The Advocate
By Ned Randolph
Animator Mark Walsh of Pixar Animation Studios talks with workshop participants Thursday, the first day of the Red Stick International Animation Festival at the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge. Walsh was the directing animator for the movie ÔFinding Nemo.'
Acting coach Ed Hooks spent 25 years teaching fellow thespians the trials and techniques of giving life to their craft.
Then one day a student asked him for help on an animation project. The movie, "Ants," featuring the voice of Woody Allen, turned into a blockbuster, and Hooks never looked back.
"It's been a hell of a ride, and taken me all over the world," Hooks said Thursday after leading a daylong seminar at the Red Stick International Animation Festival.
While other workshops explored the business of video game making or improving one's animation techniques, Hooks was trying to inspire the storyteller within each of his students.
He was telling them that heart, not talent, is the driver of the art.
"Actor is Shaman, animator is shaman," he said after showing a poignant animation clip, called "Father and Daughter."
"Put a circle in the dirt and let the tribe come hear your story," he said. "They want to hear from you. The world has gone to hell in a hand basket, and they need you to tell them about life.
"If you keep that in mind, you will have a future as an animator," he said.
The three-day festival, hosted by LSU's Center for Computation and Technology, was organized to bring aspiring animators and curious entrepreneurs face-to-face with those shaping the industry today.
"The goal is to take this opportunity and say, 'if we want this profession,' how can we be competitive?" said Stacey Simmons, the festival organizer and CCT faculty member at LSU.
The festival, which also includes film screenings, counted nearly 200 registrations and another 100 walk-ins Thursday, Simmons said.
Twenty-year-old Wendy Turner, a student at the Houston Art Institute, said she decided to extend her Easter vacation when she heard about the festival.
"I'm getting a whole new take on animation," said Turner, who wants to improve her storyboards for character modeling.
"There's a wider and more colorful variety of animation," she said. "People showed their work and they had a more colorful take on what they see."
Turner wants to work for Pixar, but would like to stay in Louisiana, near her family in Donaldsonville.
"The only place right now in animation seems to be in California or Florida, or maybe Atlanta," she said. "We need to get this out there."
Paul Barras, 42, wants to put his animation skills, which currently serve an environmental firm, to write a cartoon about "a crew of crazy (Cajuns) from south Louisiana."
"It would be a leap," said Barras, who has taken AutoCad classes in Las Vegas and animation workshops in Houston.
"It would be nice to see some kind of software industry evolving around here," he said.
Musician Steve Arnette volunteered at the festival to sit in on workshops for tips on making animation music videos. He plans on submitting an eight-minute video project at next year's festival.
"It's very, very diverse," Simmons said. "Even more than filmmaking -- animation is an industry that encompasses a lot of industries that this community can support."
Ed Hooks seems to agree. Growing a viable animation industry in Louisiana will be a matter of "heart," he said.
"If their will is to make it happen, then it will," he said. "This is a pretty good start."
The inaugural Red Stick festival, which is taking place at the Shaw Center for the Arts, the Louisiana Art and Science Museum and Old State Capitol, wraps up Saturday night.
On today's program is the screening of "The Incredibles," and on Saturday, "Shrek" parts 1 and 2.
A variety of other films, including Japanese anime and Nova science clips, will be shown throughout the event.
Adult independent films start at 9:30 p.m. Friday. And Saturday morning's Cartoon-a-Palooza with breakfast and cartoons is open for parents and their children starting at 9:30 a.m.
Publish Date:
04-22-2005
