Hi Shawn, Thanks for taking the time to respond this interview.

What is your average day at ILM ?

Wow - that's a big question!

Well, your day could be very different, depending on the show you're working on, whether or not you're in crunch mode (usually only near the end of a project), what your role is on a show, what day it is, etc., but I would say that a typical day would be arriving at 9am for dailies (where we sit in a small theater and have our shots critiqued by the supervisor and/or director), then heading back to my desk.

Wait, I should back up - actually, a typical day starts with the Alarm Clock From Hell screaming at me around 7:30am. I'm a heavy sleeper, so of course, he can't really make a dent on his own. All he's doing is giving me weird dreams where fire alarms are going off and sirens are zooming past me... His backup arrives when Alarm Clock From Hell Junior joins him around 7:40am, and together they make a pretty formidable opponent. Eventually, they taunt me out of bed and I stagger around zombie-like until I find myself sitting in my car at 8:20. That's about when I wake up and realize I'm off to the World's Greatest Job!

Okay, so where were we? Oh yeah, dialies just finished...

I should probably also mention that I sit with a bunch of other animators, who are basically a bunch of my best friends, so the work environment is pretty darn great. Our area is covered in toys and knicknacks and all kinds of inspirational stuff, and it would be pretty rare at this point in the day if I haven't hurt my stomach laughing really hard at least once...

Anyway, after dailies, I'd either write down some notes (if there were a lot of changes, or if I'm working on a lot of shots at once, which can get confusing), or I'd more likely be diving into my email. Working in a studio, you get a LOT of email. Piles of it. So in the mornings, I'll at least skim through them and make sure there isn't anything too pressing, like a meeting I should know about, a deadline changing, or someone selling some cool comic books.

By now, it's probably 10am or 10:30am or so, and it's time to get crackin'. I'll start doing my changes from dailies, and usually animate straight through until it's lunchtime, which for us is 12:30. Definitely one of my favorite times of the day, because at our new facility, they've given us an absolutely amazing dining area, packed with pretty much any food you can imagine, from steak to burritos to burgers to custom-made pizzas to salads to pasta to Thai to sandwiches to sushi! And don't even get me started on the desserts! Anyway, I'll usually trek on down to the Dining area with a bunch of animators and we'll spend an hour or so eating and laughing.

Then it's back up to our desks to animate and laugh some more. There's a lot of laughing at work - tons of joking around, practical jokes, funny stories, etc. It definitely feels like a family, and the laughter keeps it light even during the more demanding times on a project.

So, unless we're cursed with more meetings that day, I'll pretty much spend the rest of the day animating, and try to leave by 7 or so. Sometimes you get stuck in a lot of meetings about this or that, but I'd say that's probably a pretty average snapshot of a typical animator's day at ILM.

  Which feature movie you would have liked to work in ?

Wow. You don't waste any time going for the big questions, do ya!? ha ha ha I think I'd have to say either Return of the King or The Incredibles. Both of those blew me away. Ooh, and the facial stuff in Kong, for me, is some of the best stuff I've ever seen. I would have loved to have had a crack at that!

  Can you listen to music while animating ?

Of course! I've heard that some people think that's a bad idea, but most professionals I know think that's just silly. If it inspires you, listen to it!

Everyone has their own preferred work-environment, and for me, I thrive on chaos and noise. I'm definitely at my most creative, when there's a movie playing in the room, someone's got some new XBOX game going, someone else is playing guitar, etc. That stuff just gets me so much more excited about my work, and I know I do my best animation when I'm inspired like that.

If the room is quiet, I'll definitely bust out the ipod. Lately, I've been listening a lot to 50 Cent, Rob Thomas, Kanye West, Common, and Neil Diamond. Yes, I have a very eclectic taste in music!

  What is your best animated shot ?

ha ha ha ha... Best? Hmmm - it's hard to answer, because when I look back at my shots, all I see are the mistakes. I guess the one I'd say I'm least embarrassed of is the sequence in Revenge Of The Sith where Yoda fights the clone troopers in front of the temple and then shuts down his lightsaber - I like how that turned out, I guess.

  Are you drawing a lot and if that's the case, can you tell us how much 2D animation has improved you as an animator ?

Sadly, I've been so busy between ILM, Animation Mentor, and life that I've completely ignored any kind of real drawing. I can still draw thumbnails, but after nearly 10 years of living solely in computerland, I wouldn't be able to draw anything pretty if my life depended on it! It's actually really interesting to me how much practice makes a huge difference in drawing ability...

