Eric Miller Animation: 2016 Year in Review

December 28, 2016 Leave a reply

As this will be my last blog post in 2016 I wanted to do a Year in Review of how this year has been. Many of these things we have gone into greater detail in past posts, so this will just be a quick overview of the year. Overall it has been a great year. We got to work on some great projects, and I got to attend some really exciting events. The business was profitable, and we did a lot better then we did last year. I’m very excited, and looking forward to what we will achieve in 2017.

Events & Projects:

MagicMeeMees:

You may have seen the web series we have been working on called MagicMeeMee which is based on the toys by the same name. Our client, Future of Play, asked us to create this web series to help get people aware of their new toy-line. We started working on the series at the beginning of this year, and ended up working on the episodes most of the year. We released the first episode on July 11th, and the 4th episode earlier this month. Currently the four episodes have a 173,173 combined view count on the client’s YouTube pages. Creating this web series was such a great learning experience, and I felt each episode was better then the last. I hope we get to work on more of these episodes in the future. Click here to watch the series.

Producer Guild Awards:

On Jan. 23rd of this year I attended my second Producers Guild Awards. I was also able to talk my wife, who was pregnant, into being my date. I’m not sure how she was able to wear high-heels while pregnant, but she somehow pulled it off. I think one of the awards should have gone to her for that. It is always fun to dress up, and go to these awards to mingle with all the talented people in the industry. It is also fun to see the movie stars who make an appearance.

Annie Awards:

In February I attended the Annie awards for the first time, and it was such a fun event. This event is very different from the Producers Guild Awards, because it is all about animation. There is an added excitement to these award shows when you actually know the people getting the awards. I already have my tickets for both of these events for next year, so I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

Launched our Online Store:

In April I was really excited the company launched its online store. I don’t expect to make millions off the merchandise, but I wanted to offer company related shirts for anyone who might want them.

Logo Updated

We also made an update to our company’s logo this year. I wanted something which was a cleaner and simpler read, since I felt the more detailed logo did not print well.

My Daughter was Born:

My wife and I were really excited to welcome our daughter Ayla into the world on May 1st. She has been such a joy, and I love watching both her and her older brother starting to play together. Even when most of the time it is her brother taking toys away from her. She is already crawling, and trying to walk.

UT Alumni Magazine & UT Home Page:

Bink got a lot of love this year from my Alma mater, the University of Toledo. He ended up making an appearance in the UT Alumni Magazine, UT News, and the University’s Website’s Home page on a few occasions this year.

3D World Magazine:

Bink also made an appearance in 2 issues of 3D World Magazine. Once before the release of the teaser short in June, and another after.

Bink’s Friends & Family Screening and Wrap Party:

How often do you get to create something new and exciting? I figured we might as well go big with the release of the first episode of Bink, and throw a screening and wrap party to thank all the crew for all their hard work. Even with twisting my ankle really bad hours before people showed up I still had a great time. As a side note: My ankle is still recovering from this incident.

Bink’s Debut:

This might have been one of the biggest things coming out of the company this year. After working on the short for over a year we finally finished it in time to release it on June 28th. We got a fair amount of attention, and even some clients from the work we did on Bink. While I consider it a success I still feel there is more to come from Bink. We are actively working on a longer episode, and hopefully will be releasing it in 2017.

University of Toledo – University College: Alumni of the Year:

I was honored to be selected by my university as the Alumni of the year. They flew me back to the university in Toledo, Ohio for the Homecoming game, and the award gala where they presented me with the award. It had been a long time since I was in Toledo, so it was really awesome getting to go back and relive some of my college experiences.

DreamWorks Animation Presentation:

After the release of Bink, DreamWorks Animation invited me to do a presentation for their employees about my company and the projects we have been working on. It was exciting to get to go back to the DWA campus, and do a talk about what I have been working on. I also really enjoyed reconnecting with some of my former co-workers.

2016 ShowReel:

After we finished all the MagicMeeMee episodes we updated our showreel to showcase all of our new work. Jared White, who also wrote and directed the MagicMeeMees web series, edited this company showreel together. You can check it out below.

The World Animation & VFX Summit:

In October I attended the World Animation & VFX Summit, which was my second time attending this event. I went last year, and got a lot out of it. This event is geared to producers, and studio heads so all the presentations on very relevant to what I’m doing. I had a great time at this at this year’s event, and looking forward to going again next year. I only hope they don’t schedule it on Halloween again. Check out our blog post about this year’s event.

CTNX:

In November I attended my 3rd CTNX animation expo which is held each year in Burbank, CA. This is always a great event, and is much more artist focused then the World Animation & VFX Summit. I always meet so many great artists and animators as well as learn a lot from the panels and presentations. Check out our blog post about this year’s CTNX.

Honda Project:
The last project we worked on was 2 videos we did for Honda. One was used at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and the other will be used at CES next month. Unfortunately we do not have permission to share them online. If you are going to CES let me know if you see our video.

