版权声明：转载时请以超链接形式标明文章原始出处和作者信息及本声明
http://loiclife.blogbus.com/logs/68559278.html

快速导航： 第一部分 第二部分 第三部分 第四部分 第五部分

GW: Networking and personal connections in this industry can propel one’s ability to land jobs, learn new techniques and discover unexpected opportunities. Do you have any specific examples how this has helped Gnomon or your own personal experience?

个人的关系网络与行业之间的联系可以帮助一个人得到工作，学习新的技术和发觉意外的机会。你有任何类似这样的特别的例子帮助Gnomon或者你个人经验的吗？

AA: There is no question that aside from the quality of your work, the second most important component is your ability to get along with people. Our industry is one of collaboration, and you need to accept that this is what you are signing up for. When a studio hires someone, the questions they ask themselves are A) are they talented? and B) do we want to hang out with them? Often when people are let go from companies, it is not because they couldn’t do the work, but because people didn’t like working with them. If you’re someone who rocks the boat, rubs people the wrong way, has a big ego, complains all the time, etc., you’re really going to have a problem unless you are a superstar artist.

毫无疑问除了你的工作作品质量以外，第二重要的要素就是你和人相处的能力了。我们的行业是一个需要多人合作的行业，而其你必须要接受这个就是你要面对的现 实。当一个工作室雇佣某个人的时候，他们会问他们自己两个问题A他有才能吗？B我们愿意和他混在一起么？经常有人被公司炒鱿鱼不是因为他不能胜任工作，而 是因为大家不喜欢和他工作在一起。如果你是那种捣乱，有人有错误的摩擦，很自负，经常抱怨等等。你就会有问题除非你是超级艺术家。

But if you are a universally well-liked person and sociable, people will do what they can to help you out. My experience is that the majority of people in the industry are cool, friendly and approachable. The importance of networking very much has to do with getting work, regardless of position, from junior to supervisor. There is very much a culture of giving work to friends of current staff over strangers. Knowing that a staff member or peer can vouch for a prospective hire is comforting to a company, and they would much rather take this route than going through a big box of portfolios sitting in the HR department.

但是如果你是一个大家都很喜欢并且很有社交能力的人，大家会尽力帮助你的。我的经验就是在行业里的主流人群都是很酷，友善并且容易靠近的人。关系网最重要 的就是得到工作，无论职位高低都是从低向高级。基本上都是很有可能给一份工作给一个朋友而不是一个陌生人。要知道一个职员或是同辈可以帮你做雇佣的担保， 他们宁可走这条路线也不愿意坐在人力资源部对着一大箱简历。

If you consider that box to be ‘the line’, then networking gives you the opportunity to skip it. We’ve gotten many students into studios through this process, just as how I got my job on Avatar. Neville could have gone to Lightstorm HR, but instead he called me asking for a referral. He needed someone fast and didn’t want to get bogged down by interviewing a bunch of people that he didn’t know. This is where Gnomon students have a huge advantage. With over sixty-five instructors every term at Gnomon, all coming from studios around Los Angeles, students graduate with a huge network. This is not to mention all of the fellow classmates who end up working at studios and will vouch for you down the line when you’re between gigs. This is a clear example of the difference of going to school versus self-teaching. Sure you can participate on the forums, but do you really get to know someone as a person and what they’re like to hang out with? There is no question that spending sixty hours a week with someone for two or three years while in school is going to develop a lasting friendship. Exchanging some posts in a forum thread is just not the same thing.

如果你认为那个大箱子就是界限，那么关系网可以帮你跳过那个界限。我们有很多学生都是通过这种方法进入工作室的，正如我在阿凡达得到工作的方法一样。 Neville可以去Lightstorm的人力资源部，但是他却打电话给我问我意向。他需要某个人很快来工作而且不愿意陷入很多他不认识的人面试的僵 局。每期在Gnomon有超过65个导师，都是来自洛杉矶的各个工作室，当学生毕业时候是拥有很大的关系网的。这不是说那些在工作室工作的同学会替你担保 当你们在演唱会上遇到时候。这是一个很明显的例子区别于那些去学校和自学的人。当然你可以在论坛上认识，但是你真的能很了解他本人和与他混在一起是什么感 觉么？这毫无疑问花费每周六小时与某人一起呆两到三年在学校会发展长久的友谊。在论坛发的帖子和他本人是不一样的。

Another personal example would be how I started Gnomon. For two years while at Alias|Wavefront I was going to different studios every day doing tech support and demos, meeting tons of artists and supervisors. It is through those connections that I rallied the studio and artist support I needed to get Gnomon launched. I think that because I showed them so much respect and admiration, while clearly being determined to do something of value to the industry based on their feedback, that they wanted to help me succeed. Which leads me to say that Gnomon’s success has always been about those that support us, not about me. After thirteen years this is the first interview I’ve done to publish on a Gnomon site, as I just don’t see myself as important as the scores of instructors and studios that give us their time to help our students. In the end, I’m the just the glue that holds things together. But my ability to bring people together, network and communicate has been of tremendous importance.

