Interview with Animator Josh Burton

Interested in animation?  I was lucky enough to get an interview with animator Josh Burton of http://www.joshburton.com/, who shares his interesting story and some career advice for all of you hopeful animators.

Special thanks to Josh for taking the time to help people out!

    1) Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.

Well my name is Josh Burton and I am not the only "Josh Burton" in the animation industry - a point of confusion several times now. However, at least one of the others is a very nice guy and we have pointed mistaken contacts to the correct person as needed. My uncle said I should try going by J.J. to alleviate this but then I'd have to go and make new business cards.

The "Josh Burton" I see in the mirror hails from Oklahoma City, OK and grew up the youngest of two sons born to educator parents who always supported his artistic pursuits. I'm a guy how likes to bring stuff to life and, not processing the ability to do that without the aid of a pencil or wacom, make use of the tools I have access to. Like most, I've had a twisted ride on the train of life so far and hope that I've learned more than I've forgotten. I'm thankful that even the most difficult times can bear fruits of blessing with a healthy helping of time.

Currently, I'm a freelance animator/artist based in Houston, TX who likes the flexibility of doing different times of projects - from designing, modeling and animating characters to illustrating complicated ideas for more corporate clients.

    2) Do you have any interesting insights to share on your career in animation that may help people who want to break into the field?  How did you get in, why, what worked for you, and how did your hobbies/interests play into it.

Try everything but focus on the things that your most passionate about or just like doing. It's just not possible to be good at everything. I've been interested in animation for as long as I can remember though it took a while to realize that I might be able to make a living at it. I was very much on the artistic path from when I was a kid - doing as many art classes as I could take in junior high and high school and getting a grounding in digital art via a friend's father who was a college design professor while in high school. After graduation, I felt like I needed to take a detour for a bit and headed to sunny California courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps

 During my time in the Marines, I still doodled all the time and my last year in while I was stationed in DC I began doing artwork for a church. After getting out I started going to the Art Institute of Washington while working on staff at the church doing illustrations, t-shirts, websites, posters and the like. A couple of semesters in became apparent I wasn't going to to be able to use my G.I. Bill to continue going there so I transferred to Savannah College of Art and Design and got a degree in Animation. It was a great place to learn and make the friends in the industry that I still talk to, work with, and geek out with. Out of college, I sent out a bunch of reels and ended up taking the offer from Midway Games. I spent 3 1/2 years with them - first in Chicago, then in Austin, and finally remotely for awhile after I moved to Houston. For the past year, I've been a freelance animator and am really enjoying the flexibility in project types that it affords.

Hobbies and interests...hmm...I read. A lot. Seriously crazy amounts of books. I love story arcs, character development and great bits of witty humor. I hope some of that comes through in my animation or more likely in my shorts but I'll have to leave that to others to judge. I've also been a video game nerd for a long long time. That's a pretty good trait to have if you want to work in the game industry. Not so much if you need to be working on demo reel material to get a foot into the game industry and can't tear yourself away from the latest Call of Duty - all things in moderation:)

 

    3) Do you have insights on any other career areas you want to provide?

Plenty, let's see what gems I can glean from my varied career path...

    * Errand Boy - It's okay to ask questions when you don't know how to do something even if the person you ask gets annoyed.
    * Janitor - Don't try to vacuum everything on the floor of a daycare - everything may look solid but it may not be.
    * TCBY Yogurt Store Employee - White Chocolate Mousse is better than anything else. Period.
    * Roofer - Those that work in the sun all day deserve our gratitude.
    * Retail Computer Store Salesrep - The markup on battery prices is unethically ridiculous.
    * Marine - Unless it's morally objectionable, do what the person with more rank tells you to.
    * Church Artist - If the way you're saying something is more important than what you're saying you're doing it wrong.

 

    4) What do you think is the best way to reach and encourage people interested in animation and related careers? Is this extensible to other careers?

There are a lot of great connection avenues for those that want to get involved in animation. It's only gotten better as the years have gone by. In terms of CG community there are great sites like CGTalk, 3dTotal, CG Channel, Cg-Char, 11 Second Club and a mind numbing number of blogs of professional and aspring animators to connect to. My RSS aggregator, unhappy with its workload, has filed a complaint against me with the Department of Labor. In terms of education there are a lot of great schools out there teaching animation, film making, games or whatever your focus might be. Specifically, there is the Art Academy out in San Francisco, Ringling, Savannah College of Art and Design (my alma mater) and Animation Mentor (of course) if you prefer the online route.

Another great avenue for information and inspiration is "Art of" books. It's a great way to see the kinds of work being done in film making process and see what might appeal to you.

If I'm understanding the latter part of your question right I'm not sure there's many careers that share a similar job hunting avenue. Maybe in other performing art fields where you need examples of your work like acting or advertising?

I am glad there's not an annual physical fitness test tied to my job performance anymore too.

    5) What social media, job search techniques, etc. apply best to careers like yours?

Demo Reel. Demo Reel. Demo Reel. Resumes don't really matter to the artists who will be making the calls on whether to give you a second look though HR still insists on seeing them. There's some great assets out there for help getting your foot in the door. I think the book I used coming out of college was titled "How to Get a Job in 3d Animation". Can't get much more title specific, no?

Just doing good work and getting it out there for people to see is a great perpetual way to keep your name and style out there. It's amazing how often people just email out of the blue and say,"Hey I liked such and such." Sometimes those contacts tun into job leads.

 

    6) What do you see of being the future of animation and other entertainment that involves it?  The market and technologies are changing rapidly.

Growing. Becoming more and more efficient. There's a wide variety out there in terms of animation styles that have a market - from the limited 2d flash style being used in most kid's shows now a days to full on Pixar quality cg animation. The video game industry just keeps growing and there's still a huge appetite for animation if film, television and commercial work.I'm so excited to see Disney getting back into traditional animation and there's some amazing work being done around the world that keeps pushing the boundaries of what animation has to look like.

I feel blessed to be a small part of this ongoing creative experiment called animation.

Thanks for the opportunity to chat:)