Having worked several years at Aardman as a “Clay” animator, Jason moved to LA where he did the transition to digital at DreamWorks Animation where he’s recently contributed work on Shrek 2 among others. Jason talks about his work as Supervising Animator on “Flushed Away”, the first collaboration between two industry powerhouses, Aardman Animation and DreamWorks Animation.
CGC: At ADAPT, you talked about the transition Aardman has done from Clay animation to CG. How hard was the transition for you?
Jason: Not that hard technically, I think that animation is animation whatever medium you are using. When it comes to using the computer for the first time, you just have to trust in the things that you know to be important about animation and film making, and then just be really stubborn and keep bashing your fists against the keyboard until you get what you want. At first it is a battle - but personally I make a rule never to loose an 'animate fight' against an in-animate object. I'm a stubborn animator and I won't stop until I feel that the character I am animating is alive and breathing on the screen in front of me. But there is another useful perspective that I call 'listening to the puppet'. I had this in Stop Motion and took with me to CG. A puppet has a size and shape that create restrictions in the way that it can move, and differences in the way that it controls screen space. These 'limitations' are big golden keys to the character behind the puppet and should be listened to always.
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