Pro animator advises originality

Northeastern's Department of Art + Design hosted Terrence Masson, an accomplished computer animator, as part of its monthly lecture series last Tuesday. Masson, now a full-time faculty member at Northeastern, has been a professional animator for two decades, and has experience in many aspects of the field.

Masson earned his bachelor of fine arts in graphic design as a computer graphics and graphic design major from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He then went on to get a master of arts degree in Animation from William Patterson University in New Jersey.

The lecture, held in Shillman Hall, titled "Computer Graphics: Now and Next," began with Masson describing some of his earlier experiences in the animation field that got him to where he is now.

Some of Masson's feature film credits include computer graphics supervisor at Meteor Studios for "Fantastic Four," computer graphics sequence supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic for "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace," animation R&D consultant at Sony Pictures Image works for "Anaconda" and the opening title sequence in "Batman Forever" with Digital Fauxtography, a company he founded.

He also wrote "CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference."

"It's really easy to get a job [in animation] now," Masson said. "All you have to do is be better than everyone else."

To help students understand what that entails, Masson presented "Terrence's Top 3," a list of the three concepts he said he believes are most essential in beating the intense competition in today's world of computer animation.

Number three on the list was originality.

"I want to tell students not to be afraid to try something new," Masson said.

Computer animation is a rapidly growing industry, Masson said. In 1995, Pixar released "Toy Story," the first full-length, computer animated film. Masson went on to say that in 1998, two more computer animated films were produced, "Antz" and "A Bug's Life." In 2006, 13 computer-animated films hit the big screen, and projections for 2007 through 2009 include 40 films worldwide.

Tom Starr, a graphic design professor, said it seems originality is needed more in animation than anywhere else.

"It's harder to come by because there has been such a huge explosion in the field," he said.

To help improve originality, Masson reminded his audience, "Nothing kills creativity faster than the computer." He added that the ability to put pencil to paper and freely express ideas is essential to keeping creativity in the industry.

Doug Appleton, a middler animation major, said cross-discipline, concept number two of "Terrance's Top 3," was the most important thing he learned from the presentation.

"I found out that the more I know about a broader range of topics, the better off I am in the future," he said.

Masson's number one concept was excellence.

"Most food is average, most cars are average, most films are average; so what stands out is excellence," he said.

Masson is well acquainted with excellence, having served as chair for the 2006 Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) Computer Animation Festival, as well as currently serving as the SIGGRAPH 2010 conference chair.

SIGGRAPH is an annual animation festival where students and small, independent studios have the opportunity to showcase their work. As chair, Masson reviewed and judged thousands of entries from 40 countries worldwide.

"It's really valuable to hear what someone in the top of the computer animation industry has to say," said David Soto, a senior animation major. "I have a much better idea of the current state of the industry, and my place in it, as well as what I have to do to succeed."

Michelle Gayowski, a freshman graphic design major, said Masson made his kind of success sound like a reachable goal.

"It's such a dream job for a lot of people, especially animation and design majors," she said.