My Demo Reel for Pixar

So this was my reel for Pixar. Really, it was this first piece which got me in. It remains in stepped-mode, i.e. Blocking Plus, because I ran out of time and got the call before I had finished. I had been working on the test for a couple weeks and had shown it to my Class 4 mentor, Victor Navone, as I had tried to keep in touch with him and my other mentors since I was in his class in early 2006. I showed him my early blocking version, was encouraged from some notes, tried to follow those notes to a 'T', and kept working on it to the next stage before showing it again. I was told later that my work "showed potential." But also, I benefited from the fact that Victor had been co-directing some interstitials for Cars called "CarsToons" which Pixar was hiring animators for. Needless to say, I'm forever grateful for the opportunity!

I wanted a test where I could really show a character thinking about something – figuring something out or scheming, remembering something from their past, etc... So I knew in the dialogue that Ricky was telling a story of something that had happened to him. The story he told was great because it was poignant and heartfelt, but of course had a hilariously awkward slant. It was very long dialogue, but I was unemployed at the time so I figured I might as well give it a shot... I felt the importance was on the animation and trying to show a character that is having this internal thought process going on in his head, and shown in his eyes, regardless of whatever he happens to be saying.

Putting YOU in Your Reel
If your reel doesn't say anything unique about YOU and your personality, YOU and your choices, YOU and your tastes, whatever...you may miss an opportunity. Because if your reel maybe fits into that "generic" category, I can guarantee that if I were to spend an hour with you and find out where you're from, how big your family is, if you had any brothers and sisters and where you fell in line there, whether you're a cat person or a dog person, etc., etc.....I KNOW I'd find plenty of unique and interesting tidbits and salient stories/ideas/traits that make up YOU. But the thing is, you only have 30 seconds to show recruiters that on a reel. So try and sprinkle a little of that special and unique stuff that says YOU into those 30 seconds because if you can, or at least catch their interest to say "Hmmm, I want to know more about this person," then it may just lead to that opportunity you're looking for.

Working with Legends Frank and Ollie
After I graduated from UCLA Design in '97, I worked at an internet company in Los Angeles called iXL. iXL did web designs for various clients, and it was here that I had first really dabbled with animation. I'd always liked it and wished I could do it as a job someday, but I felt it was a bit out of my league and so was hesitant to really give it a shot. So I started taking a lot of drawing classes at the animation union in North Hollywood, and studied the basics of animation on my own like crazy, mostly with 2D. But at that time, the program Flash had started to take off, and as I was at this internet design company, I soon became one of the Flash "go-to" guys, which inspired me to develop my animation skills.

As fate would have it, my boss at that company, Mike Bonifer, was a publicist/writer at Disney back in the late 70s/early 80s, as most of the "Nine Old Men" were retiring. He knew Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, and had heard that they were interested in developing an online animation school. Bonifer knew this was right up my alley, and so I became involved with the project with two other guys. We worked with Frank and Ollie over a 6 to 12 month time period in 1999 to 2000 to develop a website where they could teach animation online.

It was here that I was able to work with them and show them what was possible for internet technology and animation at the time, including showing them examples of my work and getting feedback from them. It was truly inspiring! However, the infamous Dotcom bust happened around this time, and unfortunately for a number of reasons we were unable to get their original idea up and running. The company closed in late 2000.

The experience of getting to work alongside Frank and Ollie and talk to them was – to be honest – bittersweet. It was sad that we weren't able to see their idea to fruition, but for me personally it was a good experience that I'll always cherish and remember. And I can safely say, it not only "lit the spark" for me to really try and get into the animation industry, but also helped to keep that flame alive during some tough and frustrating times in the next four years or so that it took me to get my first real animation job at Electronic Arts.

And so ironically, when I found out that a couple guys in the Bay Area working at Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) were launching a school to teach animation online called Animation Mentor, I knew it'd be a success and that I wanted to be a part of it. I felt for myself, and people like me, who couldn't necessarily enroll in a full-time graduate or undergraduate program at this stage in our life, just to get into the animation business, but would have done anything to get mentored by an industry professional to help guide and learn from. I knew Animation Mentor was perfect for me.

As a side note, I'm very proud of the success of Animation Mentor because in my opinion, the spirit of what those two visionary guys, Frank and Ollie, had envisioned for teaching animation online to people all over the world, lives on and is successful.

 

Hear what Matt has to say about his animation journey and working at Pixar. Click here.