I do, however, still think that having a foundation in 2D has helped, particularly with staging, composition, and dynamic posing.

  You are one of the 3 founders of Animation Mentor. Can you tell us more about the idea behind the creation of an online animation school ?

Holy Moly - that's a huge question. I'd say, if anyone's really curious about this, head on over to www.animationmentor.com and click on "who we are." That'd give you a pretty good idea of why we started the school.

The short version is that we were amazed at the number of frustrated students we were seeing, and the sad number of demo reels of "animation graduates" from schools all over the world whose demo reels showed that they knew a little bit about a lot of things, but hardly anything about the true art of animation. Students being taught software instead of the art of giving life to a character. We wanted to create something where students would have a chance to truly focus on their character animation skills, and to create a demo reel that would show off those skills to top feature animation studios.

As far as creating it online, we decided right away on just a few specific things: First, we wanted to create something that would teach animation the way that we would have liked to have learned, if we could go back in time and start over. Second, we wanted it to be taught by the best animators in the world. And third, we wanted to make sure there were no geographic boundaries for the school.

Before Animation Mentor, there were only a couple places left where you could truly focus on the art of animation, and if you weren't willing or able to move to just a couple specific places in the world, you weren't able to really learn it. We wanted to solve that problem, and open up animation education to all of the talented people out there who can't afford to move to California, or can't suddenly turn their lives upside down to move to a specific school.

The whole point of Animation Mentor is that we've brought together the top animation talent from all over the world to give back to students living all over the globe, students who wouldn't really have a chance to learn animation otherwise, at least not from top animators currently working at top studios... Right now, we've got students from 36 countries, and to me, that's the most exciting aspect of the school.

  How do you feel now about AM, 10 months after the launch ?

More excited than ever, to be honest. The lineup of mentors is stunning, to us more than anyone! The animators teaching the advanced classes are truly a who's-who of animation. Getting to meet so many of my heroes like Pete Docter, Eric Goldberg, and Doug Sweetland - well, it's such a thrill for me, and such a kick to be learning so much from these amazing artists.

We just launched the second version of the site, which basically takes all of our original ideas, and makes every one of them stronger, faster, and more robust. I couldn't be more excited about where things are at right now, let alone what we're looking to add over the next year.

  How much teaching is important to you ?

You know, I've always wanted to teach, to be honest. Ever since I was a kid, I thought it would be fun. My father was a teacher, and I always really admired that - maybe that's where it comes from for me. I have to say, it's kind of nerve-wracking to get up there in front of a class of 20 or 30 people, but as soon as you push beyond that initial fear, teaching becomes so much fun! There's nothing more satisfying than realizing you've helped someone, even in just a small way, to get a step closer to realizing their dream of becoming an animator. I've taught a lot of live classes, and I've taught a lot of online classes as well - they're both incredibly satisfying. Best of all, it turns out that teaching is one of the best learning experiences you can have, so it's the best of both worlds!

I was blessed to have mentors such as Wayne Gilbert and Bill Hennes when I was a student, guys who taught me what a teacher truly is. Guys who let me come into their home and spend time with them and really learn from them. If it weren't for these mentors, would I have achieved my lifelong dream of working at ILM? I don't know - but I do know that it would have taken me a heck of a lot longer to get here.

So for me, when I get a chance to teach a class - be it at a University, a seminar, or at Animation Mentor - it's a chance to at least try to recreate some of the experience I was lucky enough to have for another student out there. It's a chance to "give back" a little, which sounds so cheesy, but it's true. Best of all, with all of the amazing animators we have teaching at Animation Mentor, I truly feel like it's a chance to bring all of these different animation minds together in order to teach a new generation of artists who will surpass any of us and bring this art-form that I love to an entirely different level. That's my dream, and it's exciting to see the beginnings of it happening every day at Animation Mentor.

  Ok let's get more in details : a quick review of your workflow ? on a weekly basis, how much time will you spend drawing, shooting video ref, blocking etc... ?

Well, right now I'm animating a dragon, so I'm not shooting much reference, to be honest. I do look at a lot of animal reference we've collected from DVDs, the zoo, etc. I would say that any time I get a shot, though, I spend the first day pretty much just planning it out. The next day or two would be blocking, and hopefully I can polish it off within the week or by the following week. Depends a lot on how many characters you're dealing with, how long the scene is, etc. I finished my easiest shot in a couple hours and my hardest in a couple months, so there's a pretty wide range!

