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This is Mich L Murphy successful animator
and all of you animation students- you're gonna love this interview
this guy's made his career around animation
and has a website called successful animators
so his focus is helping you once you've graduated
how to work in your field and
and have a fantastic career so on
he's gonna share with us some ideas both upon graduation
and in the study itself and how to get into a good program
in just his experiences so you can can hear from somebody that's
you know, working in the field in can give you some they're-
the real world story. So welcome Mike!
It'd be great to just hear little bit of your history so the students can I
get to know
where you're from, what you've been doing in your career.
I'm may be starting with that in what your focus like
why did you create this website successful animator
My dad was Walt Disney so I was just born
well right into it as a lucky kid *laughs* no,
I was raised in in born in
Northern California close to Hollywood but
still seven hours away so it wasn't like a... too far
my whole life I've been a filmmaker you know we-we had a
my dad bought one the first video cameras back at the in 1984
and I after about five months at broke it
cuz I was using it all the time and we only have one VHS tape this is back before
digital
so I had recorded on the long play which is 12 hours
so I can make twelve hours a film and then because he wouldn't give me another
tape I'd just go and rewind
and keep recording and that's basically how I learned filmmaking but during that
time
I realize it was a whole lot easier to just get a white board
drawing on it and take a-take a frame and then erase it
which is basically a very crude animation it's easier than getting all the
neighborhood kids
you know assembled so we can make a movie so on that route I had some
drawings up on the wall and I was
really lucky this is right after Lion King came out so animation was just like
you know finally was a grown-up business and
one of the guests at this wedding we had in our backyard
she saw my drawings she's like, "Hey you should be an animator"
and I-my whole goal is always to be a live-action film director which is what
I do now
but I was like I guess
and she's like ok it's really great my brother is an animator for Disney
which he is actually he was clean up artist everybody uses the word animator to be
everything but there's actually about thirty eight different jobs
within the the industry of aniamtion
so so I I decided yeah I really like to go down to get a tour
at Disney! So i call this guy, his name was Alex, and I'm like, "Hey I'm Mike Murphy,
back then yeah, I was shy, but I called him up
and he's like "Yeah! Come down for lunch, no big deal."
So, my mom drops of you know, she says 'Next time your in LA so I'm like mom she
wanna
next week a great tho we in the car going to LA
and I didn't know anything this is in the days before the Internet
you know if II I wanted to find out how to be an animator and remember the only thing back
then this is probably
nine... ninety one.
around this time I was about 15 or 16
I was 16 actually and I went to the local library (I grew up in Los Gatos California)
and there was one book on animation was really about
Walt Disney's story so didn't tell me anything about how to be an animator
and I found this great book on by Preston Blair which if you haven't read
it please read it
'Cartoon Animation' Preston Blair-so great... so I got that
And I started getting flip books and stuff but that was really it.
I couldn't get any more information-nobody could help me out-I mean I knew nobody
as an animator
so luckily I go down, and have lunch with this guy Alex
and he shows me around this is when they're doing Aladdin
I'm literally a sixteen year old kid walking around the Walt Disney Animation
Studios
and their animating Aladdin, and I'm just like
It was like the coolest thing I've ever seen, and I remember
there's a guy in the hallway on a computer
and I'm like, "Whats that?" and he's like "This is a computer." *laughs* This is back in the day there is this big old silicon
graphics machine here now I do like animate feature stuff on my laptop
but back then you needed this hundred thousand dollar machine to do anything
he goes
"Check this out!" So he pushes play-it was this wire frame animation
of the lion or the um, I guess it was a tiger head or a lion head... remember how the sand
it comes and it's like uhh
*deep voice* "He shall pass!" or whatever, and he showed me that, I'm like "That looks cool!" and he's goes
"Yeah, computer animation, it'll never take off." *laughs*
Who would've known?! But I decided that' point, that I really wanted to be an animator so I
asked Alex I said you know, "What do I need to do?" and he said, "Well,
there's only one thing you can do. You gotta go to Cal Arts." Back then,
it was *lists* Cal Arts, it was Sheridan.
