From Oak Park to Pixar - How One "Star Wars Kid" Fulfilled His Dream

In today's economy, it stands to reason that there's a scarcity of people who are truly satisfied in their work. With national job satisfaction at 20 year lows and unemployment at all-time highs, it's a rare thing indeed to encounter someone whose career continues to be fun, challenging, and rewarding -- even through some of the hardest economic times in our nation's history.

But for animator Warren Trezevant, the time and hard work he invested in his career have truly paid off. Now, after 15 years with Pixar Animation Studios, this self-described "Star Wars kid" from Oak Park reflects on a career that has allowed him to explore the various facets of his many interests, and bring characters to life both on the screen and in the physical world.

I had the pleasure of meeting Warren at last week's Break the Box lecture series at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, and again at Flashpoint Academy where he spoke to students the following day. An Oak Park, IL native, Warren told two very different, yet equally captivated audiences about his personal journey from Oak Park River Forest High School to Oakland, California where he helped to animate such popular and critically-acclaimed modern classics as A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille.

As a career, animation married Warren's two loves: art and computers. It was a path he arrived at sideways, following an industrial design degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, a short time in Europe, a Westward leap of faith, and his fortuitous enrollment in an animation course that was, as luck would have it, taught by some of the founding Pixar animators. And the rest, as they say, is history.

As he shared his story with his audiences, what shined through Warren's words -- more than hard work, smart job choices, and chance encounters -- was his palpable appetite for improvement. At Pixar, they call the incremental and collaborative betterment of their work "plussing:" and during his time there, Warren has plussed not only his own shots and the shots of his fellow animators, but has also plussed Pixar by joining Disney's Animatronics team to create such imaginative and truly awe-inspiring projects as the Pixar Zoetrope and a life sized Wall-E. (Check the end of this post for videos.) Still, 15 years into his career, Warren continues to build upon his considerable talent by drawing upon his passions and never settling for the status quo.

When I think about what I learned from Warren Trezevant, it is this: that, no matter how far they go and how many hurdles they clear, true innovators always go looking for more. It's not an assignment, nor really a choice for them to do so. Innovators innovate because that's what they're driven to do, and it's unsatisfying for them to do anything less. And that, to me, is what is truly inspirational about his story -- that some people do succeed, and that when they do, they continue to chart a path for future artists to follow in their footsteps and form into reality the stuff of their wildest imaginations.

As I look back on Warren's visit to Chicago, I can't help but hope that, at least in some small way, the dissatisfaction held by many working Americans will be a building force, growing and invigorating the next generation of imagination, invention, innovation.


Feeling inspired? For more about Flashpoint's 2-year, Associate of Applied Science degree programs in Animation & Visual Effects, Film & Broadcast, Recording Arts, or Game Development, visit flashpointacademy.com.


The Pixar Zoetrope:



Wall-E Comes to Life:

Another Personal Anecdote about Why I Love My Job.

On my way out of Burnham Center on Friday night, I had an interesting conversation with a couple of students from a competing college in town, both of whom pursuing animation degrees.

These two students initially approached me to find out if I was a student at Flashpoint Academy. I told them no, but that I work at Flashpoint, and would be happy to help them if I could. They told me they’d been to our school a few times for CG Society meetings and wanted to know where they could get a Flashpoint t-shirt to, in their own words, “piss off” their school.

I laughed, but they said they were quite serious. One of them then went on to tell me they’ve had it with their animation department’s lack of tools and resources, and they’re constantly frustrated by scarce and broken equipment. They said that when they come to Flashpoint they see what animation facilities really SHOULD be like, and that their school should be more like us.

As luck would have it, Perry Harovas, our Animation & Visual Effects chairman, walked by just as I was having this conversation with these students. I asked them if they use Mastering Maya in their animation classes, and when they said yes I pointed at Perry and informed them that he had co-authored it. They couldn’t believe it, and acted a little like there was a celebrity in their midst. “It’s the textbook guy!”

Both of these students already had a brochure in hand when I started talking to them and expressed interest in coming to Flashpoint after they finish their current BFA degrees in order to expand their education.

My conversation with these students further proved to me that we at Flashpoint Academy are doing something (in fact, a lot of things) right.