Generally, as far as work-flow goes - I try to know what my key poses and breakdowns will be, and what frames they'll be on, before I do anything in the computer. Then all blocking is, is going "okay, well, on my thumbnails, I've got this pose happening at frame 23" and then going to frame 23, putting the character in that pose, and then saving a key on EVERY possible controller. Then you do it with the next pose, and continue on down the line until all of your thumbnails are blocked in. At that point, if you'd done enough breakdowns, your anticipations, overlaps, and arcs should mostly all be in there, and you ought to be around 80% finished.

  When you're animating or even just blocking, do you think in terms of principles sometimes or is it just natural to you now and you know what's right or wrong in your animation ?

Well, honestly, a lot of it does become second-nature after a while, but I do still consciously think, "okay, time to check my arcs" and sit down and go through my scene frame-by-frame checking the arcs on the nose, the wrists, etc. And sometimes I'll completely blow it and realize that I forgot a couple of the basics, such as forgetting an important anticipation, or neglecting squash and stretch, but I think that happens to pretty much everyone other than the best of the best.

  In your blocking passes, do you animating in stepped ? or linear ?

I'm a linear guy, all the way. I dabbled in stepped at one point, but for the style of animation we do at ILM (as realistic as we can get it), starting in linear can be more difficult, at least for me. I do think working in stepped is really important for beginning animation students, however, because it's such a great way to force yourself to think about your poses and spacing, and also saves you from the confusion of the computer's eagerness to constantly fill your time line with the Most Horrible Inbetweens Of All Time.

  Do you have some specials tip and tricks to share with our readers about your working flow ?

I think my main tip would be to avoid the trap of diving right in, especially if you have only been animating for a few years. Any pro will tell you that all of the difficult decisions happen in the planning stage, and that the more you plan, and the better and more detailed your planning is, the faster you will finish your scene, and the better it will look. I can say from personal experience, especially in the first 5 or 6 years of my animation, the best scenes I did were the ones where I spent the most time planning before opening up the computer program. My worst scenes are, without exception, the ones where I got cocky and thought, "I know how to do that, I'll just jump right into it." At the end of the day, I guess they were passable and "okay" enough to get into the movie, but I'm disappointed in myself that "okay enough" was the best I could do with those shots.

I really should have taken more time in the planning stage with some of those shots, and even though some of them are small little "throwaway" shots that no on one Earth would take notice of, maybe if I had taken the time to really plan them out, they might have been just slightly more special (and certainly better animated!), and could have added to the overall effect of the scene or movie-experience.

I'd recommend trying to spend about 20% of your time planning, if it's realistic for you. If you have two weeks to do a shot, spend the first two days planning like crazy. Filming reference, studying DVDs, going to the zoo, filming your friends, running around outside, doing a ga-jillion (that's a lot!) thumbnails until you've worked beyond all of your boring cliche ideas and have found the core ideas of a memorable performance. If you only have one week, then spend the first day planning. If you only have one day to do the scene, then spend the first hour planning.

The important thing is that you PLAN. My mentor, Wayne Gilbert, taught me my most valuable lesson, which was this: know exactly what keys you are going to save, and on what frames you are going to save them, and WHY they are being put into the scene, BEFORE you ever sit down in front of your computer (or your disc or your puppet).

If you do that, I guarantee you will find your animation quality skyrocketing.

  How far can you go from the first blocking ? Do you restart from scratch sometimes ?

Usually, the whole point of blocking is to both communicate the ideas of the scene to the director, and to lay a solid foundation for you to build your animation on top of. So usually, yeah, you want to build on top of your blocking and take that all the way to final product. That's the goal, anyway.

If you're talking about dealing with big changes - sometimes it's easier to just start over, sure. Usually, you want to avoid that, because in a way you've just wasted a lot of time blocking the whole thing out, but the truth is that when you do get stuck and you do start over, the scene usually turns out better and gets done faster. I think you do lose a little bit of the spontenaity, possibly, when you redo a scene, but for the most part, I think you can take what you learned from your botched blocking attempt and make the second try even better.

Sometimes the director will completely change their mind about a scene, however, and you pretty much have no choice but to start over. If you get any kind of really major change, it's almost always faster to completely delete a chunk of your animation and start that section over than to slowly try to mold what you already had into what the Director is now asking for.