UPDATES:

Blog Post Data:
I actually have two blogs. This one which I use more as a personal journal of my journey in starting an animation company, and they we also have one for the company. Here is some information on both of them.

blog.milleranimation(this one):
Total 2016 Views: 6,657
Top 2016 Blog Post: Building An Animation Company’s Leadership Team (961 views)
Total Subscribers: 54

milleranimation.com/blog(the company blog):
Total 2016 Views: 5,195
Top 2016 Blog Post: Talent Spotlight: Introducing Violette Sacre (494 views)
Total Subscribers: 42

Website Data:
Total 2016 Views: 32,645
Top 2016 Page: Bink (2,632 views)

Social Media & Marketing:
This year we created a Social Media Marketing Coordinator position, and we have had a few people in this role. They are responsible for daily posts on all our social media accounts, weekly blog posts, quarterly newsletters, and a few other tasks. This has helped us stay active on all our social media accounts, and create some amazing content for our website.

Facebook:
Network Size: 4,833 Likes
2016 Growth: +407 Likes

Twitter:
Network Size: 1,044 Followers
2016 Growth: +522 Followers

Instagram:
Network Size: 707 Followers
2016 Growth: +466 Followers

YouTube:
Network Size: 287 Subscribers
2016 Growth: +278 Subscribers
Most Popular Video: Bink: New Arrival – Teaser (5,881 views)
Total Channel Views: 10,005

Vimeo:
Network Size: 27 Followers
2016 Growth: +15 Followers
Most Popular Video: Bink – Teaser (514 views)

Google+:
Network Size: 20 Followers
2016 Growth: 4 Followers

Society of Creative Professionals:
While technically the Society of Creative Professionals is not part of the company, and is only hosted by me I still wanted to include it in this update. We ended up having one mixer each month this year with a range in the number of attendees. Our biggest mixer this year was our April mixer which was held at the Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks. We had over 35 people show up at this event. If you are interested in coming to our mixers please join the groups Facebook page.

In Conclusion:
Overall I think this was a great year. I was able to attend a lot of great events, and meet a lot of new people. These connections will help me to continue to grow the company. I look forward to the coming years. I wish all of you a very happy and successful new year!

If you have not already, I hope you will join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog. If you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.

Experiencing The 43rd Annual Annie Awards for Animation

February 10, 2016 2 Replies

This last Saturday evening my wife and I attended the 43rd Annual Annie Awards which was in Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. I could tell you about who won what awards, but you can find that out in many other places like here. Instead I want to share my experience of attending to the Annie Award show.

I have never been to the Annie Awards, so I figured I would get general admission tickets to check it out before investing in the VIP tickets another year. Before I was able to get tickets the attorney for Eric Miller Animation Studios, or as he calls it EMAS, said he had two extra VIP tickets and wanted to know if I wanted them. Free VIP tickets are always a better option, so I quickly said yes.

We had really great seats on the main floor very close to the stage. I felt a little special since we were closer then most of the people who were actually winning awards. I kept seeing myself on the video screen as the winners walked by us on their way to accept their awards. This was a different experience then at the Producers Guild Awards where we are put in the far back corner.

Overall it was a really nice event. The Champaign reception before the award show was on a really nice outdoor patio. The hors d’oeuvres were amazing, and my pregnant wife ate at least 5 sliders among other things. She said the baby was really hungry, and I would not dare argue with her.

The award show was very interesting and I did not feel like it dragged on like we were warned about. All the acceptance speeches were kept very brief, and it moved along very nicely. I think it helped they had the presenters presenting several categories instead of introducing new presenters for each category. This with the short speeches made it go much quicker then years past.

While the average person probably never heard of the people who won at the Annie Awards like the more celebrity winners of the Producers Guild Awards or Academy Awards, I found the Annie’s to be much more interesting since I actually knew some of the people who were nominated. Many of them included people I have worked with on different movies during my time at DreamWorks Animation.

There also felt to be more excitement in the air, and the people seemed more down to earth. I might be bias because I love my industry, and the people who are in it. There are some really awesome, and amazing people in animation. If you take one of the most talented people at the Annie’s and walk up to them and say hello, I bet they would actually talk to you. I don’t feel that is the case with all the other people in other areas of entertainment. I might be wrong, but at least this is the vibe I get. Animation has really nice, down to earth, and fun loving people.

After the awards show we then got to go to the VIP Dinner and Party. This was a great opportunity to congratulate the winners, and eat some delicious food. My one complaint would be they only had a few tables and seats, so majority of the people were left hunting for a ledge to set their plates down on to quickly eat. Luckily, my attorney was able to score one of the tables, so he invited us to join them. We spent most of the after party sitting and talking with him and his wife. I’m extremely impressed with my wife for being able to make it through the entire evening wearing heals while pregnant.

We had a really great time, and I’m looking forward to going again next year. I plan to try and attend all the award shows in the future.

If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog. Also, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.

Update On Our Animated Short – Dec. 1st, 2015

December 1, 2015 2 Replies

Here is a quick update on our animated short. As you can see by the banner image we are now getting some early lighting renders, and all the assets are starting to come together.

