Bernhard Haux ( INTERVIEW )

I was born and raised in beautiful Munich, Germany, where - when not in school - I spent much of my time in beautiful forests, skiing down mountains, playing volleyball, drawing, reading Calvin and Hobbes and driving my parents nuts by clumsily breaking things, for which I seem to have a god given talent.
I have since moved to San Francisco, California, where - when not at work - I spend much of my time in beautiful forests, skiing down mountains, playing volleyball, drawing, reading Calvin and Hobbes and driving my girlfriend nuts by clumsily breaking things, for which I - still - seem to have a god given talent.

The only difference between now and then seems to be that I replaced the less exciting element of school with a career I feel extremely passionate for. Other than that I shamelessly share many of the hobbies other artists in the industry seem to have: drawing, sculpting and a nerdy fascination for traditional animation.

CG Brains : How did you begin your 3D Journey?
I first discovered my fascination with Computer Animation when I was 12 years old. I was drawing a lot during that period, so I attended a comic book convention in Munich with the initial intention of seeing the art. That faded the moment I discovered a small television an artist had set up on the corner of his table playing a 3D animation of a little snowman trying to escape his glass prison - a snow-globe (which happened to be Pixar's short film "Knick-Knack"). Computer animation was something I had never seen before, so I recall standing in awe - watching the film in a loop for what seemed like forever. From then on, I was hooked. I begen researching Pixar and computer animation, but my research was fairly fruitless. Except for that comic book artist at the convention, no one had heard of 'Pixar' in rural Munich and even broad information on CG was sparse. I had no computer - and whenever i did find one, the internet was astoundingly slow and useless in those days. But despite those obstacles, everything seemed to fall into place from that time on - as it often does when you're passionate and curious about something.
At the age of 14, in the mornings before going to school - I spent an hour washing dishes in the coffee kitchen at Silicon Graphics - which later provided the computers Pixar and ILM used to create their Effects. In the afternoons I was also doing small design jobs for a software company. Within these companies, I had some great people around me who supported my curiosity - and helped me to poke my nose into more and more things related to computer graphics.

CG Brains : How long have you been in CG and what is your current job?
I've realized that in comparison to some friends, I've been very lucky as I never had a single grain of doubt regarding my career aspirations. Ever since I saw Knick Knack in 1990, Pixar has been the guiding light on my career horizon. Almost 20 years after that comic book convention, I received that magical e-mail from Pixar inviting me for an interview. For the last 2 1/2 years I find myself actually working for my dream company as Character Technical Director.
Pixar today is a very different company than it must have been 20 years ago, but it still manages to be an extraordinary place to work. Besides the movies, the most mind blowing advantage to working here is that many of the pioneers of computer animation are still around and you can strike up conversation with them while grabbing your lunch.

CG Brains : What was your very first CG project? Was it a success?
I completed my very first CG project during one of my jobs after high school. It was a screen-saver made with Autodesk 3D Studio 1.2, the 11 floppy-disk MS-DOS version of what years later developed into 3D Studio Max. The screen saver showed the company's logo in bold chrome letters hovering, and slowly rotating over some cheesy sky background. It was AMAZING.

CG Brains : Are you working on any projects currently? If so, what are they?
I am currently working on Pixar's 2012 summer release 'Brave.' All I can say is that this film is going to look and be truly, truly fantastic. Lucky enough, the content of my work has come a long way since bold, rotating chrome letters.

CG Brains : What areas of your work do you enjoy the most?
This is a tough question, because the one thing I love most about working in CG animation is the number and diversity of tasks we're faced with every day. As Character Technical Director you are responsible to bring a character from an illustration on paper into the digital 3D world and give it the range of articulation the animators will need to bring the character to life.
In one day my job can take me from making scribbles on paper - to sculpting on my computer, to coding a deformer.
Before I was at Pixar, I used to earn my money as freelance character rigger and animator, sometimes as storyboarder and shader/lighter - a diversity of jobs many freelancers in the industry share.
If I had to put my finger on what exactly I like about my job, then I would say it's the mix between the technical and the artistic. I tend to get bored only doing one of these two - but mixing both inspires and pushes each.

CG Brains : Could you briefly explain your working methods?
When I have to model and articulate a character, I start out by getting my hands and eyes on all materials available; model sheets, illustrations, scribbles, sculpts, anything.
I then try to draw the character myself trying to understand style and proportions, and more importantly, to feel out where exactly the appeal lies and what the character designer seemed to like about it. I think this process is very much comparable to traditional animators who learn to draw their character 'on model'. I then try to recreate a 3D interpretation of this character - on personal projects I start out with sculpting in oil based clay. Only as soon as I feel like I 'know' the character, I switch over to the working in the computer. This process - despite sounding long and tedious will give me the fastest and most thorough results.
When master rigging (creating the core animation and deformation rigs) I follow the same three steps: research, design, create.
I generally don't start on the computer immediately, since broad artistic/creative iterations on the computer generally feel slower to me.
However I can see that there are as many approaches as artists, and I can see how different artists have their own ideal 'sweet spot' of when to switch to digital iterations.