另外一个个人经历就是我开办Gnomon。两年时间我在Alias|Wavefront 我每天去不同的工作室教学支持和试验产品，与很多艺术家还有高级管理人员见面。通过这样的联系我发觉工作室和艺术家支持我，我需要开办Gnomon。我想 因为我对他们很敬仰，而且我有很强的决心去做一些对行业很有用的事情，给予他们的回馈，他们想要帮助我成功。这也就让我提到Gnomon的成功都要归功于 那些不断帮助我们的人，而不是我。在13年以来，这是我第一次在Gnomon网站公开我的访谈，因为相比那些一直花费时间帮助我们学生的导师和工作室来说 我不值一提。我实际上只是一个胶水把所有东西联系在一起。但是我把人们聚在一起的能力还有关系网和交流成为了巨大的重要性。



GW: Forums and online communities are a big contributor to the ability of artists to pick up techniques and good general advice. They can also do the opposite with unqualified advice. From your online activity, as well as hosting The Gnomon Workshop’s own forum, do you have examples you can share?

论坛和在线交流做出了非常大的贡献对于艺术家学习几乎和良性的建议。但是也可以相反给出不合格的建议。基于你的在线活动和主持Gnomon工作坊的论坛，你有什么例子可以分享的吗？

AA: In my opinion forums used to be great and I spent a ton of time on them, but these days there is just too much noise. I’ve heard the same thing from the great majority of professionals that I’m friends with. I think that as a student they are a great opportunity to get together with like-minded people, but once you get busy working, they tend to become a distraction. For this reason, most of the people on forums are students and the comments, critiques and advice you get needs to be taken with a grain of salt. What they are definitely useful for, however, is as repositories of information. If I hit a technical issue, the first place I go is Google to see if any forum threads pop-up with an answer… but if I can’t find one in ten minutes, I get on the phone. That is about my current level of patience. Heh. But I’m lucky to know a lot of people with answers… This may all sound a little annoying to a student who depends on the forums, but just know that once you get a job and get older, and busier, you’re going to become the same way. What I do love with forums, however, is contests and challenges which is why I’ve been running the Gnomon Workshop contests for the past few years. These are a great way to experience the creativity and enthusiasm of other artists, while giving yourself a deadline and project to focus on. Especially for artists that are on their own self-teaching, these kinds of challenges really help create a sense of community and opportunity for personal growth.

在我看来论坛很棒并且我花很多时间在上面，但是最近一段时间那里很烦躁。我从很多专业方面的朋友那里听到很多相同的东西。我觉得如果你是学生，在那里和很 多志同道合的朋友聚在一起是很好的机会，但是当你开始忙于工作后，那里就开始变成让你分神的东西。基于这个原因，很多在论坛上的人都是学生，所以评论和意 见，批评你所得到的都是有保留的。但是它很有用的地方时迅速的反映信息。如果我有任何技术问题，我第一个去的地方就是Google去看看有没有那个论坛有 这方面技术的答案……但是如果我十分钟内无法找到答案，我就打电话了。这就是我目前忍耐的水平。呵呵。但我很幸运知道有很多人会知道问题的答案……这对于 每天在论坛的学生来说可能听起来有点烦人，但是当你想到你一旦得到工作变得老一点忙一点的时候你也会这样的。我喜欢论坛的则是比赛和挑战，这也是为什么这 几年我主持Gnomon工作坊比赛。这是一个很好的经验去看到其他艺术家的热情和创意，同时给你自己一个限期和项目去关注。特别是对于那些自学的艺术家， 这样的挑战绝对帮助你交流能力和个人成长。

When it comes to using forums to get critiques of your work, I say proceed with caution. Forums are democratized to the point of insanity, where a ten year old has the same platform to comment as anyone else. I know a bunch of people who would much rather share their work privately with peers that they respect, then to post it on a public forum where you’re bound to get a bunch of rude comments regardless of what you made. If you’re looking for critiques and advice, it is far better to try to network privately than to just see what reaction you get online. You may get a bunch of comments, but which ones do you listen to and which ones have any merit? Forums are a tough crowd for students whose work still needs a lot of guidance.

