Exclusive Interview with Adrien Luc-Sanders

According to his biography at About.com, Adrien-Luc Sanders is a freelance web and graphic designer with a background in computerized design and animation. He graduated the Art Institute of Houston where he received a degree in the Institute's Animation, Art, and Design program in 2002. Since graduating, he has been designing websites for various clients, often utilizing animated interfaces in Flash and Shockwave or creating branded 3D-animated logos. Currently, he is also working on several small independent animation projects. His site at About.com breaks down the basics of computer animation, with guides on the tools involved, how to use them, and how to get started producing your own animations. He offers great ideas on how to pursue animation both as a hobby and a career.

WDL: Who are you and what do you do?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: My name is Adrien-Luc Sanders, and I'm a 25-year-old native of New Orleans, Louisiana, relocated to Houston, Texas. I work as a freelance web designer for a few mid-size clients, and maintain About.com's Animation Guide Site.

WDL: What is your favorite software? What would be the ideal animation software (if it doesn't already exist)?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Sure, it's cliched, but I'd still have to say Macromedia Flash. While I love both 2D and 3D animation, at times I'm just too impatient for the amount of time that it takes to produce any significant results in most 3D animation software packages; Flash lets me immerse myself in what I'm doing while still seeing results in a decent amount of time. It's also very well-suited to producing the kind of TV-ready 2D animations that I'm interested in.

Ideal animation software? Ha! No such thing. That won't exist until someone develops direct neural virtual reality links attached to a rendering engine capable of capturing mental images and projecting them into a digital environment smoothly and in perfect detail. It would remove all the tedious mess of modeling, creating bone structures, animating, fixing vertex points that fold the wrong way, etc....

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WDL: What is the first animation software you ever used?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Oh, you're asking me to reach way back in this old man's memory, aren't you? I think it was a free trial download of Bryce 4.0, back when I was still studying computer programming but starting to get interested in animation. It let me test the waters a little and realize that I wanted to move beyond just poking around with the idea.

WDL: Do you write programs of your own?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Not whole programs, no, though I do write a lot of my own function code in PHP and Javascript for various web purposes.

WDL: What are some of your current independent animation projects?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: At the moment, I'm working slowly but painstakingly on taking some original comic characters and rendering them into 3D. It's a little time-consuming, especially trying to match my drawing style through 3D modeling while maintaining proportions and workable body structures that can be animated, but it's a fun side project that I hope to use for several animated shorts at some point. You may see some of those characters popping up in 2D form as part of upcoming frame-by-frame Flash tutorials on Animation.About.com.

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WDL: Any future projects in mind?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Too many to name. The problem with being one of those "creative types" is that you come up with more ideas than you have time to implement, and it's too easy to get distracted by a fresh spurt of inspiration.

WDL: How did you get started producing your own animations?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Art school, mainly. (I won't count the abortive attempts at flip books that I made in elementary school, though the story of some of the household implements I ruined in that experiment and my mother's reaction is a funny one.) They challenged us to make animated shorts, and to do it using original character designs. It was just a little kickstart, but it started a continuous trend.

WDL: You graduated the Art Institute of Houston in 2002 with a degree in the Institute's Animation, Art, and Design program. How long did you study at university in order to receive your degree?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Two and a half years. At the time they only had an Associate's program, although now they've implemented a Bachelor's and I've considered finding the time to return and "upgrade" my degree a bit.

WDL: What milestones in the IT industry helped shape your career choices?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Maybe it's a sign of my generation, but really, it was a change in the video gaming industry that helped shape my career more than anything. When the first Playstation console came out, I was so stunned by what it could do (it was advanced, at the time) that I couldn't help but think, "I want to create that!" as opposed to most gamers' reactions of "I want to play that!" By then I was already dabbling in HTML and website creation, and by the time that I got to college I knew that I wanted to combine the two into web design.

WDL: Do you have any information or career advice to offer to our reading audience?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: The main thing that I like to tell people is not to box themselves in. We all have our dream career, but many of us don't realize the amount of work that goes into achieving that, and at times we find ourselves discouraged and unhappy in seeking that dream. There's still something there that prompted that initial desire and fascination, however, and you really shouldn't be afraid to explore tangents related to your original goal. You might find a better opportunity, or a niche that you fit into more comfortably without ever losing sight of your original aspirations. Also, you give yourself more career opportunities, making yourself more marketable and more employable. One of the hardest things for someone in the animation and IT fields to contend with is the possibility of becoming outdated in a rapidly-evolving environment.

WDL: Namely, can you tell us about the benefits of having a career in the animation field?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Well, it's never boring, that's for sure. I'd say one of the top benefits is that when you work in the animation field, you're on an inside track and you're up on everything that's new and hot--heck, you may have had a hand in creating it. There's a flexibility there, as well, a freedom to express yourself; true, you're often bound by constraints set out by clients or project planners, but there's still a touch of your individual creativity in everything that you work on, and it allows for a freedom of expression that many other careers don't provide.

WDL: What, in your opinion, are the best events and conferences for animation artists?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: SIGGRAPH, definitely, is a must-attend for anyone and everyone. As far as others, though, it really depends. If you're interested in video game animation, try to wrangle your way into E3. If you like 2D animation, keep an eye out for local animation conventions and attend as many as you can, especially those with guest speakers and demonstrations from those established in the field.

WDL: Where can we find you in print?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Me? Oh, I'm pretty much a pioneer of the web, and everything that I write goes up on Animation.About.com. I've contributed a few art pieces to a couple of small anthologies self-published by a group called Diorama Comics, but nothing to write home about.

WDL: Do you have any online projects (like a personal commercial or non-commercial website) that are available to the public?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: I'll keep you posted on this one. I have a holding page up at zenunlimited.com, but the design is just a flat template that I plan to replace with something smoother and more streamlined, with links to some portfolio pieces and demonstrations of websites that I've designed. ~laughs~ The problem with working in web design is that it's hard to get yourself to do it on a personal basis in your free time, so that site's been sitting there for a while.

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WDL: What are the three things any animator should know?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: Hmmm...that's a tough one. If you ask me, an animator should know as much as he or she can. But if I'd have to name three essentials....well, the first may be a bit obscure, but I'd say remember that animation is not intended to be real. Its charm is in how it mimics reality but also exaggerates it; fine detail and precision is just fine, but don't try to make it too true to life or it could border on boring. Even big-name studios forget that sometimes; there've been a few huge screen flops that didn't appeal to people, mostly because they tried to be too real.

Second, I'd say don't ever let yourself get outdated or lose touch. Even if you end up working outside the animation industry for a while, keep an eye on what's going on, and the latest news in the industry. You need to know what's going on if you ever want to find the right time and place to ease back in.

And third, don't ever stop learning. There are new innovations spinning out of development studios daily, and every one could change the face of the industry. Don't scorn something just because "the old way is just fine"; keep learning, keep absorbing. Study technique, style, methodology; anything and everything will help you. But in the same vein, don't become too dependent on the many "automatic" functions that are suddenly peppering the market; sometimes the old, manual methods are best, and knowing the foundations and roots of the nifty new tools you're working with will enable you to work with more ease, confidence, and understanding of the results.

WDL: Can you name an animation resource that you would recommend to Newbies?

Adrien-Luc Sanders: ...is it against the rules to suggest my About.com site? ~laughs~ No, no, seriously, I really like ComputerArts.co.uk. It's got a lot of in-depth information across a staggering range of topics.