Meet the Artist: Jason Schleifer

skull_leader · 2005-06-15 00:05:47 UTC

Thank-you Jason for your time to answer my questions.

Mikademius · 2005-06-15 04:17:05 UTC

I’m with you since I was just about to ask a question and now I’m not allowed to :sad:

manditri · 2005-06-15 06:50:56 UTC

Hey Jason…just one word…JEALOUS…:twisted:…thats what I am of the kind of work u do…now since u r helping people out with their queries…heres mine…how can I beat u at this…:)…
I have been learning maya for almost a year now and thats almost exactly the duration I have fiddled with 3D…havent really got a grasp of animation and riggin yet…but that is what I was planning to take up as career in CG…rigging ofcourse being a more immediate goal…and reading abt u and ur work…only gives me a broader sense of what I need to do…I am learning to draw and some mel scripting…these r baby steps for sure but hope they take me in the right direction…I wish I cud join AM…but dont have the finances…anyways considering the facts that I am all self-taught and have discovered 3D rather late stage in my career…cud u plz gve me an idea of what kind of scripting I shud do…perl,python (C++ i guess is an absolute essential)…what programs shud I write to head the right way…with no previous programming knowledege I am a lil sceptical…
Help a lil…this aspiring rigger/animator…and if I get gud enuff maybe u will give me a job in ur future studio:)…u animate I rig…he he…what do u say…
I am from India and when r u coming here to enlighten us…
Thanx for taking ur time doin the Q&A…I have read every answer of urs here and feel its as much a guide with self-betterment tips as its for animation…and both r invaluable.
Love ur work and really appreciate ur efforts sharing the knowledge. There r not many kind people in the industry…so keep it coming…All the Best!

Cheers!
Manditri

jschleifer · 2005-06-15 11:27:56 UTC

gah!

I just spent an hour answering the last questions, and it didn’t send.

poop.

I’ll try and re-do it later this afternoon.

gah!

hopper2k · 2005-06-15 12:30:10 UTC

ooo man, that happens to me alot. which is why i now have the good ol’ CTRL + A then CTRL + C imbedded in my head to select my entire message and copy the thing in case it doesn’t get through…and if it doesn’t, i just try it again and paste the message i spent time typing up. you might wanna try that for next time.

and thanks again for personally answering all these questions including my own, and thanks to everyone else for asking the questions!

-R. Hopper

StorytellingTree · 2005-06-15 12:40:11 UTC

Jason, first, thanks for answering my questions, it really helped me.

Second, it was a pleasure knowing you, i must say that you earn a lot of points with the CG community, your efford of answering all questions giving nice answers and a very nice support really made me surprised. Thanks a lot, i can only wishes you more 50 years of pure and fantastic animation.

thanks !

Adriano-Zanetti · 2005-06-16 12:19:38 UTC

Aiiiiight, finally got to see madagascar yesterday, I had a blast man, congrats with such incredible work, please pass the word around to your crew… say “Adriano Liked the movie a lot!” …just to see if someone cares !
Anyway, nothing to loose in that flick, was good from the first sec of the picture til… well… it still feels good now.
What a sick job you guys did, I was amazed by the speed of the animation, so so so many poses, so many body and facial expressions, made my head spin at some points, motions and rythms I never ever seen before in any other 3D motion picture. Watchin the trailers I have to say I wasn’t so thrilled about such stylized characters, although I love cartoonish stuff, it was just a bit too much for me at first… I was like “what’s with the spirals in their noses ??” but watching the movie I realized how that style was opening doors in term of animations, with such fancy animals I guess pretty much everything was allowed… and it felt just right in the end.

Questions… well after going over the thread I realize I know more about you, your background and all, than about my own girlfriend’s… (that statement is so gonna cost me when she reads the thread :argh:) So it seems there not much to ask anymore… or at least nothing real smart, so I’ll just go with the flow now and freestyle.

Did you guys smoked and poped stuff to come up with such crazy flick ?

if yes, was that stuff provided by the pinguins ?
If not, I understand… just pm me the truth, I won’t tell anyone.

If you had to cut out one those performers out of Episod III (ROTS) which one would it be :

Jar-Jar : “Squiz me!” or Anakin/vader : “Noooooooo!” or Padme : “Bla bla bla …blaaa” (pssssst…hey…hint… all of them is the right answer)

If you could save one of these men accused of crime against humanity, who would you help ? …Hitler, Goering, Mobutu, S.Hussein, Mussolini, Staline, Atila or George Lucas. …ok, ok, a bit unfair, but I had a second of hesitation here myself!

Enough off topic questions…

In Madagascar, message it pretty clear, eating meat…Baaad, Fish…Goooood! Now, please tell me what I’m supposed to say to my almost 3 years old daughter, who’s watching Nemo 5 times a week, when she gonna watch the Madagascar on Dvd soon or later ? …that fish are not friends anymore ?

