Animation professor recounts industry experiences
By David Hurtado
Two neat rows of brightly lit screens line the carpeted floors of the classroom, under the watchful gaze of students busy on assignments. Movie posters for The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and other Blockbusters can be found pinned along the walls of RC 311.
The Animation and Game Development Room is where Shawn Barnett, one of the adjunct professors in the animation department on campus, holds his Visual Effects and Compositing class every Tuesday and Thursday. Barnett, who has worked behind the scenes on many major motion pictures, began teaching at the college during the fall 2013 semester. Animation has always fascinated Barnett, but he never considered making a career out of it until he was working as a manager in a graphic design department.
“I was ready for change; something more creative compared to graphic design,” Barnett said. “Ever since movies like Jurassic Park and the big video game boom, with PlayStation and Xbox, it just became really interesting to me.”
Prior to teaching at the college, Barnett worked on virtual reality combat simulations for military applications after graduating from the Art Institute of San Diego with a Bachelor’s in Media Arts. From there, through networks, connections and being in California, he ran across a small studio that was starting up called Legend 3-D and went to work as a Compositing Supervisor. While he was there, Barnett worked on Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, Smurfs, Green Hornet and other feature films.
Barnett said his work schedule usually consisted of days over 15 hours, seven days a week, “with no end in sight.” Beginning at seven in the morning, he would start laying everything out and getting shots scheduled for the day. Barnett would also review shots from the night before and then return notes to the visual effects compositors under his supervision.
“Michael Bay came down once or twice for that,” he said. “You don’t get to see too many famous people when you’re doing it because it’s more like after the fact. Then I’d go back, repeat the whole thing and I’d probably go home at one, two or three in the morning; sometimes not at all.”
By the time Barnett began working on The Amazing Spiderman, he decided it was time to take a break from what he was doing and reevaluate his priorities. He said his daughter was about two or three years old at the time and began to notice he wasn’t around as much.
“I was getting a little burnt out too, because it’s a lot of work; people need to know what they’re getting into when they do it,” he said. “All my family is here; I’m originally from here. So I just decided to move back this way and see what’s up.”
Jeff Wheaton, former student, took Barnett’s class last semester. Wheaton said he felt the course really helped him to understand the workflow for professional animation projects and how 3-D animation work can be applied to live action film effects.
“The projects in Professor Barnett’s class were focused on testing us on technical concepts,” Wheaton said. “They were really open-ended and allowed for a very high degree of creative freedom.”
Jeff Byers, associate professor and chair, Animation, said due to their busy schedules, he doesn’t get to see much of his colleague during the week. During department meetings, he said Barnett and himself will eat lunch together and discuss the industry.
“I would say he’s friendly, polite and easy going,” Byers said. “When you first meet him he seems serious about his profession, but then he opens up pretty quickly.”
Currently, in addition to his job at the college, Barnett works for Hearst Television and runs his own company called 2iiZ.
“For me to go back to another film studio at this point, it would have to be a really big offer,” he said. “I’m pretty happy where I’m at, at the moment. I teach here, obviously not to pay the bills, because I don’t really need it. I do it because I just like sharing the knowledge and experience I’ve had.”
Contact David Hurtado, features editor, at dhurtado@jccc.edu.