Simon Otto is currently animator at DreamWorks Animation.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about who you are, your background…

Well, I guess I’m one of those kids that dreamt about being a comic book artist or animator since I was very young. I got sucked into reading Asterix and Tintin at a very early age, because my two older brothers were reading them. The fascination for the Disney animated movies started around the same time and so I began drawing little cartoon characters whenever I could.
I grew up in a small village in the Swiss mountains near Zurich and it was not really an option to learn a profession that had anything to do with drawing. Becoming a cartoonist or animator was almost like becoming an astronaut or a Hollywood movie star. It was an abstract idea and so I trained to be a banking clerk, like any good Swiss.

At one point, after years of creating little cartoons and illustrations, I remember saying to one of my friends that I was going to work on one of these animated movies no matter what happened, even if I had to be the guy who just colored the little highlights in the characters’ eyes.

I finished my banking apprenticeship, worked as a snow sculptor for a year and then went to art school in Zurich. My path became more and more clear and I managed to get into Les Gobelins in Paris, which is one of the most prestigious animation schools in the world.
In my year, there were about 900 applicants and after 3 rounds of testing, they finally accepted 20 students into the program.

So, the big Hollywood studios of course knew about this school since a lot of their talent actually came from there. I had a contract offer in my hands about a year later. I came to Los Angeles right after my graduation and started as a 2D animator on “The Prince of Egypt” at DreamWorks.

Q. What are your references, your inspirations when you create animations?  What kind of animations or movies do you like ?

I find inspiration in a lot of artists, but for animation it must have been Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston at first and then later the guys around me (James Baxter, Kristof Serrand, Rodolphe Guenoden, William Salazar, Fabio Lignini, Jakob Jensen, Fabrice Joubert, Dan Wagner etc….) I don’t know if you’re familiar with any of their work, but these guys are truly incredible.

And of course in terms of filmmaking there are countless inspirations such as the obvious films of Brad Bird, Hayao Miyazaki, Nick Park, Jim Henson, etc.

However, the majority of my inspiration comes from real life. I sketch, paint and observe people constantly, and have a fascination for strong characters and personalities. I carry my own little motion library in my head.

Q. You come from Gobelins. What do you think about animation schools? What was the most important for you during your studies?

The great thing about attending Les Gobelins was that not only were we surrounded by extremely talented students, but it was (and still is) a place taught by industry professionals (at that time Disney Paris and other great French studios sent teachers in for weekly exercises). Most of us progressed extremely fast and were aware of the opportunities granted to us.  We knew we were a lucky few.

But there are a lot of great animation schools. The trick is to find the ones that can expose you to the right people; the people that know how animation in a professional environment really works. Fancy equipment and a great campus doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a successful career. Recently, I’ve seen a lot of great students graduate from the online school Animation Mentor, Supinfocom and Gobelins in France, Ringling in Florida, Cal Arts in Southern California, Academy of Art in San Francisco and the Filmakademie in Germany, just to name a few.

Q. Your background is 2d animation and now you are using 3d tools. Can you tell us about this? Differences, preferences ?

The transition from one to another wasn’t as problematic as I initially thought it might be. The core approach is the same. In 2D you are a little more in touch with the animation, because you have to handcraft everything from scratch onto a blank piece of paper, which I enjoyed very much. There is something magical about the process, and it was clear to everybody else in the production process that this art form wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the skill of the character animator - to breathe life into a bunch of scribbles.  Also, there are fewer artists that can perform hand-drawn animation at a top level, due to the difficulty of drawing.

In CG animation, there are more top-notch animators and they come from different backgrounds. Some have grown up as stop-motion animators, others as VFX technicians. All the top 2D animators at DreamWorks are still some of the best animators at the studio.

However, it took me a few years to not feel limited by the CG tools to create what I wanted. The medium has come a long way, as has my skills as a CG animator, I think.

Q. You have been working about 10 years in DreamWorks and have worked on several movies. Can you tell us about special memories? Work, animation scenes, team…?

There have been many amazing moments. Of course, meeting actors like Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Jerry Seinfeld and Andy Serkis is always memorable.

But the real treasures were just working on scenes or movies with people I admire professionally. In one of the first sequences in “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” for example, James Baxter and I shared an entire sequence in which he animated adult Spirit and I drew the Eagle chasing each other over the plains.

Working on “The Prince of Egypt” of course was an unforgettable period of time, just because it was my first film and everybody felt like we had a chance to do something historic. There was an absolutely amazing ambiance in the studio when I first started there.

Additionally, working with Peter Lord and the artists from Aardman was also a fantastic experience during which I learned a lot as a filmmaker.  There were a lot of challenges to overcome in the process of adapting to the Aardman style. First of all, just trying to move out of your comfort zone and accept that you’re going to animate differently than the way you had animated before, was a big challenge. It’s very hard to move away from the way you do things you know work. Learning to animate as simplistic as possible was a huge personal battle. Editing, stripping down your ideas to the bare essentials was a difficult process for everybody, but ultimately extremely beneficial to all of us. Anything floaty or meaningless in animation today annoys me even more than it did before. And it is always good to be reminded that the character stands above all other technical rules.

Q. You are working in LA. Do you have a special inspiration from the place you are living in?

Living in LA and working in the movie industry is very odd, but also exciting. You feel like you are a part of this culture that gets created and then shipped around the world. Sometimes I see a location in a movie that I just drove by 2 hours earlier. It’s an odd mix between being motivated by these famous places and “weirded out” by the self-celebrating nature of this city and its people.

Q. Is there a Japanese artist that you really like ?

Besides a number of Manga’s and Anime’s, as well as Miyazaki’s, Otomo’s, Oshii’s and Takahata’s movies, I also love a number of Japanese painters.

I have always been a great admirer of Gustav Klimt’s body of work. I know that he was inspired by Japanese decorative painters such as Ogata and the artists that were part of the Rimpa school. Hiroshige’s and Toyokumi’s famous prints are also absolutely stunning.

Q. Are you interested to come to Japan to present your works or making conference?

My wife is Japanese-American and we visited Tokyo and Kyoto at the beginning of last year. We both love going there and have already promised each other to go back there soon and visit her uncle’s rice farm and drive around the countryside. Towards the completion of my current movie “How to Train Your Dragon,” I will have a lot of material to show and would love to share it with all who are interested!

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