By keeping our emphasis on hands-on learning and exceptional teaching, our programs are gaining a reputation -- even among the students at competing colleges -- for providing superior education. The fact that these students see our 2-year Animation & Visual Effects program as something more akin to a graduate program than their own BFA program really says something about who we are and what we have accomplished in just 3 years. I am extremely proud.

Summer High School Institute at Flashpoint!

I just got the information about the new summer school programs at Flashpoint Academy. Here is the link to the website, where you can read about the programs and download an application:

DATES:
June 22 - 26 July 13-17 August 10-14
Monday - Friday, 1pm-4pm

All High School Summer Programs are one week long and held at Flashpoint’s main campus and production facilities. You must be a current high school student and over the age of 16 to attend a Flashpoint summer program.

For more information, contact Admissions at 312-332-0707.

Choose from:

• Introduction To HD Film Production
• Broadcast Bootcamp
• Game Design Workshop
• Create Your Own Machinima
• Studio Recording Workshop
• Animation & VFX Workshop
• Sound, Image, Time & Space Workshop

Film/Broadcast

Introduction to HD Film Production
This week long, hands-on program is designed to give high school students an introduction to film production and filmmaking techniques. Over the course of a week students will take a project from ideation and conception to finished short-film all as part of a team.

Broadcast Bootcamp
In this Broadcast Bootcamp course, students will create their own “How To” videos that will appear on the Flashpoint Academy Howcast Channel. Over the course of a week, students will select topics from the Howcast library, cast and shoot a 2-minute “How To” video, add graphics, voice over and music, and upload it to the Flashpoint Channel on Howcast.

Game Development

Game Design Workshop
The Game Design Workshop offers an introduction to modern game design. This professionally guided hands-on opportunity leads a select group of attendees to the creation of a design appropriate for today's consoles. Life-long gamers will evolve game ideas coupled with the fundamentals of play mechanics during this one-of-a-kind workshop. This learning experience involves the creation of physical prototypes, group critique, and design iteration. Finally, at the end of the workshop, diligent attendees leave with the completion of individual professional-quality game concept documents!

Create Your Own Machinima
The Machinima Workshop offers those interested in all forms of digital media development to immerse themselves in a professionally guided effort toward completion of one of the latest forms of digital storytelling. This form of entertainment involves the use of today's game engines in creating dynamic storylines. Game characters represent actors and 3D game levels work as virtual sets. Attendees work in groups to create unique stories, storyboards, and scripts. From there, groups coordinate efforts in Flashpoint Academy media labs to work as camera operators and actors. Next, editors and sound designers add and finalize completed QuickTime™ files. At the end of the workshop, all films are screened and students leave with copies of their work, implementing modeling and texturing to compositing creations into film.

Recording Arts

Studio Recording Workshop
Students will begin the week with an introduction to sound systems used for the recording and playback of professional audio. Topics and collaborative hands-on training include: an overview of the music recording control room and studios, signal flow, operating level, gain structure, basic acoustic principles, microphones, microphone preamplifiers, equalizers, compressors, and the concepts and methodologies of multi-track recording. Students will also engage in aural awareness and critical listening exercises. The last part of the week will be devoted to tracking,
overdubs, and mixing sessions of a 4-6 piece pop ensemble. As the Institute concludes, students create compact discs of their projects to Red Book Standard specifications.

VFX and Animation

Animation/VFX Workshop
The VFX/Animation Workshop offers an introduction to the complex but powerful world of creating Visual Effects (VFX) and Animation using computer graphics. This professionally guided hands-on opportunity leads a select group of attendees to the creation of a character which is modeled in 3D using the latest hardware and software, and then made to move using a custom skeleton. Once that is completed, attendees learn how to composite their creations on top of moving footage, creating a convincing illusion that the two were photographed at the same time. At the conclusion of the workshop, hard working attendees leave with the completion of an animated character that they created which they added into footage taken during the week of all the attendees. You get to share screen time with your creation, as if he/she/it really existed!

Core Studies

Sound, Image, Time & Space
The Sound, Image, Time & Space Workshop is a week-long immersive program that explores the four media building blocks, and how they are employed by media artists to create emotion and meaning for their audiences. Students in the workshop engage in a series of exercises and experiences designed to build sensory awareness and observations skills, essential tools for all media artists. Screenings and collaborative projects introduce students to many of the fundamental concepts that are at the core of filmmaking, recording arts, animation and game
development.