I'm told I'm supposed to write an introduction post for Steemit. I've been here almost 2 months so I guess it's about damn time. Here's a brief video that basically says it all:
Ok, so yeah I'm not really an insane cown-mask-wearing crypto-maniac... I just play one on youtube! -sometimes. BTW that video was shot and edited by my talented friend Mikey Thompson who's steemit page can be found here: https://steemit.com/@lightenup
My name is Seth and I'm a digital artist/animator living and working in:
Whoops, I mean Hollywood, In sunny California. I moved here in summer of 1995...
This was the year of the Oklahoma City bombing and the OJ Simpson Murders. Bill Clinton was president, Yahoo! was founded and Bill Watterson created his last Calvin and Hobbes strip (I can't decide which is the worst tragedy).
I moved here on a whim from Greenfield Massachusetts, where I had just completed my associates degree at the local community college.
When I got here, I initially stayed with my cousin who was an animator on the Simpson's at the time. I was very grateful to her for allowing me to stay in her small bungalo apt. while I looked for work... It didn't take long. The job market was much better back then. I applied to a temp agency called Apple One. I got a call a few days later about a potential job. They asked me if I knew (Aldus) Pagemaker, a Desktop publishing/document layout program that was popular at the time.
I lied and said I knew it very well. (I had used it probably twice). They asked me to come in for a test with the client the next day. I said "no problem". As soon as I hung up the phone, I ran to the local LIBRARY (there was no internet) and took out a book on Pagemaker. I memorized as many short-cut keys as I could. The next day I arrived for the test. Nobody there knew anything about Pagemaker. I opened it up and laid out a simple document and when finished, shook hands with the owner of the company and went home. The next day the temp agency called and told me I got the job. I was later told this was because they were impressed with all the SHORT-CUT keys I was using (apparently none of the other applicants had used any during the test). This was my first valuable lesson on the importance of BULL-SHIT when applying for a job.
I must say that this one job is probably the single most important influence on my decision to get into digital art and eventually animation. WHY? Despite the fact that this was a pretty boring gig... one in which my job entailed laying out brochures and technical manuals for accounting software for bakeries (yawn...!) The Armenian owner had a penchant for hiring Russian and Armenian programmers... and these programmers had access to CD's filled with HUNDREDS of graphics and animation software. This was huge... at the time it was almost impossible to get such things in the US (there still was no internet) and once I started messing with all these amazing applications, I was hooked.
I taught myself Photoshop, CorelDRAW!, Painter, Freehand, Caligari Truespace, Macromedia Authorware, then I learned 3D Studio Max, and After Effects, all the while working and I got back into college. I finished my BA in Communications TV-Film at Cal State University, Los Angeles. They had no Animation program at the time, so I got the tv/film degree and kept teaching myself at home.
Here's the very first Flash animation I made:
And 10 years later I built Darin in 3DS Max as a test:
I graduated with honors, which was a huge surprise to my father as I nearly (drunkenly) failed out of high school, and immediately jumped into an MFA program in animation at UCLA's Animation Workshop http://animation.filmtv.ucla.edu/. It's a great program and I highly recommend it, however I only made it through the first year. I got into a summer internship at commercial division of Klasky Csupo http://www.klaskycsupo.com/, otherwise know for being the creators of RUGRATS, ROCKET POWER and WILD THORNBERRIES. they were also the first studio that animated THE SIMPSONS.
I was interning in the commercial division where we created animated ads for companies such as Earthlink, Chucky Cheese and Trix.
MY first day there they paired me with a new upcoming animation director named Walter Santucci who lives completely outside the box. Walter was very cool with me. While other interns were making copies and fetching coffee Walter gave me work on an animated scene my first day there. He liked what I did and gave me more scenes. They needed a Satellite to appear above the earth and were going to animate it by hand, but on my lunch break I installed a trial version of 3DS max and built the scene in an hour. Another scene they wanted a radar like display and, again were going to have it hand-animated, but I stayed late one night and built the scene in after effects. I also composited the entire thing together so the next day when everyone came to work they found an almost completed ad in which I had constructed or had a hand in constructing and animating every element. Here is the ad- Its for Noggin Networks and is still one of my favorites:
It also landed me a full-time job. The producer's at Klasky were so happy, they offered me a job as their first in-house digital artist. Of course, I had to drop out of UCLA- a decision that I sometimes regret... but it was an opportunity at my first full-time job in "the industry" and once your in, its much easier to get other entertainment jobs, so I think I made the right decision.
