A veteran animator who got his grounding at pioneering Pixar Animation Studios is teaching the skills to young people in Durango.
“I love animation, and I’ve been fortunate to have a wonderful career,” said David Tart, founder of Rocky Mountain Animation Labs. “I want to share the magic of animation with everyone who wants to learn it.”
Tart’s six-workstation school is downstairs in the Smiley Building where he currently has two classes. One is for students ages 8 to 11, the other, ages 12 to 15. Thirteen intensive summer camp classes will be open to all ages and cover four topics.
“I started teaching while I was still animating for Pixar,” Tart, 51, said. “I was in charge of training new animators, so from that time forward, teaching has been a big part of my career.
“I learned so much about animation while working on films like ‘Toy Story,’ ‘Monsters, Inc.,’ and ‘Toy Story II.’ This knowledge is really the basis for the classes we teach,” he said.
Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, before launching as a corporation in 1986 with funding from Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs.
Tart said he learned at Pixar that the best animators all had one thing in common – a traditional arts background such as drawing, cel (celluloid) animation, clay animation, stop-motion and cut-out animation.
“These original forms of animation were way more important than being able to use a computer to animate,” he said.
Tart had broad exposure to creativity during his formative years.
“I had a decent exposure to art, and I studied photography, drawing and printmaking,” he said.
The animation workstations at the lab have been designed to accommodate all forms of animation, he said.
“We believe that animation is an important skill because in today’s world, more and more jobs require some knowledge of animation, whether for video games, television, film, Web pages, scientific visualization or special-effects animation,” Tart said. “It can be seen in almost everything we watch.”
Universities have joined the effort to teach animation.
“In the last 10 years, animation programs have exploded at universities,” he said. “There are 500 bachelor programs at universities.
“Our approach to teaching is very structured,” Tart said. “Just as with music, the principles of animation require focus, practice and passion,” he said. “The result is entertaining, fun and beautiful.
“Once a student has the basics, we begin to explore 3-D animation, using popular Minicraft characters,” Tart said.
Tart plans to expand the school, first offering classes to kids and adults in La Plata County, summer camps and then online classes so that anyone anywhere who wants to learn animation has access to instruction.
daler@durangoherald.com