  Can you tell us what is the difference between a good and a great animator. And if good animators can still get jobs at ILM

To me, good animators knows their basics. They know the principles, they know about physics, body-mechanics, and force. A good animator knows how the pieces of the body inter-relate and affect each other. A good animator knows all the "rules of thumb" like, "lead head turns with the eyes," or "have your gestures hit on the vowels." A good animator can handle pretty much any animation scene the directors decide to throw at him or her.

A great animator can do all of that, but their performances don't just have proper body mechanics and nice arcs. Their performances live and breathe and make the audience forget that they're watching something animated.

A good animator knows technique. Rules. Principles.

A great animator is a performer. An actor. A magician.

A good animator might make the audience laugh, but a great animator can give them goose-bumps. Make them cry. Inspire.

I wouldn't say I'm either. I mean, I'd like to hope I'm not a bad animator, but I wouldn't say I'm a great animator. Certainly not like some of the guys I've had the honor to work with and learn from, but I'd sure like to be, someday!

As for ILM, yes, good animators are always welcome! There aren't that many great animators out there in the world, and the company is always on the lookout for the next good animator with the potential to be great!


You can jump back 10 years ago, and have the chance to pick a different job.. what would it be ?

Animator. Sorry - I know that's a lame answer, but there's nothing else I'd choose! Knowing how much fun this is, how could I possibly choose something else!?

What do you do to relax ? How do you get away from animation and computers ? and how much is it important for you to get away from animation sometimes ?

It's really important to me, actually. I decided early in my career at ILM that I wasn't going to animate anything at home ever again. It's been 9 years, and so far I've stuck with that. I figure, I animate 10+ hours per day, every day, and I want to be careful not to ever burn out on this thing that I love so much. Even the Best Song Ever can get old if you listen to it nonstop, you know?

As far as getting away from it, mostly I like to chill out whenever I can at night. With Animation Mentor, that isn't nearly as easy as it used to be! ha ha ha However, I still try to find time to relax when I can - pop in a movie, listen to music, read a book, etc. I also like to write stories, and I guess, going back to your previous question, if I didn't know how great animation is and had to choose a different job, I would love to write. Books, short films, features, comic books, TV. All of it. I have a ton to learn about it, of course, but it is something that I've found that I really enjoy, and it's a great distraction!

Oh, and just to nerd it up a little bit, I have to admit to playing an awful lot of Halo2 (Xbox) with a bunch of the other animators lately. Now *that's* a good distraction!

What kind of books are you reading ? what kind of music ?

I love to read, but it tends to be the "fast-food" equivalent of authors. You won't find me reading spiritual self-help books or serious tomes focused on politics. I'm a Stephen King guy. I'm a John Grisham guy. I'll read anything Michael Crichton writes. I love Dan Brown's books. My favorite book, though, is called The Power Of One, By Bryce Courtenay. Amazing book. Awesome story, and incredibly inspiring. I've read it 8 times!

What I think I love most, however, is comic books. I'm a comic book fanatic. I love the stories, I love the art, I love them as an incredible source of both inspiration and dynamic posing reference. Lately, I've really noticed that I just really enjoy any kind of serialized storytelling - such as a good ongoing TV series like Lost, Deadwood, or The Shield, or a good old trilogy like Indiana Jones, so the storytelling style of comics is really appealing to me. They're fun to read, and addicting in an incredibly geeky way. (Not that there's anything wrong with being geeky - I guess I've pretty much built a career on a foundation of intense geekery.)

What do you remember of your very first days at ILM ? any memories of your interview ?

My interview was terrifying! I had been an intern at ILM a couple years before the interview, and during my internship I had pestered any and every animator I could find for help with my animation, questions about my schooling, etc. Because of that, I had a few extra folks who wanted to be in my interview because they remembered me from my intern days.

The end result was that instead of the usual two or three people in my interview, I had EIGHT! I felt like I was in front of a firing squad! Luckily, they did a great job helping me to feel more comfortable, and I guess it must have gone okay, huh?

The most exciting moment in my life so far was getting The Phone Call. I was sitting at work (at the time I was working at a video game place called Presage Software), and a call came in for me. Well, I was hoping it might be ILM, but I hadn't told ANYONE about my interview yet. I didn't want to get the news at my desk in front of my co-workers in case I got too excited or disappointed and gave it away, so I ran down to the basement and took the call down there.