It is important for me to note none of these images are final, and it is a special treat I’m sharing the work of artists before it is complete. With this said I have a lot of caveats about these images I’m sharing with all of you.

The character Bink is in what is often called T-pose, or neutral pose, and he looks rather lifeless. We actually model out the expressions you see in the concept art so the rigs work better. Animation will add expressions and cuteness back into the character later on. The surfacing on Bink is still very early, and we are actually looking into adding fur instead of simple textures. This adds a level of difficulty, so we are hoping it will all work. Our surfacer who is working on Bink is Violette Sacre, and she has been putting in a lot of time to get it to all work, and make him look amazing.

The room is currently only gray, and none of the texturing, or colors have been added to it yet. Graham Cunningham is our lighter, but will also be doing the surfacing on the room. He has been focused on getting this lighting rig setup for the other surfacers to test their work in. After he finishes the surfacing on the room he will start making the lighting of each shot look really great with lighting, atmosphere effects, focus, and other magic.

I had the pleasure of working with Linda Kurgpold on Home when we were both at DreamWorks Animation, and now she is helping us out on the short. She has done some amazing work on the surfacing of the hand and the crate. Both are also in progress, and still need work on the shaders.

In addition to the lighting and surfacing progress we are also working on the animation. Our animator Jacob Gardner has been hard at work, and showed me a rough animation pass last week. It is very exciting to see Bink come to life, and I can’t wait to start combining all these different elements we are working on(surfacing, lighting, animation).

Well, there is a quick update for all of you on our progress on the first 30 second episode. Keep reading this blog for future updates.

Weekend at the CTN Animation Expo

November 24, 2015 Leave a reply

I had a great time this weekend at the CTN Animation Expo. This was my second year attending and I could not believe how much it had grown since last year. I heard in the last few years this animation expo has doubled in size. It shows there is a desire for this type of an event, and you almost wonder if more will be springing up.

It was so crowded many of the panels, and workshops were hard to get into, and this was a little disappointing. Often by the time you got to the line it was around the block and there was no chance you would make it in. In addition to all the panels, and workshops there was also and exhibit floor where artists, schools, and studios had booths. When I was not able to make any of the panels this was normally where I spent my time. I really enjoy meeting artists, and seeing their work. I was surprised by the number of concept artists there was this year. Maybe artists with other disciplines did not get booths as much, but the majority of booths were of concept artists.

I thought the highlight of the event was the Rat’s Nest Reunion. It brought together the Disney legends who all once worked together as animators. They explained the origin of the name which came from the conflict between the old guys and the new guys. A summarized version of the story is that after Walk Disney died the studios innovation slowed to a crawl. According to the gentlemen in the Rat’s Nest, management was trying to think of what “Walt would do”, instead of being innovative. As the senior A-team animators started to leave the studio the senior, but less talented B-team started to run the studio. The Rat’s Nest was a small group of new animators that wanted to push the innovation to get things back to how it was, while the older animators did not want to rock the boat. They continually discouraged pushing the limits, and kept creativity at an all time low, The difference in opinions was causing a divide between the two groups. As the older animators started to leave the Rat’s Nest(a name they were called by the older animators) started to have more influence in the movies Disney was making. They are often credited for bringing the quality of Walt Disney animated movies back. These animators included; Brad Bird, John Musker, Jerry Rees, Henry Slick, Bill Kroyer, and Dan Haskett. Even if you don’t recognize their names you will know their work. Click their names to link to find out more information about each.

L to R: Henry Slick, Jerry Rees, John Musker, Bill Kroyer, Dan Haskett, Brad Bird, and moderator Tony Bancroft.

It was great hearing them all tell stories about their times at Disney, and seeing old photos and sketches. It was over 30 years since they were last all together, so it made it a very special event.

There were many other great events I was excited to see. I saw some scenes from Kung Fu Panda 3, and it was extremely funny. It was good seeing and reconnecting with directors Jen Yuh Nelson, and Alessandro Carloni. I have not seen them since I left DreamWorks Animation.

I was also excited to see the panel of Tonko House. It is an animation company which was started by two guys who used to work at Pixar. Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi is one of the co-founders, and he was the presenter. They started by creating the animated short The Dam Keeper, and decided to start the company after they released it. I first heard of them last year at CTNX when they screened their short film The Dam Keeper.

Another very interesting workshop was presented by my friends Kate Finan and Jeff Shiffman who are co-founders of Boom Box Post. Their workshop was called The Art of Animation Sound. They showed how they add amazing sounds to their client’s project, and also gave an in-depth history on sound used in animation.

Overall this year’s CTNX was a lot of fun, and I learned a great deal. I also got to meet a ton of really talented people. Now I just need to find the time to go though this huge stack of business cards to reach out to all the people I met. I did download an app on my phone which you can take a picture of the business cards and it pulls the data out and creates a contact. It will save me a lot of time by keeping me from manually entering them into my computer.

