I just updated my Portfolio. Come check it out!
www.DougRigbyArt.blogspot.com
I added a bunch of recent work a brand new demo reel, and a lot of improved older stuff. Take a look, let me know what you think and if there's any problems with the links or set ups. Thanks!
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So the last two months I've been kicking it into high gear trying to get ready for the studios that were coming out to interview. I can't tell you how many sleepless nights i've had, they all seem to blend together now, but it's starting to pay off.
Last week the first of the studios came out, Digital Domain.They're the premiere special effects studio in the world. Take a look at their Reel, its incredible. They didn't want to lose students to the other studios so they came early this year. The interview I had with them went well, the recruiter was great and liked my stuff. They can't really hire until May when they'll know what projects they'll be working on and who they need but she said I have good chance. This one isn't paid but most of the people who get the internship are pretty much hired later on.
Last tuesday Pixar came, I finally got an interview with them. It was tough going, I wasn't on their list AGAIN for some reason, even though my professor said I was and that they wanted to talk to me. I don't know what happened but after pulling some strings, setbacks and some downright craziness(system wide failure, library sprints, hacking laptops, no demo reel!), I finally just walked in and had my interview with them anyway.
It went well but it was pretty harsh too, these Pixar guys notice every little pixel. The guy I interviewed with was an actual lighting supervisor, not a recruiter, he said I had some really good work, but then took me to task on a bunch of things. Like why I didn't have Sub Surface Scattering on everything (that translucent glow type effect when light passes through skin) or why this or that highlight was too bright, shiny or dull? Why do you have stylized characters in a realistic setting? Is that the art direction? What is the art direction? What material is that supposed to be? I tried to answer and explain as best I could. He had good points, I understood what he was getting at but not all the problems were entirely my fault. I tried to explain that we didn't have the resources to do Sub Surface Scattering, it takes too long and we can't afford it. The look of the highlights and speculars, those were the art director's decision. Not everything was up to me. He understood and we discussed some alternate methods to achieve the same effect that were much cheaper time wise and how to approach other textures. So I think overall the interview went ok, not spectacular, but ok. Either way I didn't think I had a chance, until a few days later I got an email saying they enjoyed the interview and wanted to talk some more and take it to the next step! so that's good.
Then Sony animation came. I really like them, and they use Renderman and Maya which I'm used too. They're a relatively new animation studio but they're doing some amazing stuff. Surf's Up and Beowulf were their most recent work, they also worked on Narnia, Open Season, Monster House, Spiderman, Superman,The Matrix and a bunch of others. So they do a mix of both full feature animation and live action effects.
I interviewed with their Director of animation production, the guy in charge of the animated effects in all the movies I just mentioned. He was really cool and was seemed impressed by my work. He said when they were looking through everyone's reels to see who to interview, they just watched the first ten seconds and if it stunk they went to the next, but when mine came up they stopped it anyway and said "yeah, he's definitely in, we don't need to see anymore". When they interviewed me and saw the rest of the reel, they were like, wow, you did that? and that? and that too? hahaha it was awesome. They said "Ok this is how it works, after we show your reel to the Texture people back at the studio we'll talk to you more about the details and fly you out to see the studio if they like what they see. Here's our business card, call us or email if you have any more questions for us". They're good people, we talked about Argentina and surfing in california, it was pretty fun.
And get this.
We actually had a fireside with them after the interviews. With a an opening prayer and everything.
Sony started seeing that our films won a lot of awards and they wanted to find out what BYU was all about. The vice president of Sony animation is an orthodox Jew and after meeting with our professors last year to talk about our program, he kept coming back to the subject of religion, he wanted to know more about the who the Mormons are, what we believe in and how we're turning out so many talented animation students. So a couple months ago after talking some more he wanted to know if he could come out and talk to the students about spiritual matters, unofficially, and answer any questions or concerns we might have about maintaining a spiritual life in the middle of Hollywood. He's has been impressed at what we've been able to accomplish and that we've been able to do so while maintaining strong religious and moral values and wanted to talk to us about it. Our professors we're kinda shocked but said sure come on out. A bunch of people at Sony heard about it and wanted to come out too with the recruiting staff to see BYU and talk to us about the importance of faith and spirituality in the movie industry. It was very interesting to say the least, but the things they talked about and their perspective on things were great to hear. We have a lot in common. They said although we may disagree about who's in charge, our values and beliefs are pretty much the same. The Vice President, Barry, sounded a lot like a stake president and had a lot of good advice. He mentioned a story where some of the artists at his company came to him and didn't feel comfortable about working on a particular project, that it was against their moral principles. You would think in most places they would say, well tough, or if you feel that way there's the door. But no,he worked with them to get them reassigned to another project that they felt more comfortable with. I thought that was pretty cool. It's comforting to know that if I worked there and felt the same about a project, I could ask to be reassigned and not have it be professional suicide. It's a very family friendly place to work. He said he has family and friends too, and people know of his religion and standards. He doesn't want to put anything out there that he would be ashamed to show any of them. At the same time he said Hollywood is a business. He doesn't always have control over what gets made. If it will sell, it will be made. We can't stop bad movies from being made, we can only try to make more good movies, support good movies, and try to influence the bad movies to not be so bad. We can't change the bad people in Hollywood, but if there's enough good people, our examples will be noticed and things will change. One of the HR ladies spoke to us on that, she's christian, and she was excited at how many upcoming artists we had that wanted to make a positive difference. She mentioned a story about when she worked on the Prince of Egypt animated movie at Dreamworks. Some of the story artists thought they had a great alternate storyline for Moses to jazz it up a little. It didn't sit right with her, and during a meeting it came up whether they should do the story like that or not, and she and some others came forward and suggested they do the story the way its written, in the bible. After some discussion they eventually agreed and scrapped the other story. She said it demonstrated that you can't just come in and clean up Hollywood in a day, but we can make a difference and that she encouraged us to come out and do so.
It was a pretty out of the ordinary fireside, but was very refreshing to hear from people that are high up in the industry. They realized we have differences religiously, that we may not agree on the particulars but on the big stuff, we're together and we should support each other to be positive influences in the world and to make good quality entertainment . Well said.
So yeah good things are happening, nothing concrete but I am getting some good looks and hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be finding out if anyone wants to hire me. Thanks for all your prayers and support!
Mom and Dad
Mike and Kathy
Rick and Michelle
Dave and Annie
Chris and Liz
Susie and Jay
Mark and Amanda