Entrevista a Michelle Pecoraro, profesora del DigiPen's Project Fun in Animation 2011

Aquí tenéis unas palabras de nuestra mentora. Una "voz de la experiencia" dentro del mundillo de la animación, ya que va a estudiar 4º curso en Redmond y tiene mucho que contarnos sobre esta gran carrera universitaria. Siempre he querido que este blog sea bilingüe, así que esta entrevista será en V.O.. Espero que sea de vuestro agrado.

• How did you get started in the world of animation?

Since preschool, I’ve been drawing. I grew up with Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Japanese anime – all of which have inspired me in some way through out my life. I started with stick figures, I began illustrating my own stories, drawing fanart, and somewhere along the way I decided I wanted to be drawing cartoons for a living. I never really had art classes all through elementary and middle school, but in high school I was able to take a summer workshop on animation. In fact, it was DigiPen ProjectFUN offered through my local school district. After taking it two years in a row, I decided I definitely wanted to attend DigiPen in college. It was the only school for me; most colleges taught graphic design, but DigiPen could teach me how to tell stories with my art and truly build up my foundational art skills at the same time. So I prepared myself by taking life drawing classes and gathering up my best pieces for a portfolio. And now, I’m entering my senior year at the college I set my sights on in 9th grade.

• So, DigiPen taught you well...

Absolutely (smiles), DigiPen has taught me well! I look back at my pre-college art and can hardly believe how much I can do now compared to then. I’ve completely re-learned how to draw; I’ve broken bad drawing habits (most at least), learned anatomy, tone, compositional guidelines, design principles, how to use multiple mediums. My foundations were set within my first two years. Add to that an education in how to use the industry standard software to take a concept on paper and put it into 3D – into motion even.

Freezing Nomads Revamp, by Michelle Pecoraro

With the guidance of the amazing professors at DigiPen, I’ve completed one team project done in traditional 2D animation, two solo 3D shorts, and am now gearing up to be a concept artist, layout lead, lighting lead, and post production lead on a year-long group project for senior year. Everyone has worked for three (or four) long years to harness their greatest talents and put them on display for the whole world in this final project. I for one, am ecstatic to show-off what I’ve learned.

• What's the main purpose of ProjectFUN's courses?

ProjectFUN is about getting students excited about art and about math by showing them how important they are to industries that many young people are interested in. Of course, it´s also about being creative, learning new skills, and creating something unique to share with your friends and family whether it´s an animated short or a video game.

Curtis Young designing, by Michelle Pecoraro

On the animation side of things, we teach the animation pipeline, which is a process used in one form or another by every great animation and game studio. The students go through pre-production, which is drawing out their character and story ideas, before they model, texture, rig, light, and animate. Everything they do in the program is then compiled together into a render – a video or image version of their project that can be shared in anyway the student wishes. (Para ir a la crónica de la primera semana, click aquí)

"If you don´t challenge yourself to try new things in art, you won´t improve and your art will become stale"

• Talent or hard work?

Talented artists can get pretty far on just their laurels, but pretty soon, those that maybe started at the back of the pack and really strived to improve are going to be getting the recognition. If you don´t challenge yourself to try new things in art, you won´t improve and your art will become stale. Furthermore, you can have the most amazing art in the world but if you don´t have the work ethic to get things done on time for a professor or for a client, you´ll be out of luck; no one will hire you. So talent can get you started, but hard work is what makes you truly great.

• What's your advice for the beginners?

Draw. A lot. From life and observation. Sure, you can draw comics and characters from your imagination, that´s what makes art fun and worthwhile for a lot of people (including me). However, it´s even more fun when you can sit down and realize you can draw almost anything, and that will only happen when you have a vast visual library stored in your brain. And you stock that library by drawing from life. So draw your friends and family; draw strangers in cafes; draw bits and bobs lying around your house; just draw what you see. And the more you do it, the better the outcome. And don´t let yourself get rusty. Drawing isn´t like riding a bike; you can´t just get right back on. You have to warm up and get your pent-up bad drawings out before you can get to the good ones.

Nota de Videoholic: Su página web personal es http://www.coveofmadness.com/. También tiene Deviant Art, para aquellos interesados. ¡Un saludo a todos!