Last week I set out to record a quick interview with my animation professor, Bruce Barnes. What began as a quick question session became an hour-long discussion. For sanity’s sake, I’ve transcribed a few key points as follows:
How did you get into animation?
I was taking a shortcut when I was an undergrad to the painting floor. I’m always nosing around, this building had a basement and four stories. And I think the third floor was Art Ed, and I saw this room with all these computers and I started peeking in. I said “Wait a second, they’re not just making pictures: they’re making moving pictures. They’re making animation!” So I thought I’d try it, and I did. I liked it, and so I started making 2D and 3D and I started going evenings to another college downtown and doing hand-drawn and studying with people who worked in the industry and I was bit. I just loved to watch it move and come to life.
What films have you worked on?
I worked on the Pocahontas sequel. I was invited to Disney for character and I was invited to Warner Brothers for effects. But, due to family stuff I made the best of what I could. I worked for Janimation and stuff for major-league sports. I worked for a company called Character Builders and we did sections and parts of Warner Brothers features: Space Jam and Quest for Camelot. We also did a lot of Disney direct to TV stuff. I also worked on Hunchback of Notre Dame – I was the hunchback in a lot of the live-action reference stuff. One of the dance things. So did those, did commercials and animation short spots for clients.
So you’ve done animation for pretty much everything, huh?
Well, I tried to. I did character design for Zeno, David Hanson’s robot. I’ve done concepts, I’ve done storyboards for Sony. Also some products, product ideas.
You mentioned going to Studio Ghibli during last class, could you expand on that?
It’s day to night compared to the way a typical American studio is. They’ve probably had to change it now, but if you go to Warner Brothers or Disney Features, you have to wait at the desk, sign legal paperwork. With these guys we just dropped in the front door and they showed us everything, every room in the place.
Thank you Bruce for your time!
animationfoundation 
Posted on December 2, 2011
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