Interview with an Animator

Daniel Enriquez

Professor at School of Design and Arts (SDA) De La Salle College of Saint Benilde

Self- Introduction as an Animator

"I like drawing comics, I love comics like marvel superheroes and then it would take me just 5-10 mins only to make an art. I like that style because for me, if there’s structure and form okay na and that’s why I like 3d because when it comes to 3d, it works in a way that is consistent, we call it walk ups, we call it model. 3d stays there, even when you rotate it still looks the same. Right now I’m into toy photography, what I do is I make sets and I take toys and then I make it into woods. I prefer photography because you had the chance to use the actual items and you have to use production design. In the same set I do for 3d, that is also what I do for 2d but not much in 2d because it’s flat then you have to render it manually, I prefer 3d I prefer stop motion If I had given a chance, I would go for stop motion animation right now. I like Bleach (anime) I’m a fan of Bleach before, I like the story I don’t like the art (laughs)"

When did you start making animations?

"I started making animation when I graduated. The type of animation I was specialized on was product design. My background is engineering and during that time we’re doing CAD (computer aided design) however I had some clients and then through training and consultancy I met them, what we did was they were looking for people who would do 3d visualization because it was hard for the investors, clients to visualize or interpret some proposals or designs if they cannot see something tangible. So, that was my first lineup work. I was doing walk troughs for mini state companies, I was doing product designs that they could see in 3d that just can rotate 360 degrees. After that I ventured on doing character animation and so on. The first offer is 3D Studio Mac and then 5 years later we moved to Maya and Maya to me is so stable and good but then we came to a new asset it is called Cinema AD. All my part time jobs started from 3d benders, character designs and character animation, 3d assets and then came to game development, until now its full animation. Right now I’m doing projects for educational ABPs for cooperation and NGOs.

Where did you find inspiration in making animations?

I really like doing static stacks before since it was new, it was a nice thing to look at because everything was so flat in 2d and when you look at floor plans its looks very stiff and it doesn’t look nice but when you do it in 3d it looks good and fancy but they have to upscale because you have to do a lot of stack that comes with it and you have to have a nice lightning, nice animation for the model, nice texture for the model and etc. Right now I’m using Maya as my software in doing animations."

Is there an animator that you admire the most?

"For me I cannot say a single one, although I met Armando, the others, they were into 2d, most of them are concept designers. I admire more people on the concept rather than those who are good in further execution because when you do further execution, you just have to copy what’s already there, of course it’s still a craft but I would likely have more admiration to people who are in the print production.

What is the most difficult situation you have faced in animation?

To not complete the task anymore or to not continue the contract anymore. Sometimes the people, they pull the plug. It’s either they don’t have fans, they aren’t interested or they can’t invest in the project, stuffs like that." What can you advice too us students who also wants to be an animator? "You have to look for particular careers where you going to suite, because right now, animation is not packages anymore. I been in a conversation, yesterday what they did they invited studios, basically the active sector for animation and gaming, when I was there, they had shared use on how the industry is, Animation is no longer use for entertainment anymore, and there are huge potential in other avenue, such as education, because some of them are doing digital books and they use their illustration skills, their design skills to produce those. And you are looking to interactive books, there is a huge potential on that. The others are trying to the mixing already, they using cartoon characters for casinos , but it show gambling in a young age and we had people from Pagcor saying they really getting high reception , they find out that the contractor who are biding actually have their own satellite office here, their own production. It is better you go and creates your own IP, but it is impossible because it is very expensive and risky and that what happening to the Indie films right now."