The World Animation and VFX Summit

November 9, 2015 Leave a reply

Last week I attended The World Animation and VFX Summit which was held at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey. While it was my first time attending it was actually the 4th year the summit has been held.

I have been to a few different conferences now, and I found this one to be very interesting. The reason I found it to be interesting was because its attendees were mostly producers, executives, and/or founders of animation companies, so all the discussions were geared towards topics I was interested in. Most events I find are either for artists in animation, or producers in live action films, but not producers for animation.

This was a 3 day event, but I only attended the first two days. The 3rd day was only classes, and I choose to start small this year to see if it was worth it. It was a much smaller conference then I have attended and you did not have to choose which panel to attend since only one was going on at a time. This was great, since you never felt like you were missing something, and you got to know the other attendees a lot better.

They had some really great panels through each day such as “The New Reality of… New Virtual Reality Revolution”, Animated Movie Spotlight: The Peanuts Movie”, “The Business of Show Business”, “Understanding the New Hybrid Studio Model”, “Understanding the Evolving Ecosystem of Global Feature Co-Productions”, “Building Your Company and Your Brand”, “Charting the Future of the Small Screen”, and others.

For breakfast and lunch each day you could sign up to eat with one of the panelists which was a great chance to talk and ask them questions you might not have asked in front of the group.

At the end of each day they had a cocktail party which gave us all another chance to meet and network with each other. I was surprised by how many people there were from all over the world. I met people from Russia, South Africa, China, Malaysia, and all over South America to name a few. Many of them looking for co-productions deals with US production companies.

On Monday after the cocktail party they had the Awards Gala where they gave out 4 awards. They were The Trailblazer of the Year Award, The Lifetime Achievement Award, The Creative Visionary Award, and Breakout Studio Award.

The Master of the Ceremonies was Candi Milo who did the voices for Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory, Sweetie Bird from Tiny Toon Adventures, and many other characters over the years.

It was entertaining to see Danny Jacobs (voice of King Julian) present the award for Trailblazer of the Year to Head of Television for DreamWorks Animation Margie Cohn. I recorded a quick clip of it which I included below.

The Creative Visionary award went to Charles Schulz who created the comix strip Peanuts. The award was presented to Schulz’s daughter Jill Schulz by the director of The Peanuts Movie. While at the cocktail party before the awards I was talking to Charles Schulz granddaughter. I was a little shocked when she mentioned who she was, and I did not know what to say. I responded something stupid along the lines of “I’m sure you liked your grandfather”.

Besides that moment of awkwardness it was a really great event, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend. I hope to attend again next year. To read more about the Awards Gala check out the Animation Magazine article.

Here or There: Outsourcing of Animation

October 14, 2015 2 Replies

I wanted to talk about outsourcing of animation that many US companies are doing. The main reason to outsource work and make the experience of producing animation more challenging is because of cost. In my previous roles I had learned the Salary for one US-based artist could pay for 4-5 artists in India. Even if it takes the overseas artist 3 times as long to complete the task it will still be a cost savings.

Outsourcing animation is by no means a new trend, and has been going on for decades. In a 2012 interview Steve Hulett of the Animation Guild said “We instituted strikes over run-away production in 1979 and 1982, winning the first and losing the second.” So you can see this is not a new issue. I believe what we have seen in recent years is technology making it easier and more possible to do business in this way. You can now easily have a video call with artists in India, Malaysia, or China which you could not do as easily a decade ago.

One of the popular arguments I would often hear is that the quality of work is not as good, and your value of production will go down. Unfortunately, that is no longer as strong of an argument as the overseas artists get more talented and more efficient.

Outsourcing overseas is not the only worry for a US-based artist or animation/VFX company. Our neighbors in Canada are also under bidding US animation companies. I’m sure you have heard of their amazing tax credits, and I have heard for every $1 spent on labor they get $0.60 back. While I have not been able to find anything backing up that claim I have found the Ontario Computer animation & Special Effects Tax Credit is for 18% of eligible labor costs for a Canadian corporation that is Canadian or foreign-owned, has a permanent establishment in Ontario and files an Ontario corporate tax return. Being able to cut 18% of your costs would allow you to save a lot of money when you are talking about project budgets that are $100,000 to $500,000 or more.

The larger studios like DreamWorks Animation, and Disney are also outsourcing a lot of their animation work. In animated TV production they will often have pre-production here in the US, but then outsource all the production work. Many of the Disney Junior and Cartoon Network shows are done in this way.

All this really makes one wonder why anyone would open up an animation production company in the US. These are things you have to come to terms with when we have a global market. There will always be someone that can do it faster, better and cheaper then you can. Even with all the outsourcing the US animation industry is stronger then it has ever been. The budgets for projects might be going down, and that is a reality we all have to come to accept. Labor rates in other countries are increasing, and Canada’s tax credits are getting smaller. I feel this is a natural balancing out that will take place over the next decade. I don’t know if US rates will ever be as low as overseas, but it is not always about price. Having an excellent business experience is a big factor. There is a tipping point where the savings are not enough to give up working with someone next door to you, or at least in the same time zone.

