Will Kistler’s AnimationMentor.com Experience

Allright, so now it’s time for quarter two. I’m already a week into it, so there a lot of things to catch up on.

First of all, I had a great time in the first quarter, but I felt like we were going over things that I already had learned, at least somewhat. So, it effectively drove home some points, but the thing I’m getting at is that pretty much ALL of my knowledge has been covered, so this term I will be stepping out into uncharted territory. Exciting.

To help me along on that journey is my new mentor: Gavin Moran

Gavin has been a character animator for 10 years. He was born in the Republic of Ireland where he attended college till he didn’t. He came to the United States in 1994 to pursue his dream of animating or at least finding some other way of not working for a living. He has worked in various different studios including Disney , Wildbrain, Sony Imageworks and Dreamworks on projects such as Dinosaur, Hubert’s Brain, Stuart Little 2, Spiderman 2 and Shark Tale. Currently he is working on Dreamworks and Aardman’s latest movie ‘Flushed Away’. He talks about himself in the third person and only owns 2 pairs of shoes.

That’s what the site had to say about him. That info is a little outdated, as he told us that now he is working on Open Season with Sony Imageworks. I’ve had a Q&A with him, so far, and gotten my first critique back from him. In general, he seems like an animation badass, and someone who’s not afraid to let you know when he spots a problem with what you’re doing. It’s tough love, but love none-the-less, and he really seems to enjoy what he’s doing.

That brings me to my first assignment. Another personality walk, this time with a torso and head. Of course sketches were required, so here’s some sketches, followed by a video of this walk.

Personality Walk with Torso and Head

So that’s all for this week, and it was a lot. I’ll be back next week with more.