Meet the Artist: Jason Schleifer

#206

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

#207

gah!

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

poop.

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

gah!

#208

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

#209

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 !

#210

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 :wink: !
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 ? :slight_smile:

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 ? :wink:

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

#211

Are you smoking or drinking alcohol ? if not, what you do when you get frustrated while working :stuck_out_tongue:
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…:slight_smile:

#212

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.

#213

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!! :smiley:
Haven’t seen Madagascar yet (on the screens next week) but can’t wait to see it.

All the best man!

#214

Hi Jason!

I finish reading this thread today, you a kind of cg celebrity. You seem to be a nice person, I’m 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 don’t need to reply this one brave Jason.

#215

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:

  1. Did you get to meet Michelle Meeker during your Weta period? how was the experience working with her (If you got to do so)

  2. 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.

  3. Are you still active in this board? (not sure if this has been asked or anything, sorry)

  4. 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;) )

  5. 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.

  6. 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)

  7. 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 :smiley: )

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? :cool: Weee!)

Thanks for all Jason, good luck and best wishes

Francisco Morales

#216

more answers coming!

hey folks… was really busy last week so I didn’t have time to go back and re-type answers, but I’ll finish it all up this week!

woo! :slight_smile:

#217

Guys, please refrain from posting new questions… this Q&A session ended a week ago, although Jason has been kind enough to continue posting replies to questions he had not yet answered. Please do not add additional questions.

Thanks!

#218

Okay, this isn’t a question to jason, but to CGTalk: Any progress on setting up the Aaron Sims Q&A? I’m a huge fan of his, and I have been agonizing to ask him some questions. Of course, I realizze there are technical difficulties, but could you possibly give an estimate of when he will be on?

By the way, Jason, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to post any questions (I had finals in tha past couple of weeks, so things are a bit hectic). I adore Lord of the Rings, and much of it couldn’t have happened without your help, so thank you.

#219

Oops. I’m really sorry about that, though I can only alegate ignorance as a defense on my behalf. I had no idea that the Q-A session had ended when I posted my questions. Sorry for that.

#220

Aaron was supposed to be next, but unfortunately he is busy right now. So he will be doing a session in a few weeks. I am busy trying to organise someone else in the meantime.

#221

Okay, then, I guess that gives me more time to think up questions:). Besides, I’m sure he’s hard at work making Tethered Islands. Thanks for the prompt response!

#222

No question,

I just like to say thanks Jason you sound like a really good person.

Good luck!

#223

Lol… Gotta say thanx too… I’m new here, and the thing that made me stay here and start all that’s been going on in the last three weeks (doing graphics for two books and entering a mini-challenge here :P) was Jason’s enthusiasm… No questions lol :slight_smile:

#224

first of all hi and hows life’? :slight_smile: man you are so talented character animator ever when i first saw u at alias’ movie interview and knowing ur one of those key people who’s behind the CGI
fantastic movie LOTR i was amaze specially ur talent’ U ARE GREAT!

ok heres my Q.

Q-1 : WACOM (other brands) tablet pen digitizer or MOUSE?

Q-2 : SPAWN OR BATMAN? (and pls tell me why) im interested.

Q-3 : STEVEN SPIELBERG TIM BURTON OR GEORGE LUCAS??

Q-4 : rate yourself 1-10 as an ARTIST /ANIMATOR’

Q-5 : SCI_FI or HORROR?

i hope u will having some time to answer my Q. keep up the good work man ur one of my idols in 3-D world’ :slight_smile: more success to ur life

#225

flyingP
 Just curious, apart from Weta, did you get an impression of how the overall industry is developing in NZ ?, another 8 weeks and I’ll be back in NZ myself after a twelve year absence so any info would be most appreciated

It seems like the industry is doing pretty well over there, especially in wellington and in auckland. I didn’t talk to anyone NOT workin at weta (in the industry, I mean… I talked to lots of people not working at weta who don’t work in the industry, but… well… you know what I mean), so I’m not sure of any specifics… but I have a feeling it’s growing quite a bit. Have a great time going back! NZ is awesome. :slight_smile:

[b]Sagroth

[/b] Maybe that’s not your primary speciality, but reading your answers I’ve figured out that you want to have your own studio and make your own projects one day, so I’m really interested in your opinion.

It could be fun, but I’ve seen a lot of artistic people start their own studios only to have them (the studios) die a slow death & the people work themselves to… well… to death. :slight_smile: I’d be happy to start something up with a few friends, as long as I had someone to manage the show & get all the money for us while we created cool stuff. If there were money in film festivals… ahh…

So what do you think about skills of animation/vfx-heavy film director - is it essential for him to know at least basics of all animation/vfx technical stuff? Or should he just leave that 'tricky stuff' for specialized team and spend more time on actual directing craft?

I think it’s incredibly helpful for anyone to know at least a little bit about anything they’re working with. For example, if a director understands that when they say “I want wet hair flinging around and lots of water droplets all reflecting and refracting” that it’s going to be a hard and expensive shot, then that’s great because they can work with the vfx supervisor on making sure that it’s in the budget. However, it’s not necessary for them to know EVERY little thing about how stuff is done… just enough to respect the artists creating the work.

 I know that in his early films (btw, what d'you think about them, honestly? :)) Peter Jackson had a lot of work in 'natural' vfx stuff. Do you think that helped him a lot while planning/making LotR trilogy?

Haha :slight_smile: I loved all of them except Meet The Feebles… just didn’t get into that one when I watched it the first time. It was funny the second time, but the first… ehh. Forgotten Silver is one of my fav films of his. I LOVE it. He and Costa did a great job with it. I do believe peter’s knowledge and love of fx and animation helped him quite a bit with LOTR. He was able to converse with us on a number of levels about how to get things done (not saying “do this”, but could understand when we said “that’s hard”). Plus it was just great hearing the stories from him and Richard Taylor about the things they used to do.

 And lastly, if you for example want to be an animation film director, what skills are you going to improve for that purpose?

I would like to improve my “subtle” animation skills. I feel like that’s the real area I want and need to work on.
More to come folks… more to come. :slight_smile: