Looking for a school? A job? Questioning what are the most important areas to knowledge you need to address? 2D or 3D? In an effort to help answer some of these concerns, AWN asked top executives at leading animation, visual effects and gaming companies to tell us what they look for in training. We received in-depth responses from Frank Gladstone, head of artistic development at DreamWorks SKG Animation; Bill Dennis, ceo/president of Toonz Animation India; Randy Nelson, dean of Pixar University; and John Hughes, founder/president of Oscar-winning visual effects house Rhythm & Hues. It’s amazing the similarities in their responses. Hopefully, their answers will help guide young and/or green artists in finding a clearer direction for their training and to find employment. It might also teach you that we all have a lot to learn.

Frank Gladstone. Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation.

Frank Gladstone, DreamWorks Animation
Gladstone has been working as a professional animator, producer, director, writer and teacher for more than 30 years. From 1973 to 1989, he managed his own Emmy award-winning studio, Persistence of Vision Inc., producing commercials and educational films, and has since worked for the feature animation divisions at Disney, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks. Besides his studio credentials, he has spoken on animation at schools and institutions around the country, in the Caribbean, Europe and Asia and has taught various animation and cinematography courses and workshops for the University of Miami, VIFX, Cinesite, UNICEF, Gnomon Digital, Vancouver Film School, Nickelodeon, UCLA, San Jose State, Stanford and USC. Gladstone has designed courses and helped train hundreds of people who work in the animation industry. Currently, he is the head of artistic development at DreamWorks Animation. Additionally, he serves on several school advisory boards, philanthropic and educational organizations, produces public service television commercials and programming and is a member of the City of Glendale Arts and Culture Commission and Animation Initiative Glendale’s “Animation Bank” working group.

Are schools training animators properly? Some are, some aren’t. Animation schools that focus solely on technology at the expense of traditional approaches to animation are failing their students, just as those schools that weight their curricula more heavily on traditional work, giving short shrift to the digital side of things, also fail their students in the long run. What I look for are curricula with a balance and an agenda that starts with fundamental artistic skills and then graduates to the newer tools. Without both, the school generally graduates a student who may be facile, but not adaptable.

What would you like to see schools teaching more about? Less?

More of? Film study. All kinds of film, live-action, animation, all genres, all eras. I am often shocked by just how much folks in animation don’t know about visual language, narrative techniques, story structure, even film history. After all, we are making films here! Hand in hand with that is a sense of literature and the sciences (don’t skip your liberal arts classes!). Finally, communication and business skills are very important.

Less of? The notion that all one needs to know to be successful in this business is how to jockey the latest animation software package.

How much do you rely on outside training versus in-house? Digitally. We rely on outside training for our animation crews less and less as time goes by. Even with third party software, our use is so specialized and often so production driven, that an outside program cannot directly address our particular needs. Further, we use a good amount of proprietary material, which, of course, necessitates in-house training.

Will you hire a new graduate? There are years when we have not and years when we have. We are fostering the idea of increasing our hiring of recent graduates. As far as whom we might hire, as with everyone who submits to us, it depends upon what we see in a reel and/or portfolio. If the skill set is right and the potential is clear, we would absolutely consider a new graduate.

Are the job opportunity expectations of what students think they can get right out of school realistic? It depends. What do students think is realistic? If they think they are God’s gift to animation and will have a senior position on a long running project as soon as their unbelievably wonderful reel floors us... they are fooling themselves. If they think they will start at smaller studios and move from job to job as they gain experience and hone their craft, eventually working into the position(s) they really desire... that is more realistic.

Another misnomer that I think many students may share is that they will be able to do everything at the studio: design, layout, rig, animate (characters and effects), light, texture, etc. While this is very often the case at smaller studios, larger studios will want an individual to specialize.