Thursday, June 09, 2005

Ahhhh....

OK, I'm well into week 2 of my DNA animation experience. All I can do is smile and sigh the satisfied sighings of a man who has finally found the space to breathe after years of juggling flaming monkeys (my term for the daily life of being in management). I'm really enjoying the crew (talented, fun, good solid folks), the project (pretty solid stuff. Folks are gonna like it.) and most of all... the simplicity of being able to focus on animating. Nothing else, just animating. No rigging. No budgets. No schedules. No client meetings. No spreadsheets. No Word documents. No flowcharts. No resource management. No pipeline development. No layout. No data wrangling. No asset or inventory issues. No shot fixing. No production management. No hirings or firings. No endless meetings upon meetings.

Just

glorious

wonderful

simple

animating.

Acting, performance, entertainment, learning, pushing. All that stuff that got me thrilled to be involved in this business in the first place. I'm smiling right now. Thank you , Lord. Thank you SOOO much!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm happy for you Keith ;)

Anonymous said...

keith,

Glad you've joined the DNA experience. You actually met me before that one time when pixar's andrew gordon came to talk at the community college, i was with nathan tungseth, shook your hand briefly...what i didn't know is that it was you, keith lango! nathan introduced you as, "yeah, this is my friend keith, instead of keith lango. thanks nathan. yeah, you were a big help to my animation about a year and a half ago. i was animating a generic blue guy rigg and posted on cgchar.com, but you probably don't remember. anyway, it was really nice meeting you, and it sucks i didn't know who you were cause i had so many questions to ask ya. maybe if DNA needs more help again on something and im wanted, i'll see ya again.

till then, gald you're lovin' DNA!

Albert Wood

Anonymous said...

congrats keith- not a lot of people would step down to be a lowly animator - can't wait to see your shots on the big screen.

-coop

Anonymous said...

it's really great to hear that you're loving what you're doing. that's the idea behind signing up for this crazy animator's lifestyle in the first place. incidentally, one of my instructors worked on the jimmy feature there at DNA before coming to colorado to teach. he had the same great things to say about the company and the people there. in the mean time, i'm looking forward to seeing ant bully as well as seeing more work from you and mark behm. great to hear that you're doing well and God bless.

drew

Mau said...

excellent!
this is great news!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Keith! I am so jealous ;), I have the same problem with the juggling flaming monkeys, but I keep the faith and working towards leaving it behind me and never come back. As your example shows, it can be done - thanks for insipiration.

Anonymous said...

haha, dang keith, and i'm barely trying to get my foot in the animated door.

No rigging. No budgets. No schedules. No client meetings. No spreadsheets. No Word documents. No flowcharts. No resource management. No pipeline development. No layout. No data wrangling. No asset or inventory issues. No shot fixing. No production management. No hirings or firings. No endless meetings upon meetings.

looks like i got alot of fun to look forward to before i reach the point you're at right now. it will be well worth it ;) .

Keith Lango said...

Well, ya know Richard, I used to animate before a lot of that other stuff came along. It's just that I've been valuable in other areas of production as well. Studios often have a shortfall of artists who can manage, so they'll often take them and make them managers simply because the crisis of the moment requires it. And having someone from the artist side who can manage is a huge asset because they understand both sides of the equation. It's like being a guy and a gal at the same time. Wait, I'm not so sure that'll come across well... Heh.
So you don't need to wade through all the things I have to animate. I'm just getting back to a simpler work life that I used to have a number of years ago. I got tired of being a grown up I guess. :)

Anonymous said...

Excellent, Keith! I'm glad for you!

ray pena said...

Great words, Keith! I was in the same boat you were about a year ago. Took a lead artist position at a game studio for 1 1/2 years. Wore me down so bad. Most of the team was amazing, but I just couldn't take dealing with schedules, spreadsheets, meetings, etc much longer. Now that I'm back to animating, life is sweet. DNA is an amazing studio too!

Anonymous said...

I am so happy for you Keith!!

I wish I had the opportunity/balls/money to drop everything I am doing now (programming) and make the leap to animation.

Ah well. I will get there, somehow. I just don't understain why it always has to be the hard way.