Ryan Bailey - Interview with Jacob Cook - Graphics/Visual Effects for film and commercials

1. Can you briefly define your job to me?
I am the creative director of a company named Digital Domain owned by Disney. He is a 3d artist, texture model, animator, scripter and programmer. I also deal with film, commercials, video game production, postproduction for film, and sound production/audio engineering. As a creative producer I works with anywhere from 100 to 150. My recent projects include working on the movie Tron, which we just recently completed in September.

2. How did you get started in the business?
I started at an early age of 14 playing around with programs from the Adobe Suite such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and InDesign. I used these from early high school all the way through my undergrad at Arizona State University majoring in multimedia/design. From there I received my masters in animation and film from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, California. There he used programs such as Zbrush, Unity, Blender, 3d max and Maya.

3. How do you tell someone over you (your boss) that you can't accomplish an assigned task?
If you cant accomplish an assigned task because you don’t know how to do it. If he can’t do a task there has to be a reason rather than an excuse. Maybe it is something such as, “I don’t know how to go about it this program and utilize my program so could you show me how you would do it?” I would ask questions because that is the only way to get better. Sometime you have to swallow your pride and ask questions to better yourself and better the team that you work with. My boss stresses that I won’t get fired, but he just asks to be honest and reasonable with him no matter the situation that is brought up.

4. Do you have any advice for a media student starting out?

Make a time sheet pipeline/production pipeline. It is basically setting goals for the year and what has passed over the course of that year. For instance, I set 12 productions, 1 film, 2 commercials and an Iphone game as part of my time sheet pipeline. You also have to have extracurricular projects rather than just your school projects to show people. You have to market yourself and show people that you want to work with what your interests are. Give the people you network with a reason they should work with you so everyone involved can make a really interesting project. Also, when you don’t know something with a certain program just jump on a forum and constantly ask questions to better yourself. As a part of networking, attend conventions that are fun and business at the same time. You get to see great upcoming work and in turn exchange e-mails with people who have similar interests as you.