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Courtesy of Digital 04 Studios
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For the last two months Jonathan Abenhaim, a senior animator from Ubisoft has taken a break from making videogames. For most people a break means some time to relax. For Jonathan, it means co-founding and helping to organize one of the biggest digital art conferences to ever take place in Montreal. With LucasArts on line one and Disney on line two, the 27 year old has a lot on his plate right now.
Montréal Magazine: So what is this digital conference all about?
Jonathan Abenhaim: Well, I and two of my good friends, Jean-Eric Hénault, president of CGChannel.com, and Emile Ghorayed, a former animator for DreamWorks, decided we wanted to hold a computer graphics (CG) animation conference for other artists. With the help of everyone we know, we've put together the best looking website we could imagine possible; we've gathered over twenty of the world's biggest artists to come and speak; and we've gained the support of many of the major studios in the process. ADAPT 2006, which stands for Advanced Digital Art Production Techniques, takes place on September 23rd and 24th.
MM: Why Montreal?
JA: Montreal is notorious for talent and it's home to many pioneers in the 3D industry. We've invited all the big studios to come and recruit, and we're hoping that these studios will see Montreal as a place to open up shop. We want to create new jobs and new opportunities for local students and artists who don't always know where to find these studios and who can't always travel around the world to visit them. We're hoping to create an annual event, something special which will grow and grow.
MM: When did you discover your passion for computer animation?
JA: During high school I knew that I loved drawing but I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career. One afternoon I was watching Movie Magic on the Discovery Channel, and they were talking about the film Jurassic Park. There were these guys living in Montreal describing how they animated the dinosaurs and I thought 'this is the coolest thing ever.'
MM Fresh out of Inter-Dec College you landed the job with Ubisoft. Describe your role as a videogame character animator.
JA: The game producers would give me a script and a description of how the characters were supposed to behave, and I would make them move and come to life. As an animator you're kind of like the actor behind the camera that nobody sees.
We've invited all the big studios to come and recruit, and we're hoping that these studios will see Montreal as a place to open up shop.
MM: Where do your character movement references come from?
JA: It depends on what I'm animating. As a kid I always loved martial arts, and I eventually began to study Kung Fu. So if I'm animating a fight scene I apply what I've learned from Kung Fu in terms of the mechanics behind body motion. If it's a love scene I'll pull out a love movie and watch these people act. Or I'll just grab a bench in the street and watch a couple interact with each other.
MM: What value do videogames have in today's world of art and entertainment?
They're creating all kinds of new opportunities and new jobs, jobs for everyone from interface programmers and sound engineers to team managers and accountants. Videogames are interactive forms of entertainment and you can immerse yourself in them. Musicians, actors, painters, all come together to work on these games and while they may not be feature film quality just yet, they will be. They will be so real and so believable that you'll feel like you're in them.
MM: There are those who believe it cannot be true art if it's created on a computer. How would you defend that it is?
JA: Even if it's on a computer, at the root of every game I've worked on is a pencil and paper: The sketching of ideas, the creation of environments and the drawing of creatures. Any artist will tell you that the pencil and paper are tools. Computers are the new pencil and paper, and CG animation is the new art.
ADAPT 2006 will be held on September 23rd and 24th. For more information on the conference and its co-founders, visit www.adaptmontreal.com.
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