ADVICE TO YOUNG ANIMATORS
In 1990, when I started to create The Tune, I didn’t really realize that I’d be ushering in a revolution in independent animation.
To me, it was quite an ordeal creating all of the drawings and hand-coloring each one. There must have been about 25,000 individual drawings.
Now, of course, kids can put together long animated films on their Macs. Anyone who knows Flash can make a feature film in their spare time. I think that’s terrific! What this world needs is more animated films. In the first Golden Age, we’d be lucky to get one feature every three years; now, we get to see two or three new features a month. I love it! All those different ideas, techniques, and stories: I’m in heaven.
I’ve created a genre—Indie Animated Features.
If I were a young kid who loved animation, I’d do things very differently from the way I did them 40 years ago.
First of all, there are so many great film and animation schools today available for young film lovers. I can’t recommend any specific school, because I never went to one, but here are some of the schools that seem to produce great talent:
School of Visual Arts in NYC
New York University
Parsons in NYC
Pratt in NYC
Rhode Island School of Design
Rochester Institute of Technology
Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida
Savannah College of Art in Georgia
Cal Arts in California
Chapman University in California
University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sheridan Art School in Toronto, Canada
Vancouver Film School
Gobelins School of the Image in France
Supinfocom in France
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart, Germany
Each school has its pros and cons: do research on the Web and look at who graduated and what sorts of programs they emphasize. Do they have life drawing? What’s the cost? Is it easy to find living space? Do they have any teachers you want to study with? You must balance all these qualifications before you make your decision.
If I were running an animation school, these are the classes I would emphasize:
1. Drawing, lots of drawing (especially life-drawing)
2. Film and Art History
3. Illustration History (N. C. Wyeth, A. B. Frost, R. O. Blechman, Winsor McCay, Milton Glaser, Howard Pyle, Norman Rockwell, and others)
4. Design
5. Storyboards and Storytelling
6. Humor
7. Color Theory
8. All the software programs—Photoshop, Flash, Maya, and so on
9. Business of Art
Also, I recommend finding a great teacher or mentor. Of all the teachers I had in college, only two of them really taught me anything. I was lucky; some people go through school never connecting with someone to change their life and career. So search around for that inspirational figure, ask your friends, go on the Web—they’re out there, and they may not be at your school. That’s okay. If you find someone with a studio, be an intern—volunteer to work there for free so that you can suck up all the knowledge you can.
We often use interns in our studio; it works out well for both parties. We get help to put together our films, and the intern gains valuable knowledge about how the real world of indie animation works. Plus they get their name in a Bill Plympton film—that looks terrific on their resume.
Make a film in school—maybe two or three—but by all means, don’t make them over two minutes. Two minutes is a perfect length—it’s great for entering into festivals, and it’s perfect to show as a portfolio piece or at interviews.
Please, please, please: do not make an epic film in college! A well-made two-minute short is so much better than a rushed, uncolored ten-minute film. I’ve seen way too many of those.
And please don’t animate on ones—use threes or fours!
You’ve graduated from art school; you have a very cool portfolio and a terrific two-minute short. Where do you go?
I suggest finding an animation studio, whether it’s Pixar or Blue Sky or a tiny boutique studio like my own (or a games company, advertising agency, production company, or edit house) and starting from the bottom. Don’t be shy; be bold! I found out too late that Ralph Bakshi was making his first feature, Fritz the Cat, in NYC the year I moved here. Damn, I’m kicking myself for not going to his studio and volunteering to help out. I could have learned so much, and I believe my animation career would have started 15 years earlier. C’est la vie.
Starting at a studio is like the sequel to art school; learn all the new programs. Make lots of friends in the business, as you’ll be seeing them throughout your life in the industry. Put some money in the bank and build up your savings account. Start stockpiling ideas—lots of concepts, scripts, sketches, and storyboards. Polish your technique and drawing skills, and fill up your sketchbook.
After seven or eight years, you’ll be ready to develop your own strong, unique style of art and storytelling. Strike out on your own—if you’re insecure or not sure of your talents, you can keep your day job and make your indie film on the weekends. But, as Nike says, “Just do it.”
I’m a mess of doubt. When people say they love my films, or when I get massive applause, are they trying to make me feel at home?
Are they applauding because I did all of the drawings myself?
Are they just trying to be polite?
Are they trying to be my best friends?
Or do they really like my film?
I don’t know. I have no way of knowing. Maybe the organizers forced them to do that before I appeared? Did the organizers offer them money to pretend they liked my film? I don’t know! People seem to like my films, but the distributors stay away like the plague.
Also, I don’t know why there are large crowds at my screenings all over the world.
Is it because of my MTV exposure?
Word of mouth?
Is it because my films are on YouTube and the internet?
Or on pirated DVDs?
Did they pay people to come see my film? I don’t know!
God, yes, tons of them. I’m not like Frank Sinatra, who sang “My Way,” or Edith Piaf, who sang “Non, je ne regrette rien” (French for “I regret nothing”). I make a lot of big mistakes, and I’ll probably make a lot more.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t start making animation right out of college. Perhaps I could have been as big as Tim Burton or John Lasseter if I had trained as an animator and not an illustrator. But who knows?
I think that’s why I’m in such a hurry, making two or three shorts a year and a feature every two or three years—I want to make up that 15 years of lost time that I spent as an illustrator.
It’s amazing; I have that same yearning I had as a kid when I got my little notepad. I still want to draw everyone’s face, and everything in the world around me. And I hope I never lose that love of drawing.
What’s your next project?
I have a lot of ideas, all ready to turn into films, so it’s tough to decide. But it will certainly be the project that’s the most exciting and challenging.
Here are my top ten commandments for young animators:
1. Follow Plympton’s Dogma.
2. See as many films as possible (shorts and features).
3. Keep an idea file.
4. Always carry a sketchpad.
6. Create something that no one’s seen before.
7. Beware of big egos: yours and other people’s.
8. Be curious about life.
9. Appreciate the humor in life.
10. Love what you do.
