Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/30784
n n n n Education had a lot to learn. “I didn’t know what I was talking about,” he says. “I was just guessing. You make mistakes and you don’t know you’re making them because no one tells you, ‘How about doing it this way.’ Animation Mentor showed me what animation is about. I knew how to use the software. But, I didn’t know what animation principles, spacing, timing really meant. Or exaggeration and appeal. All those principles.” Sadegiani flew from Sweden to San Fran- cisco for the Animation Mentor graduation, received his Mentor Choice Award, and met von Burkersroda, which led to the job on “The Gruffalo.” “I knew Tobi, but I didn’t know the others were Animation Mentor students un- til I arrived,” he says. “What’s funny is that our working methods were all different from one another. I relied heavily on recorded ref- erences—I acted out [the shots] myself. Tobi and the others didn’t do that so much. Maciej [Gliwa] and I did 2D planning before block- ing. The others didn’t. So, even though we had the same animation language, we had discov- ered our own ways of working.” In September 2009, Disney called after Tobias von Burkersroda (lead animator) joined the project after an introduction by Stöhr. Von Burk- ersroda then brought two other animators onboard: Maciej Gliwa, whom had met earlier at FMX, as well as Alli Sadegiani—both Mentor Choice Award winners at the school. a school. So, there was a time when I thought, maybe I should become a lawyer, too. I even started to study law. But after a half-year, I knew, oh my God, that’s not for me.” Gliwa quit law school and found a school in Warsaw that taught computer science and multimedia. “I learned about programming, but they were not good at teaching anima- tion,” he says. Gliwa taught himself enough to land an internship with Polish television. When he discovered Animation Mentor, he quit that job, moved back home, and began studying animation. “I took my chance,” Gliwa says. “I wanted to devote all my time to it. It was a good decision. I had been trying to learn software programs. I didn’t know animation was about principles and not about programs.” When Gliwa fin- ished, he flew to San Francisco for the Anima- tion Mentor graduation and learned that he won the Mentor Choice Award. And when he sent his demo reel to “The Gruffalo” directors, they hired him. Sadegiani had been freelancing for seven years before joining “The Gruffalo” crew. “I was always into drawing,” he says. “It came natural for me.” As a teenager in Sweden, he 42 April 2011 and his friends created computer games on the Amiga. He attended a succession of schools— an art school for four years and a school that purported to teach visual effects. “We were supposed to learn using 3D software at a high-end level so that we could work in studios,” Sadegiani says. “It turned out it wasn’t that way.” He bought a light table and books, and tried to teach him- self animation using Autodesk’s 3ds Max Version 3 and Character Studio. “It was cumbersome,” Sadegiani says. “But, I did some tests in 3D and in 2D, which I enjoyed more, and I got some work as a 3D animator. I created a horrible show reel, but it landed me a job at a game studio, which is now DICE.” After four years, Sadegiani quit to work on his own short films and began freelancing. In 2007, he started taking Animation Mentor classes. “I went straight through while working at the same time,” he says. “I had to pay the school and I had to pay my bills, so I worked double shifts for almost two years straight. It almost killed me.” Even though Sadegiani had already been working as an animator, he realized that he Sadegiani had finished working on “The Gruf- falo,” and after some months negotiating the paperwork, he started on Tangled. “Working at Disney was a dream for me,” he says. “I could walk down the corridors and see my legends. Glen Keane was my animation director. It was so bizarre to walk down the corridor and say, ‘Hey, what’s up?’” Right Now Having finished Tangled, Sadegiani is on holi- day, and as of the time this story was written, was considering offers from other animation studios. Gliwa was still at PDI/DreamWorks in Redwood City, California, and recently com- pleted working on the film Megamind. Von Burkersroda and Stöhr worked together again on a short film by David O’Reilly, and then at Hammer & Tongs in London on a pilot for an animated feature. They’ll start on a new project soon—one they couldn’t talk about yet. The team that worked together in Berlin is now scattered, but they stay in touch. “I will remember the awesome time I had with these guys forever,” Gliwa says. “Not only work- ing on “The Gruffalo,” but after work, talking about animation. I miss them. I miss them very much. We met. We spent time together. We are friends. Not just colleagues. Real friends.” n Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for be reached at BarbaraRR@comcast.net. . She can Computer Graphics W orld