Checked out your site and read over your short about your dog, I think it’s great, looking forward to it… but what really amaze me here and makes me wonder… how did you introduce it to your lady, that you’d go for a flick about the Dog and not about her first, without gettin your butt kicked ? …cause you know they have to be our muses, right ?

Anyway, seriously, thanks for doing your thing the way you do it, obviously very inspiring for us all. Thanks for spending so much time on that thread, very interresting it was, cool to see you’re having so much fun out there, one more motivation for us to follow your track and keep doing our thing too. Good luck with John and his Dog.

pe@ce

Adriano

Okan · 2005-06-16 13:15:25 UTC

Are you smoking or drinking alcohol ? if not, what you do when you get frustrated while working
and i second time asking if you didn’t catch before, why did you choose Linux over Windows for Maya ?
I know most companies run Linux but why did you use it at your home ? ( you said you use vim for MEL)
I was wondering if it is more stable with Linux or any other reason like performance etc… ?

And a little bit of compliments, i saw Madagascar today, brilliant, rock on…

InvaZimm · 2005-06-16 13:25:57 UTC

Hey Jason, thanks for replying to those “low brained” questions of mine, greatly appreciated. Definitely great of you to be doing all this for us, so thanks again. Keep up the great work as usual.

Can’t wait to hear your crits and comments on my reel.

Drake83 · 2005-06-18 04:36:26 UTC

Jason, one day i’ll sit down next to you, and we’ll have fun together, when i’m definitely better. Thanks for all your replies, you’re an inspiration and a model to follow. By the way, your reel is amazing and this dog is so funny!!
Haven’t seen Madagascar yet (on the screens next week) but can’t wait to see it.

All the best man!

Miyagi · 2005-06-18 09:08:41 UTC

Hi Jason!

I finish reading this thread today, you a kind of cg celebrity. You seem to be a nice person, Im happy for you. I really think it has most to do with the care and humanity you put in your internet posts than your amazing works. Congratulations to your success and humbleness. I’m sure you are going to meet all of your goals.

P.S. Just to sincerely thank you. You dont need to reply this one brave Jason.

Feeank · 2005-06-18 13:08:37 UTC

Hello Jason, I’ve read half the thread already and I was scared to post my questions too late so if I ask something already anwsered bear with me please:)

I work for an animation company here in Venezuela, we’re producing by the fingernails a feature film and our company has brougth a lot of CG experts here to give conferences and shows. People like Brian Rosen from Pixar, Michelle Meeker (ROTK, Shrek), Cristina Drahos (Matrix and tons of other flicks), Sandra Voellker (Babe, Stuart Little), Esdras Varagnolo and Paul George (I Robot, Day after tomorrow, these last two are also Venezuelans) have been invited here and they have given incredible shows, sharing their expertise and encouraging the audience (mostly CGI fans and afficionados) to follow this path and go pro. So my questions after that long expose would be:

Did you get to meet Michelle Meeker during your Weta period? how was the experience working with her (If you got to do so)
Would you be interested in taking part on these type of experiences here? We would really appreciate your insigth about the industry and the craft and you also look like a really nice person to talk with.
Are you still active in this board? (not sure if this has been asked or anything, sorry)
Given that you get to fulfill your dream of forming your own studio (I really hope so) would you be hiring / taking interns from the people in CGtalk? (hope I didn’t put you against the ropes with this one;) )
As I said, I’m working on a feature film, but our crew lacks the academic background / experience required in a big-budget Hollywood CGI production. What we lack in experience I think we compensate with passion, creativity and near-obsession self teaching, but this may not be enough for Hollywood. Any advice/words on this? Should I be worried about this? I really want to take my career outside Venezuela (WETA, Lucasfilm, Pixar and the like) and have the chance to work with the bests there are and improve my skills and so on.
I don’t have animations of my own posted in this forum, I tend to focus on Modelling and rigging, but my friend Bigyuyo has a small playblast from a particular project we’re working on. You can check it following this link http://www.geocities.com/bigyuyo/index.html
sorry for the messy website (Geoities=Evil)
Not a question, and I know modelling it’s not your field, but you’re equally kindly invited to check my personal WIP (again, follow signature) just for fun, no reply to this required. Thanks in advance and I hope you like it

Heh, I always ctrl-c the post before hitting the submit button just in case, especially if it’s a long one (see, you can always learn something in CGtalk )

Well, that’s it (WOW, I’m sorry for the amount of questions). I want to really compliment you for your work on LOTR especially on Gollum. I know it was a team effort but i’m sure there are tons of shots that you get most of the credit. (LOTR is my favourite movie so having the chance to talk with you here is really a priceless opportunity) I haven’t seen Madagascar yet and wasn’t particularly looking forward to it but all this talk about snappy animaton has pumped my interest, I’m sure your work there is equally superb. Again, speaking for thousands of CG afficionados down here, we would really like to see you at a conference/show/whatever the name, I promise you Venezuela won’t dissapoint you (have you heard about our Misses? Weee!)

Thanks for all Jason, good luck and best wishes

Francisco Morales

jschleifer · 2005-06-20 08:49:39 UTC