B rackenwood. Bitey’s animated adv entures earned P hillips Flashforward, Weby, and TGSNT awar ds. More r ecently, Bitey’s cr eator helped launch the Flash game Dragon Age Journeys for EA, and has made a series of F lash animations for Wizards of the Coast, pr oducers of Dun- geons & Dr agons. He is curr ently planning a full-length animated featur e about B itey and hopes to kick off the project soon. Phillips was a successful animator befor e he launched his site, but he was lost in a v ast organization. Te Web has allo wed him to Baena (Pixar Animation Studios)—the school leveraged the Internet to create a virtual class- room that reaches around the world. Today, the school has graduates and students fr om 86 countries. Chief to Animation Mentor’s success is its ability to ignite passion and teach the real-world skills people need in a studio en - vironment. What makes Animation M entor unique is that the 18-month online program is designed and taught “virtually” by some of the best professional animators who are employed at leading studios. M entors, who teach small groups of 10 to 14 students, lev erage Anima- tion Mentor’s cutting-edge technology to view and critique student wor k within an online campus forum, and host Q&A sessions that are archived for futur e reference. In addition to being able to learn dir ectly from top pr o- fessional animators, students can do wnload lectures on demand of key industry experts on all aspects of pr oduction, and socializ e in an online campus environment in the same way they would on Facebook. Te Internet is a po werful tool, pr oving ideal for education and learning, as w ell as succeeding as a professional. n Dustin Driver is a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay area.