I'm an Animator!

(yes, I'm a geek!)

<h1>Animator</h1>

I went to CalArts to study animation. 4 years of learning to flip paper and animate with a pencil and then Toy Story came out and made all of that obsolete! Thanks Pixar!

Toy Story was such abounding awesomeness that I knew CG (or 3D) animation was the future. Lines wobble when you animate 2D (or hand-drawn) animation to such a degree that it is very difficult to have subtle acting, especially in the eyes. But CG gives the animator complete control over every nuance in the performance. The first time I saw Woody give his monologue at the gas station, with this subtle eye darts, I knew the future had arrived.

At the time I had done this short film:

Mike L. Murphy – Pig Out!

I got me several job offers to animate 2D animation. I turned them all down because I was convinced CG was the way to go. My first animation job was on Brad Bird’s Iron Giant at Warner Bros. Feature Animation. If you haven’t seen it, go Netflix it!

After that I worked at Sony Imageworks (Stuart Little), back to Warners (Scooby Doo & Osmosis Jones), back to Imageworks (Stuart Little 2 & Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone), then off to New Zealand for 2 1/2 years to animate Gollum on Lord of the Rings & robots for I, Robot).

After I returned to Los Angeles I took a job at Disney (a childhood dream of mine) and got to develop short films. This was a turning point to realizing I wanted to direct the animation. I soon left Disney and got my first animation directing job on Mrs. Butterworth.

Since then I’ve worked on a number of great animated projects with more on the horizon. If you want to know more about animation, or becoming an animator, visit my website Animation Tutorial.

Click here to see my Animation Director reel!

Animation Montage:

Visual FX Animation Reel:

Lord of the Rings Animation Reel:

Feature Animation Reel:

Be sure to leave comments or questions below! Click here to learn how to make animations.

And click here if you want to know about Previs.

Thanks!

Check out my new blog!I just started a new blog about all the plans I have for 2012!  CLICK HERE to check it out. I’m gonna tear it up this year like Chuck Norris, so follow along and hopefully I’ll inspire you to kick ass too! -M
Dish TV spotThis is a commercial I directed the animation for. Hope you enjoy it!
Sundrop MTV’s Real World SpotHere is a quick little project I animated for MTV. Enjoy! I animated this in a week, including rendering, lighting and compositing. Short and sweet, the way I like it!
Animation Interview Part 3Here is the final part of the animation interview!
Pig Out – Short FilmHere is my student film that I did at CalArts. It’s an old school pencil test about a hungry pig.
Dirty Jobs – Dirty Presidents – RooseveltYet another Dirty Presidents bumper I directed for The Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs show.
Dirty Jobs – Dirty Presidents – Jimmy CarterAnother of the 12 Dirty Jobs animated bumpers I directed for Discovery Channel’s ‘Dirty Jobs’.
Mrs. Butterworth – Animated Commercial  Here is a Mrs. Butterworth commercial I directed the animation for. We had about 10 weeks to bring her to life. This included redesigning her, building the model, rigging her for movement, animating, lighting, rendering, and compositing! I was also on-set visual effects supervisor so I got to wear a lot of hats! Here ...
Mrs. Butterworth – Geico CommercialThis is a funny Mrs. Butterworth / Geico commercial I directed the animation for.
Dirty Jobs – Dirty Presidents – Abe Lincoln AnimationThis is one of the Dirty Jobs bumpers I directed for Buster Design/Stun Creative.
Animation Interview Part 2Here is Part 2 of my Animation Interview:
Animation Interview Part 1Here is part 1 of an animation interview I did. 3 parts.