When she said I had the job, I tried to be really quiet, but I was literally jumping up and down! See, my dream, ever since High School when I heard Lucas might make more Star Wars movies, was to be a part of them. I was a huge Star Wars fan. HUGE. And I made sure that every single decision I made after 11th grade in High School would take me one step closer to Star Wars. That's literally how I evaluated every decision or opportunity. Did it take me closer to my goal of ILM? If not, then forget it. If so, then it didn't matter how difficult it would be, how inconvenient it was, or what I'd have to alter in my life - I'd go for it!

I worked really hard towards that solitary goal for six solid years, and when I got The Phone Call... well, I can't even tell you how excited I was. I couldn't believe it. Before that moment, I wouldn't have even let myself believe that the interview went well, because hearing the expected rejection was already going to crush me into little pieces.

But The Phone Call was all good news, and I couldn't contain myself! The recruiter was laughing at me because I didn't even ask how much I was going to be paid. I didn't care! We hung up, and then I had to compose myself and calmly walk back upstairs, past my coworkers like nothing was going on. I walked slowly past the receptionist, out the front door, and down the block. The moment I was around the corner, I sprinted three blocks to the nearest pay phone and called my parents and my best friends to let them know the great news.

It was probably the best 20 minutes of my life, and I'll never forget how lucky and blessed I felt to be making those phone calls.

How do you feel now that Star Wars is done ? Do you think that you'll find one day a project which has this appeal to work on ?

Honestly, I was kind of bummed out when the third film was finished. Like I said, Star Wars was always such a drive for me, and when we finished the third one, I did feel a little bit sad. This big goal I had was finally ended, you know? It was definitely a sense of accomplishment to know that I had set out on this completely ridiculous unachievable goal of working on this rumored new Star Wars trilogy, and to know that I had managed to work on all three of them... well, I know that in the grand scheme of things, that's kind of a lame accomplishment, but for me it meant a lot.

As for other appealing projects, I'm sure there will be plenty of them. There will always be exciting projects on the horizon. ILM has a couple biggies coming up that I can't talk about, but which I'm incredibly excited to work on.

Favorite director to work for ?

Spielberg. I've worked on three Spielberg movies so far, and at least for me, I've really felt like he's easy to work for, has a lot of great ideas, and come on - he's Steven Freaking Spielberg! I love his films, and if anything rivals the excitement of reaching my goal of working on Star Wars, it's being able to work on a Spielberg film.

Easy one...Where do you pictured yourself in the next 5 years ? Still animating ? more teaching/mentoring ? may be directing ?

Five years from now... Hmmm. Definitely still teaching. Probably still animating at ILM, to be honest. I love my job. I know that not every one of the films I've worked on ended up being a great movie, but I have no doubt that I have one of the most fun jobs in the world. As for directing... well, that was one of my big dreams at one point, but I don't really think much about it now. I'm pretty content with animating and teaching. I'd love to be in development on a story that I've written - that's certainly something I'd love to be doing in five years...

I don't know how to answer this one! Most likely, I'll be doing the exact same thing, and hopefully having just as much fun as I am now.

What your future would be with you stay in ILM ? Do you imagine yourself in another studio, in another country ?

It's funny you ask that - I just spent a couple months in Singapore helping to train the animators at Lucas' new Lucasfilm Animation Studio that has been set up over there. I had one of the best times of my life. Amazing people, great weather (I like it hot!), incredibly clean, etc. It was so much fun, and so fascinating to be in Southeast Asia, which to me, was like visiting Mars!! It was so much fun, but it was also great to come home to my girlfriend and family and friends.

But it did get me thinking about what it might be like to move to another country, and sure, I'd be up for it, I guess. Probably not as a permanent decision, because all of my friends and family are in California, but maybe for a year or two to work on a specific project or something.

I have to say, though - switching studios or moving away would be very slim possibilities for me. I'm far too happy where I am. I love the studio, I love the guys I work with, and my family is here... I truly feel blessed, to be honest. Life is great right now - ILM is a blast, I'm working on a really fun movie, Animation Mentor is becoming even more amazing than I ever hoped it would be, I feel like I'm learning more about animation than I ever have before, and I'm getting to meet not only my animation heroes, but tons of eager students who inspire me like crazy!

I'm far luckier than anyone deserves to be, and I know it!

