Teaching Philosophy

I contend that more than the degree or certificate at the end, more than the information that is disseminated, that the value in a college education truly lies in being in the same room, all day, every day, with other people in a close setting going through the same rigorous training, working on the same problems, and same activity of challenging oneself and each other. This meeting of the minds really can’t be replicated in any other way. While a “do it yourself” approach may work for some, having a guide, and student compatriots provides an accountability and a safety net through the struggle of education. Animation is a team sport, there are very few solo artists in animation, and to this end learning must involve groups. I believe in the law of the harvest, that if we plant work, it will grow into work. If all we plant is school it will only grow into more school. When was the last time you had a vocabulary quiz at work? Thought there are still elements of a traditional classroom, I believe in the classroom replicating a studio production environment. You alone are in control of your education and future. Education isn’t something you endure to get onto better things, but as a foundation on which you can learn patterns to find solutions to any of life’s questions and engage the world.

Creation require risk. This ability to take risks is hard. There is no step by step fool proof path, with every jot and tittle outlined.I can’t provide this, nor would I want to as I believe failure is one of our greatest teachers. An instructor cannot bestow talent, I can only teach, share, give assignments, persuade, direct, critique, and encourage. I can’t do the hours of practice and work that you will have to do to master these skills. All there is is work. Unlike some disciplines where there is a right and wrong answers, and a test can prove you know it. With art and animation each problem a you face will not have a single solution, you need to develop skills to create one. This facet of the arts makes it the height of critical thinking, and also what makes it such a hard discipline. To this end I stress ERROR RECOVERY, NOT FAILURE AVOIDANCE. Many will hold back and not put their work forward because it’s not fully formed. No idea is good or bad to start, it’s just an idea. This first attempt should be very general, encompassing the whole idea of the project. Get it out of your head and on paper unfettered and with broad strokes, and then through the critique and review process it’s improved incrementally. This idea of iterations is working GENERAL TO SPECIFIC. The idea of SEPARATION OF CREATION AND EDITING is also important, as it’s hard to create if others or yourself keeps saying no. The sooner you start, the more iterations you can do and the better the end result will be. We call this FAIL FASTER, Finishing is just as important as starting, so while we iterate you have to recognize when to wrap it up, it's more import that things are FINISHED NOT PERFECT.

It's all about getting your ideas down fast, and taking some chances. In your work, don't be afraid to be messy. If you want to succeed faster and want your work to get better, whether you're a writer or an animator, you need to increase the frequency of your failures. Do more work. — Don Hahn

COMPUTERS, THE CAUSE OF, AND SOLUTION TO ALL OUT PROBLEMS. Teaching technology is the easy part of what I do, software developers and hardware producers want students to use their products and provide many avenues to figure it out, the hard part, the art, is what are you going to do with it once you have it. With visual communication it's important we SHOW, NOT TELL. Software is filled with amazing solutions to artistic problems; some easy to find, some harder. Software is utilized best when the artist has developed a vision in his or her own mind prior to approaching the machine. Then, the software becomes a tool, just like a pencil, to create. However, when the artist dives into the software, without utilizing any artistic efforts in their own mind, they pull out “canned” solutions from the software and think they’re great, but they are awful and they are everywhere. This leads me to the idea of CONCEPTS NOT KEYSTROKES. While out of necessity the “how” to use the technology is in the courses, but at the heart of everything are unchanging principles like story, appeal, design, movement, film grammar, etc. These inform our why, so we aren’t constantly chasing our technology tail. In both art and technology there are NO RULES JUST TOOLS. It is the selective application of the correct principle at the appropriate time that will create a production successful at communicating and entertaining its audience. Students can come to rely on themselves to come up with the creative solution and not make excesses and place blame on a magic box.

(paraphrased from Ryan Woodward)

Time Management

• Realize that time management is a myth.
• Find out where you're wasting time.
• Create time management goals.
• Implement a time management plan.
• Use time management tools.
• Prioritize ruthlessly.
• Learn to delegate and/or outsource.
• Establish routines and stick to them as much as possible.
• Get in the habit of setting time limits for tasks.
• Be sure your systems are organized.
• Don't waste time waiting.