In short, she asked me about the state of the Romanian animation and its market.
And honestly, I had to answer a bit more... globally, 'cuz I'm that kind of guy who likes to put things in a more... global perspective :} Sorry about that...
Oh, and btw, if you're not interested in my epic description of my humble beginnings (what am I saying... I'm still humble... :/ ), skip to the second question.
1. What inspired you to work in animation? Who were the artists or animators that inspired you the most?
The short answer? An accident.The long answer... I always drew comics and wrote stories as a kid, so I have always been into this, so to speak. When I was 10 my parents, who are musicians, sent me to music school... so I became interested in music composition shortly after that. You know, anything creative? Bring it on. I just wanted to create things. And dream about things. I'm a big dreamer. Many years later, waking up from this dream I had and realizing I won't be able to make a living the way I wanted... meaning by being a composer, an artist, I went through some depression and uncertainty about my future, and then, one day, it happened: I was studying at BGSU at that time and it just so happened that I started making friends in the arts department, and they were telling me about 3D, about Maya... so I ended up downloading a copy of Maya, installed it on my Pentium 4 / 256MB RAM laptop I had at that time... it worked, surprisingly... and that winter break I did nothing else but... Maya, sleep, repeat. I couldn't believe that one person can make an animated film all on his/her own, it seemed fabulously fantastic to me, and I was totally hooked. After a while I figured out that Animation is what I feel most attracted to because it connected with my desire to make animated films and my love for characters. Also, I saw a lack of quality animation on the market, so I felt I could learn to do this and that I have a good chance to find work. Of course, that's not necessarily true, but that's what I thought at the time. So I started learning on my own, using the internet, animation books, all I could find about animation. And later, I could make a living out of this, which is no small feat for a starving artist, you know. Inspiration I usually find all around me, all over the internet.... so I don't know if I really have favorite artists. More like... favorite examples of animation or works of art or music, and so on. I find that music inspires me to draw and imagine, a film might inspire me to write music, and so on. I love animation so everything that is well and beautifully and masterly done is something I would love, of course, starting with Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, Aardman, and going to less visited places such as Frederic Back or Yuri Norstein, to name just a few major ones (who are famous inside the animation industry but little known outside it). But I also love graphics in general, motion graphics, and experimental stuff that has character and a solid direction, like the films made by brilliant unknown [for now] artists such as Nelson Boles or David Prosser. I also have to mention that I absolutely love the work done by Psyop and Studio AKA, they have style and guts, they are among the true innovators of 3D animation, if you ask me. And the list goes on.
2. How would you describe the educational resources regarding animation in Romania? Do you think that the educational system is helpful for those who would like to follow a career in animation?
Well, first of all... animation is young, and teaching animation in fact, or teaching acting for animators is still, I believe, a new thing, still in its infancy. And second, I think that if you live in Romania and you want to learn animation, your best chance, if not the only real chance, is the internet, for now. I believe there are very few animation schools out there for anyone who wants to learn to animate well, for learning some solid bases. Animation Mentor, Call Arts... for who can afford that, Gobelins maybe, much closer to us and much cheaper. The idea is that until very recently there hasn't been access to information in the same way we have access today and if you were an animator in the 70s, 80s, or even early 90s, and you weren't working at Disney's... you didn't really have a chance to really learn animation, to build a solid base and learn to create natural motion, character, acting, all this. And it's probably impossible to convince someone with some 30 years of experience, today, that they should go back to basics and... this time... since there IS information out there now, really learn. You can, normally, only do this with young people. So nowadays animation teachers are, many of them, coming from an era where there was little information about [quality] animation, and they, themselves, are, many times, not skilled animators. So as a result, you go to an animation school and you usually learn some software, like Maya, Max, XSI, stuff that you can learn very well at home without paying a dime. And what you don't learn... is character animation.Another thing about learning animation is that you need a mentor, normally, someone with experience to supervise your learning process. Constant feedback on your work, for someone learning animation, is crucial. My advice is, if you can't find a mentor, learn as much as you can on your own, try to use the best quality sources to learn from (there are many people out there teaching animation, but not all of them are Jason Ryan or Richard Williams), and then get a job and learn on the job, try to find these people who know more than you do, and talk to them, try to learn from them, watch them work if possible (without being too much of a pain, of course). The real learning, trust me, will start on the job.
3. How would you describe the animation market at this time in Romania? Are there many competitors or companies that would be available to recruit such artists?
Animation market in Romania... well, bluntly? You get it, not good. It's pretty low and it's stagnating. And mostly Bucharest-based. There are a few studios doing 3D work for advertising, Framebreed, DSG, Golem, but not all commercials need character animation so... there isn't always work for the animator, more for the generalist. And then there are the advertising agencies such as McCann Erickson or film studios like Tandem who also, some of them, might have a small 3D department incorporated. Or there are cases where a studio might hire per project, like Media Pro did with Harap Alb or Fire and Ice, but there are very few such projects. And lastly there are the game studios such as Ubisoft, EA Games, Namco, and they usually have larger teams and offer more stability on the long term. But a large animation studio doesn't exist right now in Romania. Dacodac, TinyCreatures, Genius, they all shut their doors for different financial reasons. Animafilm still exists, but is not an active studio. So to conclude, we've seen better days, but I think that the animation industry will grow, probably very slowly. 3D is such a useful thing that I believe it would be impossible for the industry not to grow. Character animation related though... that's a difficult question, nobody really knows what the future will bring.
4. Do you consider that technological advances (3D max, After Effects etc.) have helped you in the animation process? Do you believe that traditional animation has lost its place in today's super digitized era?
I think the computer saved animation and is helping it enormously, the quality of everything has gone way up, and technology is largely responsible for that. We have tools that help us do our work better and faster, we can find information very easily and we can frame by frame a virtually infinite amount of video reference. Isn't that amazing? Of course, at the end of the day it's the human behind the computer who does the work and who is responsible for the outcome. With nowadays technology the animator's job is still very useful and nothing beats a solid understanding of animation.As far as traditional animation is concerned, I think it will be with us as long as there are devices to record it. 2D, cut-outs, puppets, all these are very fun to play with, and even if they become commercially inefficient, there will be people interested to create and have fun with them. Also, right now, 2D animation is very alive I think, more than it ever was. It's just that 3D is even more successful that makes us think that 2D animation is losing its edge. In fact, 2D still has its unique charm that cannot be imitated, or, according to some people, surpassed by 3D. Personally I like mixed techniques, a world where 2D and 3D graphics live together harmoniously, and I think the computer is a great tool that helps the artist experiment with animation in all its forms of expression.
5. Seeing as Anim'est and other animation festivals are becoming more and more popular, do you reckon they will attract more Romanian artists towards animation? What do you think is to be done in order for animation to blossom again in Romania?
First of all, I think animation and film have never been a big thing in Romania. We have little tradition in this area of the visual arts. Mostly, probably, because traditionally... it costed so much to produce. Film is expensive, making a film... can be fabulously expensive. It still is expensive to make a film today, but I think it's much easier to obtain quality with minimal resources in the digital era. Which is why Romanian film might.. possibly.. grow. And animation along with it, maybe.Speaking of Anim'est, I think it's great and I'm very happy that there are people involved in such a thing, I'm excited to see it grow and I hope it will be with us for many years to come. But it's not enough. I think that what we need is a growing film and animation industry, that in turn will require expertise, talent, resources, people that you have to train if you don't have them, or hire from abroad. That's what I think we very much need. A film festival can inspire and entertain, an actual film production... can mobilize, can set things in motion.