The only two animation colleges in the world at that time, now
every
you know, local community college animation but back then it was those two,
and I was like, "Alright, well I'm going to go to Calarts." that was just that.
I was 16 and I had one year of high school left,
but I don't like to be told no, so I go home
I make my portfolio over the weekend, I send it in to Cal Arts.
Two days later and, you know, I calll them up and they say "We're not.... we're full, we're not accepting anyone else,
this year." I'm like, "I'm going there!"-Y'know, I'm a stubborn little ***, I'm like "I'm going! and they're like "Okay."
So two days later I get a big envelope from them-actually no it was a little envelope, from them
and I'm like *gruntish sigh of exhaustion and impending doom*
and I open it, and I read it, and it says, "Dear Mister Murphy, we would like to inform you
I'm like *quietly with a hint of sadness* "Ugh, this is
rejection, right?" and I keep going in says "That you are accepted!" And I'm like uh, I'm like oh-
you know "Oh my gosh!" and then I go to my dad, I'm like, "Dad, I-I-I got in!"
He's like, "No, you got another year high school to go."
And luckily my mom is a kindergarten teacher and she's always
pushing me to be creative so she-she's on one side going *angrily* "Let him go!"
he's like *even more angrily*
how you got a high schools over eventually the you know they love me
they they support me and they let me go off to college so I started CalArts nice
17 and at Cal Arts I was really fortunate because all my teachers
we give a shout out to Larry wait for you it's watching although my teachers
were Disney in years and you're ever back then there was Disney
there was nothing else and there was 2d/3d didn't exist yet
our computer animation you know 3d glasses
so because all these great people are teaching
there that work in DC in the day in any drive up the Cal archer's about 35
minutes north at night
they teach I was able to gate all this great information on
classic Disney style animation and I was trying back then
and then fast-forward to when I was
a just graduate you know I I had a job offer to go work to TA Disney doing in
between me and I was like this is great
and then John Lasseter nobody knows who the guy is he comes a Cal RT
pre is a movie called sway story and everyone's like
you know where these sonatas little like animation students we think we're so
smart
we're like 02 CG for computer movie that's gonna be sucky
yeah well was really good and at that point and to see it on my gosh this is
the future
%uh the movie industry this is a and I just remember there was a shot of ***
underneath the car was talking about was in the first time its unique character
really you seen you seen broad general hacking
there is a first time knowing I forgot that it was in the nation
and i was just like wowie we is filling some emotion is feeling some pain
I got a little a client over *** arose as cuz the
the eye is how these little I darts as what he was thinking he had these little
to dr. I darts and I believe the animator there was more of the Dell
think don't quote me oppressions Markov to know that
and i was just like that's what I want because I'd always had an acting
background as a star the school play honors in six grade so
II was to character as well like character animation
and so seeing toys for me realize that my future was gonna be
in them computer graphics relman course
walking around Cal Arts saying appeared in two years dead 23
people like I'm the prior art you you're feeling crappy
higher and I didn't make a lot of friends that your because I ever
have also very good businessmen and I just
recognize that it was cheaper and easier to do CG animation
anybody that wanted to be an animator had this amazing dream
could do it before you you had a drawl really well
I wasn't the best dressed person but I a new acting anytime and new animation
and so CG basically let me do that and
because I that I mean eyes it's just it's such a great industry
and then after that we fast for a little more
and I graduated from from college and I but I had this to the film arose
I mean is you know I needed in it was
on folks I didn't understand bringing a marketing yet
so I wanted to do everything your young artist you want to do it all right
and our allies the only way they are gonna get hired as if from
razor focused on what I want to do and wanted to be a character and
now wasn't my ultimate long-term goal in life but that was my first step to
getting in the industry
so determined that I needed to make a film but I only had
you know couple months to do it and that's why I gradually Cal Arts
and so and a you know again as before the computer so I couldn't just
get it you know my and in a laptop and just do it I don't be physically
in Cal arts with animation DS with the down suitor
with the paper I had to be there there's no way around it so I actually
broke into the school my friends would like let me and even the car key I was