While I plan to work with as many US-based artists as possible I have to be open to working with artists from all over the world. There are a lot of really talented people who live outside of the US, and it would be silly not to work with someone simply based on their location. Hopefully the industry will change to making hiring decisions based on talent, and less about saving money. Regardless of where you are, you have to be able to offer great work, reasonable budgets, and an excellent business experience.

Staying Healthy While Starting a Business

September 16, 2015 2 Replies

When I worked at DreamWorks Animation my co-workers would often joked about the DreamWorks 50. Similar to the Freshman 15, it is the idea that new employees often would gain weight after starting working at the company. DreamWorks Animation is known for its free food they provide for their employees. With copious amounts of food for breakfast, lunch, soft served ice-cream machines, cookie day, and snack kitchens all around campus it is hard to resist the urge to fully take advantage of your new employee benefits. Many new employees inevitably pack on a few extra pounds. Eventually the excitement of free food wears off, and they learn to be more reserved with their eating.

When I left DWA to start my own company one of the things I knew I would miss would be the free food. I joked with my DWA friends that the next time they saw me I was going to be nothing more then skin and bones. The reality is that I actually gained weight since leaving my job at DWA.

You might ask “How could this be?”. Do I have my own person chief? Do we have a lot more food in my house then we had at DWA? I can assure you that none of those are true. There are several things that I’m sure played into me gaining weight, and not being as healthy as I once was.

While at DWA I would walk a lot more. It was a big campus, so even walking to lunch was more exercise then what I get now. Walking to and from the parking garage, going up and down stairs on my way to meetings. I actually walked a lot while I was working there. Now I sit in my office and the most walking I do is the 5 steps to the kitchen for lunch. One of the things I have tried to get me to walk more is going on a daily walk around the neighborhood. I’m really good at coming up with excuses not to do it including I’m to busy, or it is way to hot out, but I’m working on keeping it a priority.

Since I started working from home lunch is often something I forget about until the last minute. With the busy entrepreneur schedule I have it never fails that at some point normally around 2pm I start feeling light headed, and my stomach starts yelling at me. At this point I’m far beyond planning a meal, or even thinking clearly. I want the quickest and easiest meal possible. I had regressed to eating like a college student which often included Ramen Noodles and Mac & Cheese on the menu. When I got sick of those tasty treats I would run to the nearest fast food place. I realized this was not ideal, and I have been taking steps to eat healthier.

There are other things that could have contributed to my weight gain, and loss of energy. Things such as a newborn that had a goal of keeping my wife and I from getting more then 3 hours of sleep at a time. Even the best of us can’t function without a good nights rest. Lucky for us our son is sleeping much better, so in turn we are finally starting to get more sleep at night.

I’m sure I could go on all day about reasons, but I’m more concerned about making changes. In addition to the above mentioned changes I have been trying to find other ways to stay fit. It is not just about losing weight, but also being healthier mentally and physically. I have started doing a workout routine 3 days a week in the morning before I start working. I set a bedtime for myself although I’m still really bad at sticking to this. I also became proactive about looking for ways to be healthier.

I found I’m not alone, and it is pretty common for people in my situation to put living a healthy life style on the back burner while starting their businesses. I have read multiple articles that are directed on this very subject. I’m sure some of you might be in a similar situation, so I thought I share some of the articles I have found.

Top 5 Methods To Stay Fit For An Entrepreneur

3 Ways to Stay Healthy and Sane as an Entrepreneur

12 Tips to Stay Healthy While Working From Home

STAYING HEALTHY AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

10 Things Every Young Entrepreneur Should Do to Stay Healthy, Fit And Productive

3 Simple Tips for Elevated Health in Less Than 15 Minutes a Day

The last article I read last night, and I started doing the 10-10-10 rule today. Every hour do 10 pushups, 10 sit-ups, and 10 jumping jacks or squats. I feel this will help me keep my energy up, since normally around 4pm I start getting sluggish.

Anyways, I hope some of this can help you, since staying healthy is extremely important. I know this is not the typical topic I write about, but this is a huge part in starting and running your own company. I want to be able to share all of my challenges, and this has been a big one for me lately. No pun intended.

My First SIGGRAPH

August 20, 2015 Leave a reply

I finally experienced my first SIGGRAPH conference. I have always heard about SIGGRAPH, and while at DreamWorks Animation I would often have artists requesting time off so they could attend the conference. While I had a pretty good idea about what it was I had never gone until this year.

SIGGRAPH is short for Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques. It is an annual conference on computer graphics which you can imagine is pretty important for computer animation.

The conference was made up of one really large exhibits floor with all kinds of companies showing off their new technologies, and software. It also included a job fair, panels, production sessions, discussions, art galleries, and parties every night.

It was a great experience, and I thought I would share some of my highlights from the week. I took on the full conference this year, and went from Sunday until Thursday which might have been a little much for my first time. Some of the talks were interesting, some where way to techy for me, and others I learned a great deal from. I liked some of the conversations the best, since you really got to hear the challenges other people and companies in the industry where facing.

