BYU NewsNet - Teamwork Focus is Key to Progress

By Neal Kennington

Since its creation in 2001, the animation program at BYU has achieved enormous success, gaining attention from both students and major animation studios such as Sony, Pixar and Dreamworks.

All the fuss could cause some to wonder: What makes the animation program at BYU any different from other schools? What is behind its success?

Chris Rydalch, a sophomore in the animation program, shed some light on the subject.

"There are better schools out there, artistically, but BYU's strength is its team-player focus," Rydalch said.

No one can make a movie alone, and a cooperative mindset is crucial to success in the animation business.

"You have to swallow your ego," Rydalch said. "You can still learn what you want to learn, but sometimes you just have to do what the team needs, even if it's not the most fun or glamorous part of the job."

When Ed Catmull, president of Pixar animation studios, spoke at BYU recently, he made a similar point.

"It's all about putting together a team that works well together," he said during a conference reported by The Daily Universe. "BYU has an extraordinary program here. The quality of students coming out of BYU is the best in the world."

Catmull also emphasized the importance of constantly striving for excellence. "Keep the quality up on everything associated with your name," he said. "Do new things and learn to deal with the things that go wrong. Don't be fooled by a little success. When things are going right, it tends to hide the problems."

Rydalch said part of the motivation for students to strive for excellence in the animation program is that "expectations are getting higher in and out of the program."

Major studios occasionally come out to recruit and teach at BYU. As top animation studios keep an eye on students for possible recruitment after graduation, they keep their expectations high, compelling students to surpass previous standards.

A highly qualified faculty backs the program's ongoing quest for excellence. Though there are only three professors currently involved with the program, their combined expertise amounts to decades of experience in the animation industry. They've been involved with everything from traditional 2-D animation to claymation to more sophisticated 3-D films, such as "Shrek" and "Spiderman 3."

In 2007, the program was privileged to have one of the last of the original Disney animators teach some of its classes.

John Ahern, a Spanish Fork resident who began his career at Walt Disney animation studios nearly 50 years ago, worked on such classics as "Lady and the Tramp" and "The Aristocats." He worked at several other major studios, including Hanna-Barbera and Marvel, during his career.

"They're doing some interesting things, and I think it's on the verge of doing very well," Ahern said. As a veteran animator, he got a good impression of the animation program while he taught at BYU.

"When they get through, I think BYU will be the number one animation school in the world," Ahern said. "Pixar picked up a couple of our graduating seniors with starting salaries of around $90,000 a year. It's big business."

Despite the program's commendable success, animation isn't for everyone, Ahern said.

"We had a situation where there were a few that took beginning animation thinking it would be like taking gym back in high school," he said. "They figured this would be a piece of cake. They found out it doesn't work like that. They had to work, they had to think, they had to draw, so some of them dropped out.

"There were a couple, though, that really got caught up in it, and started working hard. People who get into [animation] will want to work hard, because they like what they're doing."

Ahern suggested a few things for people who might currently be considering getting involved with animation.

"One of the key things before they get into beginning animation is that they should have some art classes," he said. "They should have some that deal with live figure drawing, because if you don't understand how the human figure is, it's not going to work as an animated cartoon. It's the same with animals. You don't want to have a horse with the legs bending the wrong way, like I've seen some people do."

Ahern also indicated that a high level of commitment is necessary to succeed in an industry like animation.

"Be honest to yourself about what you want to do or what you want to be," he said. "It's just like in the church or anything else - do you really want to be in the church or are you just playing a game? Somewhere along the line you have to put your foot down and say 'this is what it's going to be,' and then go after it. For real. There's no halfway. It's like that old saying: partly pregnant doesn't exist. I think that's the best description I could give to it. You've got to be in it all the way."

Ahern is now retired, and no longer teaches at BYU, but some of the students still fondly remember him.

Rydalch remembers when Ahern was in the hospital a while ago and one of the animation professors (Kelly Loosli) had the students send a stack of their drawings as a sort of get-well card.

"We received emails from Kelly telling us that John Ahern was sick in the hospital," Rydalch said. "Kelly had been there the day before to visit him, and realized how much he missed animation, and really wanted to talk about that, rather than being sick. So we were all asked to pull a page from our sketchbooks, or come up with a drawing, and then Kelly would get those to John in the hospital."

Those drawings were appreciated and Ahern still has them.

That kind of camaraderie epitomizes the spirit of the animation program at BYU. It's the secret behind its success; the people in the program are dedicated to their work and dedicated to each other.