Maor Lavi

What is your name and your current occupation?
Maor Lavi, I am a freelance animation all-arounder (Anim, 2D, 3D, After Effects compositor, designer)

How did you become interested in animation?
Admiring work of the “golden age” of animation, Disney classics, Warner’s Looney Toons, when I was a kid around 7 years old, my mom took me to the movies to see “Who framed Roger Rabbit” and I was fascinated by it;later reading and studying works of Disney’s ‘9 old men’ and Richard Williams got me intrigued, seeing in Animation a gatherer of a lot of different art forms

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 
Israel, started studying graphic design, then sub-specializing in animation, taking a lot of initiative in getting books, and tutorials that weren’t part of the collage’s syllabus

 

What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
sadly, being a freelancer means 75% of my work means Marketing, Collecting payments, Networking – which takes a lot of time from me, and every once in a while – actual work..

 

What part of your job do you like best? Why?
designing the “motion”, after all the design and script / story in completed, thinking how and making the thing move is the best part, it is the only aspect of the work that comes completely natural to me

 

What part of your job do you like least? Why?
Marketing, Collecting, and in the actual ‘work’ – the small itchy fixes and “Black Work” – it involves no creativity, a lot of technical work, time consuming – especially if Classic – Animation is involved.

What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis?
Compositing in After Effets, 3D in Maya, TVPaint with a Wacom Cintiq for classic hand drawn stuff, Photoshop / Illustrator for design

A: the “Unknown” – financially wise: I never know if I can ‘finish the month’, I don’t have a secure income and I never know what will happen

In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?

No. (not sure I understand the question)

Describe a tough situation you had in life.
deciding “What to do with myself when I grow up” (and I’m already 30 years old)

Any side projects you’re working on that you’d like to share details of?
Yes, I want to pilot a TV animation series, I have a rough idea, and started design – not enough to share yet

not really

Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business? same advice I got from my college teachers: 1. DON’T do this to yourself  2. get out while you still can  3. this is from Roger William’s ‘the Animator’s survival kit’ – K.I.S.S: “Keep it simple, Stupid.”  4. my own tip: if you gave up on those previous three – work on your communication skills, know how to psychologically handle criticism, and most importantly – as long as your still trying – never give up, learn more stuff, network, ALWAYS get better in what you do, no body is perfect, we all have more to learn.