当你用论坛去获得关于你作品的评价时候，我认为需要谨慎。论坛是一个疯狂的民主化的地方，那里就算一个十岁小孩也有和其他人一样平等权利去评价。我知道很 多人宁可与他的同辈人和那些他所尊进的人分享作品，也不愿意公开大论坛上得到一大堆没礼貌无视你所做的作品努力的评论。如果你真的打算得到一些评论和建 议，利用你的关系网和私下分享绝对好过看你作品在线以后的反映。你会得到很多评论，但是什么是你需要听取的什么事没有任何好处的呢？论坛是很多学生聚集的 地方而他们自己的作品还需要很多指引。

GW: You were recently at the Weta Workshop in New Zealand. Any secrets you can share about the upcoming film The Hobbit? Who did you meet and what was your overall impression?

你最近在新西兰的Weta工作坊，有没有任何秘密可以和我们分享下即将到来的电影《霍比特人》？你见了谁还有你的总体印象是怎样的？

AA: I was in Australia a few weeks ago to speak at the agIdeas conference and decided to add a few days to my trip to visit my friend Scott Spencer at the Weta Workshop. As I had always expected, it was truly an amazingly inspiring place, full of props and sculpts from Lord of the Rings, the Narnia movies, District 9, King Kong and their other films. I didn’t see anything from the Hobbit as that was all off limits, of course. But seriously, walls full of swords, shields, creatures… it just went on and on… very very cool. Scott introduced me to several artists and I am seriously grateful to him for it. We had dinner with Gino Acevedo (creature supervisor and uber talent), lunch with John Howe (!!!), met David Meng whose sculptures are rad, had a brief encounter with Richard Taylor (founder/co-owner of Weta), who told me that he watched and loved the Gnomon DVDs, especially John Brown’s sculpting series (!!!), and really just had an amazing time there, albeit way too short. Hopefully I’ll get to go back there one day. There are too few studios where you get to see physical stuff and most digital studios are really just a bunch of monitors. Over the years my most memorable experiences have been Stan Winston Studios (Legacy), Rick Baker’s Cinovation and now Weta Workshop. If you ever get the chance to visit one of these places, drop everything and go! You’ll never forget it.

我几周前在澳大利亚的agIdeas 会议做一个演讲，然后我决定多几天旅行时间去看看我在Weta工作坊工作的朋友Scott Spencer。正如我所预计的那样，那里真的是一个充满灵感启发的地方，全部的魔戒中的造型和道具，纳尼亚传奇电影，第九区，金刚等等还有很多其他电 影。我没有看到任何关于霍比特人的资料应为那些都是受限的，但是正的，墙上全是剑，盾牌，生物……一直延续……非常非常酷。Scott把我介绍给几个艺术 家，我真是非常感谢他这么做。我们和Gino Acevedo（创意总监而且很有才）吃了晚餐，和John Howe吃了午餐（!!!译者：AA惊讶是因为他是指环王插画家），见了David Meng，他的雕塑是rad（译者：rad是弧线意思我实在不知道sculptures are rad怎么翻译），与Richard Taylor（Weta创立者/拥有者之一）有一个简单的见面，他告诉我他看了而且非常喜欢Gnomon DVD,特别是John Brown的雕刻课程，我真的是在那里拥有一段非常美好的时间，尽管时间很短。希望有一天我能回到那里去。很少有工作室你可以看到实实在在的物件，很多数 字工作室只是有很多显示器而已。经过这么多年我最深刻印象的工作室经历就是Stan Winston Studios (Legacy)，Rick Baker’s Cinovation 现在又有了 Weta Workshop。如果你有机会去参观这几个工作室，丢下所用东西马上去！你绝对不会忘记这经历的。



GW: Is there a book or project you would like to see made into a film?

有没有哪本书或者是项目你希望看到它变成电影的？

AA: They’re making it… Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Such an amazing series and if you haven’t read it, you’re in for a wonderful time. Seven books, I’ve read them twice and look forward to the next round one day. Unfortunately, however, they gave it to Roland Emmerich which to me makes little sense. These books are rather mental with little action and the protagonists are mathematicians. The story spans thousands of years with several disconnected series of events, so I have little hope that they will do more than what they did to I, Robot….meaning that it will be a forgettable Hollywood action flick that has virtually nothing to do with the books. But hopefully I’m wrong and it is epic and at least better than the Star Wars prequels. Haha. Ugh.