homeless and i was sleeping upstairs in the queue calls
and I was making this film that was just a minute and a half
you know it's just one character fear acting
very simple because I i you know wasn't the best dressed person but I i
design a character that play to my strengths a lot of people play their
weaknesses in a trade buyer for the concertos like I and II have
my back is against the law I literally had about fifteen dollars I was eating
directory does in an enduring you know checking out the drink about now adds
that was about it
and I remember one day I hear footsteps you know it sounds really 4811
while curtain opens and there's the head of the animation apartment
and he's he looks very fearsome like who are not a good boss is not try to hide
because you're at the Q was nowhere to go I'm
growing in a few days ago my candy at work with you know I'm thinking oh crap
he's gonna kick me out
like you know I have like one where we can all be done with my film
and he's like I just wanna let you know that we really support what you're doing
and we
we we we love that you're passionate you're welcome to stay here for as long
as you want you go do you just finish your film like
you so I finish my fellow and at that point
I A applied all the studios was a 2d film
applied all the studios and to do three though and the like
why we want to hire you for 2d and what I don't want to do to you guys
I don't believe in that the more I want to do 3d and I will sorry K
sorry your 2d animator 3d animator
and you're gonna find this in your in your life people gonna tell you
your this n you're not that your anything you wanna be
you know you gotta follow your passions your goals and your heart and so even
though I had offers to go
might my dream was to be an enemy into work in the industry
and now I had offers to do it and literally turning them down because it's
not my goal
wasn't what I believe my path in life was so I i
I if I'm and tell my parents as much as I could ever
yeah like I get the body Iran I don't like knowing I gotta do what I gotta do
so I I luckily I managed to get a job
working rhythms you not actually working there in there
the they decided to bring the online train or different story for all
different day
but they brought me and the train and computer
and day my training and they had a linear
is a then at that point having worked there we
we brought you want we saw your 2d we love you
then we won't be part of our team by we just don't happen we're
we can't pay you you know we got we we can't let somebody else has been there
for years of we desire to use those are your the bottomless
you gotta go now solely I was lame devastated
well that the and is one thing they teach about
II I knew a little bit about interpersonal relations and I was really
call on the people and the training facility there all my friends
an industry is really small so all those people all the training facility people
they call the trainers at all the other studios so I get laid off
and literally an hour later I have pics are Warner Brothers
dreamworks I'll am they're all calling me up
and flying me to their studio so that we can just on this blitzkrieg a fine
all-round City Calif
on job interviews and by the end of the week I've a job offer to work on
Iron Giant Warner Brothers Toy Story 2 at Pixar
in Star Wars Episode one and I'll am i mean now I have a problem
prayed which one do I pick this oh my gosh so
I you know that's where really looked into my my heart of hearts
and I and I went with warner brothers and that's what started my career
course the whole in my whole career I've been very strategic and there's been ups
and downs and that's where it's what I teach
you know this was just truncated version of that but you have to be you have to
understand business
if you wanna make in this industry because it's very competitive
who lack going on and if you don't have those goals in mind
you're gonna get sidetracked million times I could have fallen off the path
because I knew where I was going and I believe in myself
I was able to get there that's the first thing I want people to learn from me
the second thing is because I made friendships because they added value
people because I throw parties and invite people are people
pertain to give a little you know if I'm a cupcake and want to bring it on
I do little things that were nice you know it's not rocket science but
being appreciative love people and and showing you're giving the values the
Hayward I don't want anything for you but what can I give to you
that makes an impression so I didn't have to go to these
people as you can you please call you with her friends effexor dilutive
so biggest it's only like him in a call the Pixar citrus stuff up and they want
they want to play a free free to use and other
white so it's it's very important to just remember that
that this is a very small industry and
all the jobs are gonna are contingent upon relationships you have
Sat Sun
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