~jason

It’s great to hear your story! Thanks for sharing. Congratulations on your success too! I know it’s only because of the hard work and long hours you’ve put into it, so you deserve it!

I’m glad you added the “About Me” page . I always like reading what people have worked on .

Buck Cluck was great ! Nik did his usual amazing job of subtle acting and facial expressions and you followed him up very well. The animation in Chicken Little was really a step forward in being able to do “cartoony, yet subtle” CG animation .

As it’s been said before, your work on Buck was wonderful. And what fun to work with voice talent like Garry Marshall. Fish also was a scene stealer too! It’s gonna be so fun to animate great characters like these! Just a little determination!

Now that Chicken Little has come out, I’m excited for American Dog and Robinson’s! Can’t wait to hear who your supervising on American Dog.

Keep up the continued great work!

-Lamont

Brenton- I’m glad you enjoyed the film. Fish was supervised by Doug Bennet and Kirby was Dick Zondag’s. They show that limits will force creative solutions.

Ryan- Well, we both agree on that. Of course, Buck was supervised by Nik Ranieri. Now you see why I was so eager to interview him (more to come, by the way).

Corey- Thanks! Like I said, I was just following Nik’s lead. In case you see it again, here are some of the Buck shots I did:
- jumping on to the bed
- getting off of the bed (CL too)
- tripping over the trashcan
- running in to the theatre up to when he says, “Stop this right now.” (CL too)
- floating in the ship saying, “…that’s bad parenting, and I should know.” (CL too)
- getting yelled at by the turkey
- dropping off Chicken Little for school, “Now we have a plan,” “Remember, lie low.” (CL too)
- and my favorite non-Buck shot: the Hollywood version of Fish

Nini- Luck played a smaller part than you may want to believe. A quote from Samuel Goldwyn: “I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it… The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.”
I had the good fortune to show up at the right time, but I made the decision to make something of it - there was no guarantee. There were sixty other students in the class who did not get hired that year. It would have been much easier to say it was impossible and not try at all, but how rewarding would that have been? The way I see it, there are two ways to get a job animating: 1) pick a target, work hard to develop your skills, and don’t stop until you get there; 2) lower your standards of where you want to work. So what you say is a big maybe, it just depends on the individual. With that said, I do believe that anyone can learn how to draw to some acceptable degree.

-Clay

Ahem.