Lets start from the beginning… I first attended a presentation from the guys that started Aardman Animation, David Sproxton & Peter Lord. It was interesting to hear how they started their company on a dining room table. Aardman is known for the stop motion films; Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run, and The Pirates.

I seemed to start the conference out with a Stop Motion Theme, since the next presentation was by LAIKA. You might know them from the movies Coraline, ParaNorman, and most recently the Boxtrolls. While stop motion is not something I would ever want to do I do appreciate the artists that do this kind of work. Here is a Time-Lapse of the making of a scene.

Sunday was a lot of these types of presentations, since the exhibit floor was not open until Tuesday. At the end of the day I went to a Fast Forward where they gave all the people who wrote technical papers on new technologies 30 seconds to introduce, and try and interest you to attend their full presentation later in the week.

I big thing at the conference was virtual reality, and they even had a whole section they called Virtual Village. There are some really cool technologies coming out, and I’m excited to see where they take them. One of the exhibits there was two boxes, and… I’m sure I will mess it up trying to explain how it works, but if you stuck your hand in one box you could feel and see the person’s hand from another box. It is like a touchable hologram, and I’m interested to see where they take this tech.

I went to a really neat presentation for the 40th Anniversary of ILM. Industrial Light & Magic is a VFX company that was started by George Lucas in 1975 to work on his movies. Later they started doing work for other clients as well, and now have touched so many great films. To name a few… Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones movies, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, The Abyss, Jurassic Park, Twister, Titanic, and most recently Ant-Man to name a few. It is also interesting to note that they had a computer graphics devision that George eventually sold to Steve Jobs, and became Pixar.

Some of the talks I sounded interesting, but after they started going over the codes I realized I was in over my head.

I did find a very interesting discussion about cloud based rendering vs in-house rendering. One of my goals of the conference was to learn more about rendering, and I got a lot out of this discussion.

I could go on and on, but I don’t want to bore some of you. I did go to some fun parties.

On Tuesday evening I went to the DreamWorks Animation party. As in true DreamWorks style it was a very impressive party, great food, beautiful location, and of course amazing people. It was nice getting caught up with old co-workers, and meeting some new people.

On Wednesday I went to the Pixar Renderman party, and got to see their latest short. I also learned about the world of collecting walking teapots. I guess people go crazy about these things, and you can sell them on eBay for a decent price. If you are interested to learn more here is a video from 2013 that gives a little more back story.

Overall it was a great time, and I learned a lot about new technologies coming out. I plan to go next year, but not sure if I will go for the whole week again. I got pretty behind on work, and have been spending most of this week trying to get caught up.

A Decade Living in California, the Struggles & Success

July 28, 2015 4 Replies

Tomorrow will mark a decade for me of living in California, so I thought it be appropriate to look back on my struggles & successes which brought me to where I am today. On occasion I have been known to write in a journal, and when I first moved out here I did not have many people to talk to. I ended up writing in my journal every night, and I read over it to help in writing this post. I’m really glad that I wrote down what I was going through, since it was an eventful part of my life. I don’t write in my journal as much as I used to, but this blog has taken the place of documenting my life’s journeys.

My California adventure began in Ohio on Monday, July 25th, 2005 as I drove away from my childhood home to head out to the west coast. I packed my car with everything I could fit in it, and took a 5 day sight seeing trip across the country. On Friday, July 29, 2005 I crossed into California from Nevada, and I remember thinking to myself that I finally made it. Little did I know how challenging the next few years would be. I drove to Redondo Beach where a high school classmate was living. Ryan Smith agreed to letting me stay a month at his place until I was able to find my own place. It was only a corner in his room, but that is all I needed. It was thanks to him that I actually left Ohio to come to California. I had been wanting to move out here, but had no idea how I was going to do it. I was trying to find an apartment to rent from Ohio, but without seeing them it made it almost impossible. There was also the fact that they were so expensive that I would need to find a roommate. By him offering me a place to stay it gave me a destination, and a home base to operate from. This gave me the opportunity I needed, and I took it.

Working at Apple with Thomas Orona

I only ended up staying with Ryan through the weekend, since on Monday I moved in to an extra bedroom a friend’s sister had in her apartment up in Newhall. This gave me my own room, and inexpensive rent, so I upgraded my living situation. While living there I was able to get a part time job as a sales specialist working at an Apple Store in Northridge, which is not far from where I’m living now. This apartment was a great stepping stone, but I felt more like a guest then an equal roommate. I also knew I needed to move closer to Los Angeles, but was not making enough money to pay the higher LA rents. Instead of playing it safe I made the move anyways.

On October 30th, about 3 months after moving into the place in Newhall, I moved to an apartment in Sherman Oaks. It was a 3 bedroom apartment that I got with a guy named John whom I met on roommate.com. He was originally from Ohio, and also went to the same college as I did. I did not know him, but knew he must be a good guy(at least I hoped) since he was from Ohio. It also worked out that Ben, a friend of mine from college, was planning on moving out here, so we asked him if he wanted to be our 3rd roommate.

