The Animator: An Unexpected Journey
In a studio in New Zealand there lived an animator. Not a cold, lifeless studio void of creativity and laughter, nor a bland, boring studio with nothing to play with or draw on: it was an animator’s studio, and that meant excitement.
If you didn’t read The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, you might not recognize the passage above which is adapted from “Chapter 1: An Unexpected Party.” Today, we have the immense pleasure of emerging from the Hobbit hole with Eric Saindon. For those of whom don’t know his name, you definitely know his work. Eric is an animator for Weta Digital (the folks responsible for Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, iRobot, Avatar, and many more). What a résumé, #amiright?
Eric Saindon and Peter Jackson on the set of The Hobbit
The moment our team learned that he graduated from architecture school at Washington State, we actually did a little dance around the office because that meant we had a reason to interview him! So our fearless writer emailed him an invitation to chat and 30 minutes later, he wrote back enthusiastically, “Sure! When are you free?”
That brings us to a sunny Thursday afternoon in Washington D.C. (and sixteen hours ahead in New Zealand) where we got to chat with Eric about his time in architecture school, post-grad life, why he chose to pursue animation, and everything in between.