So, moving away or switching studios? It'd have to be a pretty amazing offer, that's for sure. I'm pretty darn happy right where I'm at.

I'm sure you will be agree to say that animators are definitely actors.
So actors got the actor's studio". Let's have our "Animator's studio" with "The Pivot Questionnaire" :

  What is your favorite word?

Awesome!!

  What is your least favorite word?

"Milk." Say it out loud. Isn't that a bizarre combination of sounds? Who came up with that?! "Whoa, look at all that white stuff comin' out of her udder! Let's call that, ummm... Milk!" It's just weird to me.

  What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Creatively: Other people blowing my mind with an amazingly well animated shot, a great drawing, exciting story, or great song. And if I really need some instant inspiration, 10 minutes of poking around Animation Mentor fires me right up.

Spiritually: I'm doing this thing where I try to do something nice for at least one stranger every day, and it's been really cool! I know that was the world's cheesiest answer, but give it a try! It's great.

Emotionally: By nature, I'm packed to the brim with optimism as it is, but any time that well starts to run dry in the slightest, one phone call with my parents or my amazing girlfriend fills me right back up to the top.

  What turns you off?

Cranberry sauce. Durian (tried it in Singapore... AAAAAA!). Selfish, disrespectful people. People who spit gum onto walkways or parking lots. People who don't return their shopping carts to the grocery store cart-return area and just leave their carts wandering around in the parking lot, expecting others to clean up after them.

  What is your favorite curse word?

I'm not proud of it, but I've been known to drop the occasional F-Bomb. It's certainly the most versatile, anyway!

  What sound or noise do you love?

I could spend the rest of my life listening to the Ocean. Literally. If animation is my first love, the beach is my second. Other than that, I'd probably say: the sound of fried chicken going into my mouth. Mmmmmm.

  What sound or noise do you hate?

My alarm clock!! If it were up to me, ILM would open it's doors at the crack of noon.

  What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Hmmm - either Writer, Doctor, or Astronaut! What am I talking about!? Astronaut, for sure!!

  What profession would you not like to do?

Crime-scene cleaner-upper. Eeeeeew.

  If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

"Welcome home. Oh, and here's your new house - it's made out of fried chicken, and has Halo5 installed in every room."

Special question from Jason Schleifer :
  What is the most inspiring thing you?ve ever seen?

Good question, Jason!

For me, it was back when I was five years old.

My Dad said he was going to take me out for pizza. I was so excited, because it was going to be just me and my Dad! This is honestly my earliest crystal-clear memory.

We hopped into this really long line at the pizza place and stood there for a while, and then I saw this woman leave from the door next door to where were lined up. She was tall, with a long ponytail, and she was carrying a pizza to go. I said, "Dad! We're in the wrong line! The pizza place is over there!"

And my Dad goes, "We aren't having pizza tonight, we're having popcorn! We're seeing Empire Strikes Back!" (is my Dad cool or what?!)

Well - it was opening night of Empire Strikes Back, and it blew me away.

It blew me right out of the theater.

I'll never forget how fired up I was when we left the theater. I couldn't get over it! I knew it wasn't real, but I wanted to know HOW they did it! HOW could they make that!? Obviously I didn't know I wanted to be an animator yet, but that was the beginning of a lifelong love-affair with film, and that was definitely what inspired me to start trying to learn about how these amazing films were made, not to mention probably being the beginning of that drive I had to get to work on a Star Wars movie!

Thanks, Pop!

Our next interview will be with ..... What question would you like to ask him/her ?

Do you do anything in particular to stay inspired?

Shawn, it's been great to share this moment with you. Hope 2006 will bring you joy, happiness, health to you and to your friends/family !

Another great interview, keep up the awesome work!! 

-Kevin

Thanks guys! Keep posting your thoughts an opinions about the interviews! 

Really great interview, Thank you AL for asking the good question and Thanks a lot Shawn for sharing with us some experience!
Congratulation for your great work but also for reaching your dreams!
I really liked 2 parts in this interview, the phone call from ILM and the surprise from Shawn's dad.
And also good advice for animation 

Thanks! looking forward other interviews!
 

Man, great interview! Thanks Shawn! 

WOW! what a great story of getting the job at ILM! Nice to here you started thinking about animation in the 11th grade because, why, thats exactly where i am now!

hi...my frrnd.....your answers was so cute and smart....keep it up/....