Kester Apartment

We had everything in place, and this was a much better living situation for me then the previous apartment. In 3 months, I have moved 3 times, and each time was an improvement. The only problem was the ticking time bomb(aka my bank account), since I was now spending more money then I was making. Based on my calculations I had enough money to make it until Christmas.

As the holiday approached, and my savings were almost completely gone I feared I would have to move back to Ohio in defeat. It was in mid December when Thomas Orona, one of my co-workers at Apple, got me an interview at B1 Media. It was a DVD menu design company, and the opportunity came at exactly the right time. The interview went well, and I got the job which started when I returned from my holiday in Ohio. I don’t know if Thomas knew what he did saved me from having to leave California, but it was an act of kindness I will never forget. He now is a partner of a Technology consulting company called Band of Techs. I highly recommend him and his company if you are looking for Technology consulting services.

B1 Media

I started my job at B1 Media in January, and this also ended that thing called “a day off”, since I worked my days off at Apple. I had very little free time, but all the working helped get some savings back into my bank account. My position at B1 Media was for DVD menu quality control. I spent hours going through all the menus on a DVD looking for errors. I would also QC tape transfers, and would watch hours of footage from shows like Amazing Race and the Girls Next Door. The latter being a bit embarrassing to be watching in a work environment. I found myself constantly explaining to people walking by that it was for work that I was watching these completely uncensored shows about the playmates living in the Playboy mansion. Luckily I worked the late shift(3pm-midnight) so after the first couple hours everyone in the office went home except me.

By mid June that freelance job ended, and I was once again without work living on my savings. I could have picked up more hours at Apple, but felt embarrassed to do so, and kept working there on the weekends only. I started to go on some interviews, but was not as motivated as I should have been. I went on 3 interviews for AAA selling insurance, but after being offered the position I decided it was not the best fit for me. I had an interview at Bunim/Murray Productions who did Real World, but it was for a tape logger. At that time I had no idea what a tape logger did, but soon found out. A tape logger is someone that watches hours of uncut footage from the reality show, and type what is going on every second with a description of the shot, and cataloging everything for the editor to be able to find what they are looking for when assembling an episode. The interview process was them sitting me at a monitor with a keyboard, and headphones and actually logging shots for 15 minutes. After a minute I took my headphones off, and told them “No thank you”.

I went on a lot of interviews, but was not having any luck with anything. I was once again getting desperate, and was getting low on my savings. I knew I had to start being less picky, and by September I was working as an assistant store manager at Walgreens. This may have been one of the worst jobs I ever had, and less then 2 months later I quit. The good news was that I made a decent amount of money in those two months, but was once again on the job hunt.

A few weeks later I had another job cold-calling people and trying and persuade them to refinance their mortgage with the company I was working for. If it is in your control try not to do a job that people hate you for doing it. Yes, there was a lot of people(not including me) in that office that made a ton of money, but people hated us. I was hung up on, screamed at, and called some really nasty names. I knew I did not want to stay there long, so I started working with a temp agency that worked exclusively in the entertainment industry. Through that company I was able to get some interesting temp jobs. At this time in my life I was working at 3 different companies at the same time. I was still at Apple on the weekends, World Trade Lending(the mortgage sales company), and now at Friedman Temp agency.

Through the temp agency I got several different jobs, but some of the more interesting ones were Porchlight Entertainment, and Innovative Artist Agency. Porchlight was a neat little animation company that made shows like Jay Jay the Jet Plane, and Tutenstein. It was mostly direct to DVD, or episodic TV shows that they worked on. Innovative Artist I was in the mailroom of a talent agency for Christmas help to cover people on holiday. It was one of the most cut-throat places I have ever worked at. The people in the mailroom would wait for an assistant to mess up, and do their best to get them fired. When an assistant got fired they would promote someone from the mailroom. I was glad I was only there for the holiday, and did not get caught up in the politics of that place.

DreamWorks Studios Co-workers at LA Dodgers Game

I went home again for Christmas, and when I returned I was not hearing anything from the temp agency. I was getting nervous, because before leaving on holiday I requested the temp agency to only give me temp jobs that paid a higher rate. I was scared that this might be the reason I was not getting any new jobs. Finally a call from the agency came in, and I was given a temp assignment at DreamWorks Studios. I instantly fell in love with the job, and wanted them to hire me on full time. If DWS wanted to hire me on full time they had to pay a large penalty to the temp agency for a finders fee, and it was not clear to me if DWS would be willing to do that. I eventually received the good news that DWS was hiring me on as a full time production assistant. I feel this was a turning point for my career, and the instability of the last couple years was behind me.

