ELITE 2012 – Interview with David Hubert and Pierre Perifel, Dreamworks

1. Please tell us about yourself. What is your career path?
David: I graduated from Collège Inter-Dec in 2000. Thought my interest in surfacing and lighting, it is as an animator at TVA International that my career started. After a few years at Montreal, this reached its peak with a job as lead animator on Pinocchio 3000, I decided to go and travel around the world to pursue my career abroad. Marseille, Sidney, London, Los Angeles and more recently Bangalore in India, gave me rich experience both professionally and personally. To be able to adapt to new cultures, new environments, new structures and ways to do things, gave a good perspective of the world of animation. I worked in both the best and the worst conditions possible, worked along exceptional artists and others not so much, and I got the chance to learn beside the best. Today, I teach to ones who, like me years ago, wish to one day live their passion.

Pierre: After training as an illustrator and a designer at the Emile Cohl School in Lyon, France, I integrated the Ecole des Gobelins in 2002. Three years later, I got out rich with a formation of quality in animation drawing, but who proved to be only the tip of the iceberg of a fascinating world. After working a few years in Paris on films and 2D series as an animator, storyboarder or character designer, I left France and 2D animation for the US and Dreamworks’ CG animation. Ironically, my first experience in Los Angeles has been in traditional animation for the Special DVD Kung Fu Panda: Secret of the Furious Five. I then joined the ranks of CG animators at Dreamworks and I worked on Monsters VS Aliens, Shrek 4 and Kung Fu Panda 2 where I learned the role of character lead as I developed the villain. In the movie, Rise of the Guardians, I work as an animation supervisor, a job that allows me to thrive in this role that is both didactic and of a leader, like the classes and master classes I give from time to time in Europe or Asia.

2. What does your master class consist of?
It is an expose about the physical aspect of a character animation. Human anatomy, the laws of physics, body language, the study of a realistic movement, its visual adaptation and the various animation techniques are a few of the subjects that will be presented.

3. Who is your master class aimed at?
The laws of animation are universal and can be applied to all mediums. Of course, this class is mostly designed for animators (animation films, VFX, video games, etc.), but also for riggers and modellers. A good knowledge of human anatomy and movement amplitudes necessary for the animator are essentials for the conception (modeling) and preparation (rigging) of a CG character.

4. What will the participants learn?
Everything we learned from the best of the industry.

5. A brief word for future participants?
This master class is centered on the quality of the execution of a character animation. We won’t talk about acting, the personality of the character or software used in animation but we will focus the precision of the physical aspect of an animation.

Before writing a complete piece, the writer must learn to write without making mistakes. This is also true for animation. Although, it is true that the ultimate goal for an animator is to communicate emotion through acting that is original, genuine and precise, to animate honoring the laws of physic and the limits of the character anatomy is the basic of creating quality animation.

Hoping to see you again and share with you what, through our respective careers, our mentors taught us what they learned.