Meet Tyler Phillips | Character Animator

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

Hi Tyler, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
When I was a little boy I loved drawing, however my friend’s little sister showed us her cartoon dog drawing and it blew me away at how simple and appealing it was. I wanted to possess that power of making something special. I think that inspiration and artistic competition through high school drove me to be a better artist. It wasn’t until my mid twenties that I pursued being an animator.

In my artistic career I’ve been able to work in fine art, graphic design, motion graphics, compositing, video editing, camera work, live dance performance and character animation. Everything I’ve done has in one way or another led me to character animation, which has been my career for almost sixteen years now.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started off drawing and painting as a kid, and as I grew up, I became known as the artist in the family and at school. I knew I wanted to be an artist but when it came to choosing a college and focusing in an area of art, I really wasn’t sure where to go. I knew I didn’t want to be a starving artist, so I figured I was more likely to get a job if I could do art on the computer. Because of that, I decided to study Graphic Design and Multimedia at Platt College.

After I graduated, I started out pretty much at the bottom of the entertainment industry, working in public access TV. However, not too long after, I got hired at a bigger news station in San Diego working the studio camera and prompter, while also interning in the Editing dept. and Motion Graphics dept.

After about two years of working there, I received an opportunity to move to Prague in the Czech Republic to work in feature film. While I was there, I was able to gain experience doing different jobs in film, however I hadn’t really found the thing I loved doing the most. It seemed like everything I had done in my career was circling around character animation and it took a lot of time to realize my interest in it.

I quit my job, moved back to the US and started studying animation on my own. I even managed to win second place in an animation competition called the 11 Second Club. However I realized I wasn’t going to get a job in the industry without help. I decided to go to the online animation school, Animation Mentor, to both learn from experts in the industry and build my network.

Towards the end of school, my instructor encouraged me to apply at Blue Sky Studios where I got the job as an Animation Temp on Ice Age 3, in 2008. After that I animated at Sony Games on God of War 3 for a short while. Then finally, I got the “call back” to work at DreamWorks Animation on How to Train Your Dragon in 2009 and I’ve been animating there for almost 15 years.

Outside of work, I animated on the 2022 Oscar winning short film, The Windshield Wiper, directed by Alberto Mielgo. I also animated on a short film LUKi & the Lights, directed by Toby Cochran.

To me, animation is like a magic trick, because it can make the audience believe the character is alive, with real feelings to love, laugh or feel loss. It’s not just a drawing, sculpture or painting. It’s the imagination of an artist put into movement to invoke a feeling from the viewer. Animators carefully sculpt that feeling through every frame, twenty four frames for every second of film. Animators are actors and imaginers, and the very best are absolute wizards.

Every frame of animation is hand designed, involving the collaboration of multiple artists across multiple departments. A film animator’s quota of finished animation can be about three to six seconds a week. It’s a very slow and laborious process, but very rewarding when it all comes together.

If anyone is interested in being an animator, there are many different paths you can take. There is traditional, hand drawn animation, 2D computer puppet animation, stop motion animation and computer generated animation, to name a few. Not all of them require drawing or draftsmanship skills. However all of them require an understanding of design, motion, acting and the twelve principles of animation, which can be learned.

You can go to a brick and mortar art college, however there are now several good online animation schools taught by professional animators in the industry. I also teach at one of them called AnimSchool. I believe that most of the newer animators in the industry learned from an online animation school. It’s very accessible, however you still have to work very hard to make great animation and get the job.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My parents, Bill and Donna, were a big part of encouraging me to pursue my passion for the arts. They also paid for art classes outside of school to help me develop my skills in drawing and painting. I really owe them everything for helping me along my path.

The school Animation Mentor helped me build my demo reel and connect me with professional animators in the industry. Pete Paquette and Jay Jackson were some of my instructors who absolutely elevated my animation by giving me eye-opening feedback. I don’t know if I would be in the industry with out them. Pete Paquette also helped recommend me to BlueSky Animation Studios to be a temp animator.

My friend and former mentor, Pastor David Hart, was also a major help in my life. He accepted me for the misfit, punk/goth kid and encouraged me to be my creative self.

My best friend in grade school, Matthew Amargo, who helped inspire me to keep drawing.

Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2315118/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vintagestitch/?hl=en

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

Youtube: https://vimeo.com/user1537314

Other: https://www.animschool.edu/

Image Credits
Mike Amos John Truong DreamWorks Animation