Meet Adam Thacker | Videographer, Editor, Visual Effects Artist & Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adam Thacker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adam, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
That lesson actually came pre-career, while I was still at Ithaca College. During my freshmen year, a professor in a required class (who was well aware most of us were all there because it was required, and not out passion for box office and budget analysis) would often tell stories about his time working in the film industry to keep us engaged. One story he told was this almost unbelievable chain of events on how he went from a very entry level position to much, much higher up purely by asking if he could get promoted. I have no idea if his story was even true, but he ended it by saying “Don’t tell yourself no, let other people tell you no.”

Later that day another professor of mine asked me if I wanted to be a teacher’s assistant for that same class next semester. My instant reaction was to say thank you, but no, my skill with a camera was not nearly developed enough, and it would be awkward to teach people what I had only learned a semester prior. But thinking to what I heard earlier that day I decided to accept. My time as a TA in that class was one of the best I had at IC, and it taught me so much about cameras, film production, and most importantly, how to properly coil an XLR cable. Any time a new opportunity is before me and I’m iffy on my answer I think about that day freshman year and decide to not tell myself no.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Standing out in my field is a bit of a tricky one, because with editing, visual effects, and animation I’m not only one member of a larger team that needs a cohesive final product, but my work is also usually meant to be invisible, especially with my VFX work. If you can notice I worked on a shot without me leaning over in the theater and telling you, that’s an issue. At the same time, lots of small choices (some would call them annoyingly granular) allow for tons of personal input. For example, if you need to add a muzzle flash to a prop weapon, placing and sizing it are pretty standard, and it should realistically only be a bright as the brightest thing in the frame, like the sun or another source of harsh light. This is to look like the camera actually captured it, but creative input comes into play when the emotion of a scene is taken into account and if it’s an especially poignant shot pushing it way brighter or bigger than it realistically would be increases the drama of a shot. Those kinds of decisions are where the personality and artistry come in for VFX.

In animation it’s much the same, I’m incredibly proud to be one of the many amazing animators on Mars, an animated film from The Whitest Kids U’ Know. It was my first time animating on something so daunting as a feature. Especially one from my favorite sketch comedy groups, and knowing that decisions I made animating would be married to performances from talented people like Trevor Moore, Sam Brown, and Zach Cregger created a lot of pressure to make sure I did their performances justice. It was wildly challenging animating such a high energy film with so little experience, but the skills and confidence I got from my team helped in so many situations. For example, animating someone who’s supposed to be strung out and twitchy can be communicated in many different ways, and all those decision come down to how you can improve the voice actors performance and keep the energy high. Maybe a single frame of an eye twitch is unnoticed by 95% of the people watching, but that 5% who caught it will feel that emotion a bit more. So many little details like that were taught to me by the team who worked on the film, and I’ll always be grateful for their help.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The Portland Maine area has such a great food scene it’s hard to choose so few (and it’s Maine so we’re going on a little drive to find some of the places too, so forgive me for that). Day one I’d say Watami in Brunswick, it’s a small ramen place in a basement off Maine Street, but it’s so good. The Brunswick area is also great with a nice little downtown and classic Casco Bay views. A trip to Bailey’s Island and The Giants Stairs would be next for some good rocky cliffs and on to Cooks Lobster House for what everyone comes to Maine for. Popping up to Augusta for State Lunch would be next with some great food and one of the best Negroni’s in the State. Finishing out a Thursday and Friday in Portland with any combo of Bird & Co. Yosaku, The Porthole, or Twelve. While you’re there, walking Commercial Street by the piers, taking a ferry to the islands or just milling around downtown finding the good thrust spots is enough to eat up a whole week itself. Maine is a great place to live and I miss it every time I’m not there.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to recognize the lessons and confidence I got from my time working with the amazing people at Midnight Kids Studios. Specifically Sevan Najarian the founder, James Bristow my Art Director and animation brother, and Tess Jackson my VFX supervisor turned friend and collaborator. I moved from Maine to Los Angeles with the promise of a visual effects internship and through their great teaching (and many nights speedrunning YouTube videos so I would know what the hell I was doing) I was offered a job and got to work on some amazing projects and make friendships I’ve kept to this day.

Website: https://adamthacker.myportfolio.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.thack/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awthacker/

Twitter: https://x.com/A_thack

Image Credits
Bradley Burbank (Photo of me standing on a dock)

Thomas Jarmusz (Black and White Pano)