Many young animators might wish to end up with the kind of career Classical Animation and Digital Character Animation grad Michael Cozens has made for himself so far. As a Lead Animator at Weta Digital (the Peter Jackson-led animation and visual effects house that had a hand in movies like Lord of the Rings, I, Robot, and King Kong), Michael’s day-to-day schedule sometimes includes working on big budget films – such as his current project, James Cameron’s Avatar.

Michael recently took a break from his busy life in New Zealand and stopped by VFS to explain to Animation & Visual Effects students how he works with stereoscopic (or 3D) imaging, and how it’s going to start playing a much bigger role in the filmmaking world.

We had a chance to ask him a few questions about how he got started on this career path. Here’s what Michael said:

Q: Hi, Michael. Thanks for finding some time to talk about your career. Could you start off by explaining what drew you to this field?

A:  When I was a kid, my Dad would drive me over to Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation at the Ridge Theatre every year.  He had lived with Marv Newland while going to Art Center in L.A.  We would check out Marv’s latest short and all this beautiful, strange traditional and stop-motion animation.  I suppose that stuck with me.  I played part-time artist for a bunch of years after high school with my Dad telling me: “You should go to school”, and me thinking: “Not a chance.”  One year, I decided to take things more seriously.  I decided I wanted to animate.  We talked to Marv and he suggested I should look into VFS.  I then went through the Classical Animation program and then the Digital Character Animation program.

Q: What do you remember about the process of creating your student short film Broker?

A: I feel lucky to have had Moose Pagan as my main instructor in the Classical Animation program for a year.  What I learned there gave me a very strong Animation foundation.  When I got to the Digital Character Animation program, I knew that I needed to make a really good short film.

I had a lot of beautiful and odd ideas for a short piece. The trouble was that they were single moments, as opposed to a story.  I really didn’t understand storytelling at the time.  Adam Rogers really liked my ideas and helped me gel them together into a small narrative.  I probably could have come up with something on my own, but Adam helped me twist my ideas into a story.  That made a massive difference in the final result.  I also didn’t waste a lot of time.  The program was 6 months.  I worked my butt off.

Q: For the benefit of current students and recent grads, could you talk about your first professional gig? What’s your breaking-in story?

A:  I wanted to work in film.  With my VFS short, I had two offers to work in Vancouver (an animated TV show and a game company), and then I got an offer to work on a small CG feature in Montreal (“Axis” at the time and Kaena, The Prophesy on release).  I jumped at the chance to work on the film. Things went from there.  Looking back, I firmly believe that the industry rewards optimism and hard work.  I think when you give a bit extra of yourself that comes back to you.  It has worked for me.

Q: What’s it like working for such a well-known company as Weta Digital?

A:  Weta is great.  It is very exciting to be working here right now.  There are a lot of interesting and groundbreaking projects, and I am constantly exposed to extremely talented people.  I’m pushing myself and learning new things each week.

Q: Can you talk about what you do there?

A: I am working as a Lead Animator.  I do pre-visualization and I animate shots.   I also have sequences I am looking after for Animation.  I troubleshoot problems and run between the Visual Effects Supervisor and the Animation Director – making sure the animation is working through to film out.

Q: Where do you go from here? Is there a job or dream project you’d like to take on in the future?

A:   That is a very good question.  Up until now there was always another dream project to work towards. Right now I am working on projects that were a dream a few years ago.   I am pretty happy and possibly too busy to think about it.  Maybe down the road I will spend some time doing something more cartoonish.  More squash and stretch.   : )

Thanks, Michael!

Click here to watch Michael’s student short, “Broker”.