Recently I discovered that I was linked to one of my idols, in a closer way than I could have imagined. 

At an event for work, I overhear the wife of one of my co-workers talk to someone else about how her mother was an animator for Disney. Given our proximity to Burbank, the idea that I may run into animators had crossed my mind. I quickly waltzed over to her with my wine and hijacked the conversation. I soon found out that her mother had worked on Scar in The Lion King. I asked if she knew Andreas Deja and she affirmed that she had met him and was surprised that I would know the name.

Andreas Deja is one of my inspirations in life. The moment that I saw Scar appear on screen as I viewed The Lion King in theaters, I knew that animation is what I wanted to spend my life doing. Everything was so slick and subtle. I loved the way Deja moved his mouth, the way little things like eyelids and cheeks made the difference. I was in love.

Of course, animation never happened for one reason or another. Most of it was the monetary issue of going to a good school. The other was the fact that I had to work to make ends meet. It's kind of heartbreaking to know how good I can be in the field and yet can't even muster enough motivation to come up with everything required of a demo reel. Motivation or fear of rejection, however you want to put it.

One thing that I can finish and consistently feel good about it storyboarding, the process that lays down the path for an animator. Below is a storyboard for Benny the Baboon, a play that was originally pitched to children. Music is by Pumashock and Lyrics by Molly Summer:

The best bit of animation I have is for a run-cycle I did several years ago as reference for a voluneer-produced short film, Wolf: