Career Options
Career Moves - graduate success storiesSheridan grad takes a magic carpet rideA movie featuring a blue genie and a magic carpet may have inspired Michael Thurmeier to follow his love of animation, but it was group of prehistoric animals that ultimately drew him to the world's most famous red carpet. LINDA WHITE |
|
 [ 2007-04-18 ] |
To find out, take this test by eCareerFit, the career assessment experts.
Michael Thurmeier attends the Academy Awards with Lauren Renaud, co-director Chris Renaud and his brother Tim. Thurmeier was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Short Film category for No Time for Nuts.
A senior animation supervisor for Blue Sky Studios in White Plains, N.Y., Thurmeier was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Short Film category for No Time for Nuts, a spin-off of the popular Ice Age movies. He was driving to work when he received a phone call from his wife informing him of his nomination.
"She was excited and crying. I was just trying to keep my car on the road," says the graduate of Sheridan College in Oakville. Though he didn't win a golden statue, attending the prestigious awards show was unforgettable. He even had lunch with Hollywood stars Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio.
In the Ice Age movie, a group of misfit creatures embark on a quest to reunite a human baby with its tribe. Thurmeier's own journey began in Regina, Sask. "In my last year of high school, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I knew I liked film and had done a lot of drawing ... I watched an episode of Adrienne Clarkson Presents on Canadian animators working in the United States. Sheridan College was mentioned," he says.
COMEDIC STYLE
Watching the movie Aladdin cemented his interest in animation. "I loved the style and humour ... My own personal style tends to lean to the more comedic or cartoonish. I've never really been drawn to hyper-real animation or the traditional Disney look. I'm more into Ren and Stimpy than Snow White. Aladdin was like a bridge between the draftsmanship of Disney to the crazy fun of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones."
Thurmeier moved to Toronto and spent a year at the Ontario College of Art & Design before being accepted into Sheridan's classical animation program. When he graduated in 1997, the industry was hot and already leaning towards computer animation.
"There was something about Blue Sky Studios that I really liked ... it had a really cool vibe. It seemed like an up-and-coming place. At the time, I was pretty green and had barely used a computer. I don't think I had even sent an e-mail. But they liked my drawn animation and offered to train me in 3D.
"It is a transition, but computer animation is easier in some respects than 2D animation," Thurmeier says. "With computer animation, the computer is maintaining the integrity of a model, so it's all about how you sculpt a performance through the motion. It's a blessing and curse -- the character is always mathematically perfectly displayed, but it's up to the animator to make it feel organic and lifelike."
His skills in classical animation remain important. "I still do a lot of sketching when I'm starting a scene. I feel like I get my best work when I have the time to draw out the main beats on paper. "
Soon after Thurmeier landed a position with Blue Sky, it was bought by Fox to work on Ice Age. He storyboarded a couple of sequences and received a credit for lead animation on that film. "We were a little naive back then and didn't have a lot of preconceptions about how to animate a feature film. It wasn't easy, but we learned a lot and had a great time."
His next big project was supervising animator for Robots and immediately after that he worked on Ice Age: The Meltdown, again as supervising animator. He's currently the senior supervising animator on Horton Hears A Who, scheduled for release early next year.
Viewing the finished product is rewarding. "As an animator you can point to particular scenes in a film and know you created that performance. It's immense gratification. In a supervisory role, it's not your hands-on work on the screen, but you do help craft a little bit of every performance in the film."
Would you ever work for a social or charitable enterprise in the third sector?