Mark Oftedal's short films from Cal-Arts

So here are two of Mark's great student films. A big thank you to Mark for letting us post these films, thanks again.

enjoy

4pm

Knife

Interview with Mark Oftedal

Mark Oftedal was one of the core group of animators at Pixar to work on Toy Story. When I came to work on A Bugs Life, he had just finished work on Toy Story. Marks' animation was always inspiring to look at and really set the bar for others. He worked on Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2 and did a bit of pre-production on Monsters before he left to pursue other things. He has recently worked on a short film and is also doing a comic book for a wildlife rescue organization. He is also one of the partners of an animation software company called Digitalfish, started by another former Pixar employee, Dan Herman. Their aim was to make a really easy to use animation package. The software is called Reflex. Calarts is beta testing the software.
Mark will always be considered one of the best animators at Pixar. He was a great mentor and his interview is very educational.

I hope you enjoy reading this interview, as much as I did. Thanks Mark!

Link to Interview

Animation Clip

Upcoming Splinecasts and news

- I want to Start interviewing some more artists at work. The next interview will most likely be with a Story Artist. I think it would be really great to hear from them. Who and when is the question... The great thing, is that artists from Pixar want to do it. People ask me at work if they can help, and I really appreciate that.

- I am going to post an interview with former Pixar animator Mark Oftedahl soon. Mark was one of the original core group of animators on Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2 and worked a bit on Monsters before he took off and moved to Thailand. Marks work always blew me away and I really learned alot from him. Expect that soon.

- Billy Merrit, animator at Pixar for 10 years, recently moved on from Pixar and is pursuing a teaching career at Ringling in Sarasota. Billy also taught with the group of guys over at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He will be hugely missed.

- I will not be teaching the Second Level Class over at the academy of art in San Francisco. Mike Venturini and I are taking a break from teaching together for 4 plus years. We had a great run! Our students are working all over the industry (10 or so animators at Pixar alone...!) I will be teaching with Scott Clark in the Level 3 class. This semester proves to be very interesting. We plan to record improv actors and have the students animate a scene around the dialogue. It will be a great experience, both for us and who ever gets in the class. Start submitting those reels to get in. Remember, anyone can take the class, so if you are in the Bay area, give it a try. We usually like professionals who are taking the class to have taken class 1 and 2, but if your reel is amazing, we can make an exception.

- Our interns are doing great work and really learning alot. The work they are producing is amazing.

- I am headed over to Asia for a visit with some friends at 3dSense Media School in Singapore. There is an event going on called 3D overdrive, which is the asia equivalent of Siggraph. I am going to be giving a brief talk on animation and checking on the school they have set up. On the way back I am visiting with Cyberport in Hong Kong where I will be presenting an animation talk. None of the talks are on Cars, as I did not have much to do with that film. (only animated a couple shots)

As usual email me any comments or suggestions.

-Andrew