Episode 1 - What is the Animation Happy Hour?

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In our very first episode of the Animation Happy Hour podcast, our three hosts Garrett Lewis, katie low, and ben girmann introduce the mission of the podcast, and discuss future episodes, our backgrounds, and why we love working in animation. We encourage you to read on for additional content called out in the episode, including our first demo reels, our “tip jar” tips of the week, and more.

MEET THE HOST: GARRETT LEWIS

Garrett Lewis (‘13 NYU, Tisch School of the Arts) is a character animator currently working at Walt Disney Animation Studios.  He has worked as an animator for various games, visual effects, and feature films including Frozen 2, How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and Abominable.  Garrett grew up in Connecticut and loves to surf, work on personal projects, and eat his way around the world.  

Garrett’s First Demo Reel:

Uploaded by None on 2019-10-09.

Garrett’s ANIMATION REEL:

Garrett’s website:

https://www.garrettanimates.com/

MEET THE HOST: KATIE LOW

Katie Low (‘12 Harvard, ‘17 SCAD) is an assistant animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. In the past, Katie has worked as a stop motion animation intern at LAIKA, and production assistant at both Blue Sky Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Her credits include, Frozen 2, Wreck-it-Ralph 2, The Story of Ferdinand, and Kubo and the Two Strings. She’s a Philly native and loves her two cats Lily & Juniper very much. She married fellow podcast host Ben Girmann on February 16th, 2019.

Katie’s First Demo Reel:

Harvard '12. SCAD MFA Candidate. Aspiring Animator & Producer. www.caitlinlow.com. Updated reel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vzvUnZx_7k&feature=youtu.be

Katie’s College Film:

My first ever (and very amateur) stop motion short!

MEET THE HOST: BEN GIRMANN

Ben Girmann (‘12 University of Dayton, ‘16 SCAD) is a character animator at DreamWorks whose credits include How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Abominable, and Trolls 2. Ben got his first big breaks as a CG facial animation intern at LAIKA on Kubo and the Two Strings, and an animation intern at Blue Sky Studios. He is the lucky husband of fellow podcast host Katie Low, and the loving cat Dad to Lily and Juniper.

Ben’s First Demo Reel:

The first reel I ever compiled as an animation student at SCAD.

Ben’s Blue Sky Internship Reel:

All of the animations I completed over the 10-week internship at Blue Sky Studios. A big thank you to all of my mentors, Joe Antonuccio, Ray Ross, Matt Doble, Jeff Gabor, Chip Lotierzo, Melvin Tan, Scott Carroll, and all of the other great artists at Blue Sky

Ben’s httyd3 reel:

A compilation of most of the shots I animated during my 6 month stint on How to Train Your Dragon. It was my first feature film as a full animator, and it was an incredibly challenging and rewarding experience. A big thank you to all of my wonderful coworkers who helped me along the way. **shots in black and white are for context only

Ben’s Website:

http://bengirmann.com/

TIP JAR (TIPS OF THE MONTH)

TIP JAR 1: FINGERS!

“When you’re opening a hand, the index finger will always lead and the pinky will always follow. When you’re closing a hand, the pinky will always lead and the index finger will always follow...Most of the time.” - Katie

EXERCISE: Look at your hand and curl then straighten your fingers in slow motion. Notice which fingers are leading and which are following. Try to reverse it (curl index finger first or straighten pinky first) and feel how unnatural it is!

TIP JAR 2: FLIP YOUR ANIMATION!

“If you can, flip your animation/mirror it so you see your animation flipped and kind of inverted, horizontal flip. Basically, you flip it, and then you can see your animation in a new way, and then you’ll see things that are wrong with it that you didn’t see before. You’ll basically see flaws, it’s a fresh look at your shot.” - Garrett

Flip your animation horizontally to look at your work with fresh eyes. You may notice new flaws that your eyes had grown used to in the normal orientation! Check out Garrett's script for flipping your animation in Maya here: https://www.garrettanimates.com/rigsnscripts

TO DO: Download Garrett’s script for flipping shots in Maya here: https://www.garrettanimates.com/rigsnscripts