CG Brains : What has been your greatest accomplishment in your career?
Broadly speaking I believe my biggest (personal) accomplishment in my career has been to keep my passion for animation. Working in the computer graphics industry, especially as freelancer in Europe means overtime, sometimes meager salaries and almost always a huge compromise on your personal life and life balance. The scariest moment of my career was a few years back, when I lost all drive for a freelance job that was all-consuming. I believe I was close to being burnt out and felt how terrible a job can be for which you have to motivate yourself every single second you are doing it. It was a nightmare.
After that job, I took a couple months off to travel which brought everything back to normal again. But now I appreciate something I took for granted before - being passionate for my job. This passion not only gives you that 'flow' feeling that makes you forget time - but also makes you creative and perform at your peak. Work hard but never allow your job to kill your passion - your passion is your life-line.

CG Brains : What are your future aspirations?
That's a good question - especially since my childhood dream of working for Pixar has come true. For now, I want to take it all in and make the best of it. There are extraordinary directors and colleagues in this company who's genius will hopefully rub off on me - and for now I see myself working here for an undefinite amount of time. But as I mentioned I also like change, and if I ever feel that I have to move on - there are plenty of great ways and places to work. And with 'places' I don't necessarily mean companies - but continents, countries, cultures. There is so much I would like to see and experience and with today's technology and most people in our industry speaking English, you can freelance for a company from across the world just with a decent notebook and internet connection. This could be the era for CG backpacker artists. Take advantage of it :)

CG Brains : How important do you think it was to create a short film or Demoreel?
Immensely important. You can have the most amazing resume - but in this field, your potential employeers and clients will only hire you if you can get them a visual taste of what they can expect from you. On my website you will find my demoreel which I've done more than four years ago - and it was nothing else than this reel, good timing, and a good amount of luck which have gotten me from school to fun jobs at Aardman and now, Pixar. In smaller companies word of mouth can sometimes be enough to get you from one job to the next - and you might not have to do a new reel for years - but if you want to launch yourself from college into the professional environment, a good reel is your ticket.
My most important advice for cutting a reel is that you have to keep in mind that people will not judge you by the best thing you have on your reel but by the worst work which you still decided to put on it. It doesn't matter if it ends up being short, as long as it's good.

CG Brains : How much time do you get for personal projects at the moment?
It varies very much - the quick answer is: always too little. I keep a book with ideas I would love to visualize in short films, someday - but while working a full time job I rather spend my free time sketching or sculpting in clay. This not only gives me a change from sitting in front of a computer but also has almost meditational value for me.

CG Brains : Some guys new to 3D may be taken aback by the level of today’s technology and others are scared off by it. How would you go about explaining the importance of using the technology purely as a tool for conveying stories and emotions?
I have friends who are hand-drawn and stop-motion animators and who do not like the thought of even spending one second more than necessary in front of a computer. And that's understandable, everybody has different reasons to go into arts and animation, and for many the appeal lies in working intuitively with hand-crafted materials (paper, clay, etc.) as well as playing with the charm and the random nature that happens naturally in analogue media - and adversely takes a lot more work and time to emulate via computer.
But CG has come a very long way - and where one once needed a computer science degree to render an image, now just a little common sense is needed to find out where the button is. Lately the usability of software has taken huge strides and as a result the digital tools have never been more intuitive. Instead of being put off by technology, people should feel encouraged to join in. It will not only get you to your results faster - but in a world where you need money to live, it also makes you competitively valuable to other artists who may share talents similar to yours working in 'analogue' media.

CG Brains : There are many 3d artists out there wanting to create their own short - what advice would you give them?
Be prepared. Making your own CG short films is a LOT of work. Unfortunately, too many shorts end up never seeing the silver screen as a result of being too long or overambitious in too many areas.
Also, ask yourself about what it is you want to achieve with the short. Maybe you want to tell great story. Maybe you want to work on your technical and/or artistic skills. Knowing what you hope to achieve from your short will enable you to work concisely and make realistic decisions along the way.
If you main goal is to create application/reel material, make your film short and stellar instead of long and average. Students of the parisian animation school 'Gobelins' can show off great work in 1-3 mins - in which you will be able to tell that artistic talent, shared teamwork, good planning came together (take a peek at www.gobelins.fr/galerie/animation).
Don't necessarily try to do it all. If great character animation is really all you want to focus on, and you're not really into all that technical stuff, consider passing that type of work on to people who are passionate about these areas. Combine your efforts and build a team in which each one gets their ownership and share of things they love doing - and in which everybody respects the abilities of the others. Avoid shared responsibilities as in having two directors/writers or art directors. That usually doesn't end too well.
Working on short films will help you find out where you're talented and have the most fun - as well as learning to communicate and learn to give healthy criticism to you colleagues. The best environment to experiment with your talents and create your short film is a good film school - where you can allow yourself to experiment.

CG Brains : Can you give away one of your CG secrets to success?
I rub my toes in sesame oil every morning. That definately helps.
Also, try not to be intimidated by challenges - let it tickle your curiosity and use it as a tool to grow your skill set.
Oh and don't forget the Sesame oil.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

website:
http://www.characteranimator.com/
e-Mail :
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Likedin Public Profile :
http://de.linkedin.com/in/bernhardhaux
Short Film Descendants:
http://vimeo.com/8642276
Descendants Making of
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=5570