I still was working at Apple on the weekends, and DreamWorks Studios full time during the week. After working as a PA for around 3 months I was promoted to head PA, and was taken out of the field, and put behind a desk. I worked at DWS until the end of September, and on October 1st I started my career at DreamWorks Animation. I was at DreamWorks for almost 7 years until I left last July to start my own company. If you don’t already know the rest of the story, and interested to find out I suggest you go back to the beginning of this blog.

Some of the more noteworthy milestones that happened during my time at DWA are meeting my wife Karen, buying a house, and having our son Kelton. My time at DWA brought all kinds of great things into my life, and would not trade my time there for anything. Looking back at how far I have come I’m very proud of my accomplishments. There has been a lot of struggle in these last 10 years, but a great deal more success.

I have noticed two reoccurring themes in my adventures this last decade. The first is that there has been so many people willing to help others, which kept me from failing to severely. I owe a great debt of gratitude to so many people who reached out a hand to offer me support when I needed it the most. The other theme is that I tend to leap into situations before I feel that I’m ready. It is important to point out that things are not always going to line up perfectly, and sometimes you have to get as close as you can, take a leap of faith, and hope for the best. Chances are you will find a way to make it all work out.

“When you get to the end of all the light you know and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”
― Edward Teller

Produced by Conference 2015

June 1, 2015 Leave a reply

This weekend was the Producers Guild of America’s annual Produced by Conference. This is a conference for producers, and has a lot of really great panels, mentoring, and networking opportunities for members of the guild. This was my second time going to the conference, and I wanted to share my experience with all of you. If you are interested in reading about last year’s conference you can do it here.

Last year’s conference was held at Warner Bros. Studios, but this year’s was held at Paramount Pictures. It was nice to get back on the Paramount lot, and it reminded me of when I worked at DreamWorks Studios(DWS). At the time DWS was owned by Paramount, so I had my new hire orientation on the Paramount lot. They also had free weekly movie screenings at the huge 500+ seat theatre that I often took advantage of since I never had the money to pay for movies.

The conference opened on Friday night with a general meeting for the members followed by a really nice Hollywood style party. The meeting was interesting, but of course it went longer then expected. They had every committee get up and talk about what their committees where about, and what they were working on. I think they could have done abbreviated updates instead of each of them taking 10-15 minutes each. I also did not eat dinner, so I was ready to get out to the party. When we finally got out of the meeting, and to the party I spent the first half hour just stuffing my face with all the delicious foods they had.

I did not attend the conference on Saturday, and only went to the conference on Sunday. If you are interested to see what sessions they had you can check out the list here. The conference is open to non-Producer Guild Members, but you have to pay for it. A member gets one day free, or they can buy both days at discounted rates. Let me know if you are interested in going next year, and I can get you the information on it.

The sessions that I went to on Sunday were “The art and craft of pitching for television”, “Conversations with: Kevin Smith”, “Creating Meaningful Brand Partnerships to enhance your content”, and “Everything you wanted to know about games, but were afraid to ask”.

The pitching for TV was very interesting, and entertaining. They had a panel of executives, and 5 producer/writers that took turns pitching their ideas to the executives. The executives had fun with it, and did things like interrupt them, walk away, talk to people during the pitch, and so on. The goal was to show you what you might expect to see when pitching to these executives, and how to keep your cool during your pitch. After each pitch they would give pointers at how to make their pitch stronger. It actually was very educational. It was neat to see what worked, and what did not work. It gave me a lot of great insight on ways to improve my pitches.

I signed up for the session with Kevin Smith more for the fun of it. If you don’t know who he is he is the director/writer for movies “Clerks”, “Jay and Silent Bob”, and “Dogma”. They had John Horn as the moderator, but I don’t think he got a word in after they started. Kevin just talked about one story after another, and barely stopped to take a breath. It was a fun time, and I think I laughed through the entire session.

The session on creating brand partnerships was interesting, but I was expecting something different. When I signed up for it I thought it was more about creating meaning for brands from your intellectual properties. Instead it was about partnering with Brands to have them in your TV show, or movies. Things like product placements where you actor is drinking a coke, or driving a GM car in the movie Transformers. It was interesting to hear about how much money can be made for adding in these products. I think they were saying $100,000 for a product in a TV show, and millions of dollars for movies.

The last session I went to ended up being the one I got the most out of. It is always interesting to hear about the $90 billion game industry. It is such a rapidly growing industry, and there are so many different platforms for them. There are PC, console, mobile, tablet, and social/Facebook games. You have the Pay-to-play, In-App purchases, free-to-play, and many other types of games. Virtual reality is also an up and coming platform that I feel will continue to grow. I wish this session was longer, because you could tell they were only scratching the surface. I hope to reach out to some of the people on the panel to continue the conversations.

In addition to the sessions I also met a lot of really great people, and heard some very interesting stories. The main reason I go to these conferences is to network, and create new relationships, and this year there was no shortage of that. I will spend most of today reaching out to the people I met this weekend, and finding ways we can work together.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about the conference, and if you have any questions about the conference please let me know.

The greatest success story or the most public failure

The greatest success story or the most public failure

DreamWorks

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Produced by Conference 2015

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