This experience taught me the second most important lesson in my career- show them what you can do. Be aggressive, don't be shy. Offer to take on work or even do it when not asked... show them what you're capable of and they will keep you around.
My friendship with Walter continues to this day, we've worked on many productions together over the years Including several puppet films such as the one below (NSFW or kids)
We also worked on a pitch for an animated TV show called NIGHTOWL. Walter was approached by Adam West (who he was working with as a voice actor for a McDonalds Ad) to create a pilot. It never went anywhere, but It was fun as hell to work on. (and ultimately very wierd)
Since Klasky I have worked for many studios in Los Angeles. I am an art director and member of the Local 800 Art Directors Guild. I am a motion designer, cg generalist and animator with over 15 years of experience in the broadcast industry with work ranging from motion graphics in promotional ads and commercials, talk show package design and visual gags, logo, branding and title design, compositing and visual effects, traditional 2D animation and After Effects character animation as well as 3D character modeling rigging and animation, dynamic simulations, medical animation and pre-visualizations.
I've had some fun jobs and I've had some rough ones. One of the worst was when I worked 136 hours in one week at Pixomondo on a 360 projected animation for a trade show presentation for EMC.
In 2008 I started my first Union job on a daily TV talk show called The Doctors. My job was mostly medical animation. I worked in a small dark room with two other animators, My friends Angus and Hugo. We had some pretty long days in the beginning. Angus and I used to joke that we thought they must be taping us for some twisted reality TV show... It had to be a joke... how much work they required in so little time... it is a common theme BTW... most people never seem to understand how much time it takes to animate a scene.
The one of the best jobs was Working on The Pete Holmes Show. It was a great team and the producers gave me a lot of creative freedom to create bumpers for the show.
I also really enjoyed working with the team on Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons. A talk show themed around sports and popular culture, it only aired one season on HBO. I'm personally not really into watching sports but I was disappointed when it was canceled... its really not the content of the show, but the people you work with that make a good job.
Below is a link to a clip of some of the animations I created for AGW:
More recently I just finished working on a new show for Comedy Central called Problematic with Moshe Kasher. Another good crew and the work was relatively easy. I got to edit and composite a rap with Moshe and MC Serch from 3rd Base... unfortunately this video seems to threaten a certain segment of society, but... oh well.
>And currently I am working on visual effects and compositing for an upcoming Kevin Hart video for Netflix... and that's all I can say about that.
For me personally, the most fun is when I get to work on my own projects. I really enjoy designing characters. I love to draw, and I found that working in Z-Brush is like drawing in 3D... its digital sculpting actually, but drawing has always felt a little like carving out a character to me. Below are some of the characters Ive created in 3DS Max and Z-Brush.
What else to say...? I like backpacking and camping... road trips and exploring the deserts, beaches and mountains of southern California... I'm dark and twisted, but goofy and light-hearted as well. I'm an ADHD Atheist-Anarchist-Transhumanist pinko-commie-liberal with some pretty strong views about the world... but its probably better for us all if you don't ask. I prefer Ideas to beliefs and I prefer compassion to judgement... Pink Floyd, Jimmy Hendrix and I Monster. Whiskey and IPA. Thai Food and Lobster. I read fantasy & Sci Fi and I'm a fucking Pisces. My girlfriend is a field director for House Hunters and owns 2 horses, their names are Shooter and Majesty. Uh... oh yeah... Recently I've gotten into Crypto by way of the programming for the show Problematic. One of the episodes was on the dark web and they had a segment that touched on Bitcoin. They didn't really delve into alt-coins on the show, but it got me interested and I started doing some research on my own. I started investing in March of this year, and although I'm still new to this emerging phenomenon, I can easily see its vast importance and ultimate potential. Through exploring crypto I discovered Steemit, and well, that brings us up to date I guess. Of course there's lots Ive left out, but I feel like I've written half a novel already, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. My sister is also on here. She's a very talented artist. You can see here work on her steemit page here: https://steemit.com/@twirble
Thanks for taking the time to read my introduction.
Seth, aka Zenith Wombat
Below is my most recent animation showreel. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to updating it since 2014.
Crypto Dummies is a joint venture I'm working on with Michael Thompson.
More to come on that front.