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Computer animator
Remember the movie, Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius? “We created that,” says Jeremy Totel, a 1997 graduate of the Art Institute of Phoenix (http://www.aipx.edu/).
Totel, a computer animator for DNA Productions, worked on lighting and special effects for the Academy Award-nominated film. “We added the color lights and shadows and any special effects that are needed,” Totel says. “All the pretty stuff.” Totel has been interested in painting and drawing for as long as he can remember. In high school, he thought about becoming an art teacher. But, inspired in part by Star Wars, he decided to study animation art and design at the Art Institute of Phoenix, instead. Once he discovered computer animation, Totel found he could transfer all his artistic ideas into one animation.
At the Art Institute of Phoenix, Totel took classes in drawing, basic design, reference design, digital video, storytelling, presentation and photography. Those classes gave him the tools for creating and accenting characters. “If we want to build a new character for Jimmy, say we want him to have a baby sister,” he says, “there’s not a button to push that gives you a baby sister.” Instead, it’s up to various departments to create the character from scratch. The modeling department sculpts the character into a 3-D figure. Another department paints texture onto the character, giving it depth. Yet another group will animate the character in the scene in which it belongs. Then, Totel gets the animated character to add lighting and special effects to it. “You light it like you would a real film,” Totel says. “Every step is an amazing process. Unless you don’t see it in person, it sounds like Greek.” Totel pays attention to the lighting of everyday objects, too. Even when he goes out for a hike, he’s paying attention to how light falls on things.
Totel compares computer animation to pottery. In both, there are many steps to take to make a sturdy final piece. First, you have to build a 3-D image. Then, you paint on textures. Finally, you have to fire the pot in a kiln, or in the case of computer animation, load the final image into the computer.
Other jobs to consider if you’re interested in computer animation include: special-effects artist, graphic designer or video post-production artist. Animators can work in commercial-production companies, animation studios, advertising agencies and video-production companies.
Totel spends a typical day making “map” paintings of 3-D images to use as scene backgrounds. These paintings are usually nature pictures, such as snow, clouds and water. Map paintings lessen the work for other artists; once they have snow, for example, the artists won’t have to recreate an entire picture to add a new background. Totel also cleans up shots for other artists.
To work in computer animation, you have to have the mind of an artist and an ability to turn your visions into pictures. You must also consider how objects look in light and how to modify stationary art into 3-D movement.
Totel suggests that high school students interested in computer animation pay attention to camera angles and lighting in movies, pictures and paintings. “The more medias you can experiment with and the more you can learn about art history, the better off you’ll be,” he says. Article provided by 
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