他们真在做了……基地 由Isaac Asimov制作。非常棒的剧集，如果你还没有读的话，你会有一个非常美好的时光。七本书，我读了两边而且现在还想在某天再来一次。很遗憾，他们把这个给 了Roland Emmerich 对于我来说这无法解释。这本书很少动作戏而且主角是数学家。故事跨越数千年并有很多个断开的系列事件组成，所以我不抱希望他们会比I, Robot做更多……。也就是说这会变成一个让人无法忘记的好莱坞式的动作戏并且和原作毫无关系。但希望我错了并且这是史诗至少会比星际前传要好。哈哈 哈。

GW: Balance, personal life and family. Does your significant other understand the industry?

平衡，个人生活和家庭。你的另一半了解这个行业么？

AA: I have two kids, ages six and nine, and for those of you that know, children create balance and perspective, while allowing you to reconnect with the creativity, optimism and imagination that is childhood. The highlight of my week and my life is the time I get to spend with them. I am very much a workaholic, but when I have my kids they are all I focus on. I split with their mom many years ago, but they live only a few minutes away and I’m with them every week, so it’s all good. My significant other meaning Sofia? Heh. Yes, I think she understands the industry… she’s a cinematics environment artist at Blizzard. I managed to find one of the only girls in the industry thank god! Haha. She’s awesome and totally puts up with my Gnomon chatter as I have to listen to her Blizzard chit chat. While I’m usually in front of the computer at home, she is too, so we complement each other very well. Plus she is really into gaming and being from Blizzard has its perks, since we have the StarCraft II beta and just got the Cataclysm alpha to play with at home. Pretty cool. She’s a lvl80 Night Elf Druid, I’m a 77 Night Elf Rogue. Yep… But I don’t play anymore. Really. I don’t. I think the only thing we disagree on is Twilight. I’m sorry. Twilight is lame and New Moon was the worst movie I’ve ever seen. But going to see it is the kind of thing you do to make your girlfriend happy. Even if you have to listen to dozens of teenage girls screaming for ninety minutes ’cause some overpaid cheeseball took his shirt off. Oi.

我有两个孩子，一个六岁一个九岁，正如大家所知道的那样，孩子制造平衡和透视，可以让你重新和创造力，乐观和想象力联系起来。我一周和我生活中最好的时光 就是当我可以花时间和家人待在一起的时候。我基本是个工作狂，但当我有了孩子后，他们就是我的重心。我和他们的母亲几年前分居了，但是他们只离我几分钟路 程远而已，而且我每周都会和他们在一起，所以基本都好。我的另一半是指Sofia？呵呵。是的，我想她明白这个行业……她是在暴雪的环境艺术家（译者：我 疯了！）。我总算是想办法找到这个行业里唯一的女生，真是谢天谢地！哈哈。她很棒，而且完全帮助和我聊了很多关于Gnomon，正如我要听她聊很多她在暴 雪的事情一样。我经常在家都是在电脑前，而她也是，所以我们两个很合得来。另外她是一个不折不扣的游戏迷，而且由于她在暴雪工作所以有这方面的优惠，我们 有StarCraft II beta 还有Cataclysm alpha可以在家玩。非常酷。她是一个80级的暗夜精灵德鲁伊，我是一个77级的暗夜精灵盗贼。嘻嘻……但是我不再玩了。真的。我不玩了。我想我们两个 之间唯一的分歧就是Twilight（暮光之城）。我很抱歉这么说，但是Twilight （暮光之城）就很糟糕了而New Moon（暮光之城二-新月）则是我看过最糟糕的电影。但是去看那个就是那种你做那个事情是为了让你女朋友开心的事情。即使你要听着一群青少年女孩尖叫 90分钟仅仅是因为某个付了很多钱的乳酪球（译者：我没看Twilight2但是看过预告片，我想这里AA说的是那个新月里的浪人吧！）脱了他的上衣。

GW: Meeting and working with directors like Bryan Singer, J.J. Abrams, James Cameron, Shane Acker, Meni Tsibiris… Gnomon is now at the point where artists and directors see it as an industry resource rather than a school. Where to next?

与诸如Bryan Singer, J.J. Abrams, James Cameron, Shane Acker, Meni Tsibiris…等等这样的人见面和合作，Gnomon现在应该是在一个在艺术家和导演眼中是个行业资源而非学校了。下一步是怎样的呢？

AA: Tomorrow I teach all day. That’s what’s next for me. Well, sleep first.

明天我要教学一天，这就是我的下一步。OK，睡觉先。（译者：我晕…… 但是也可以看出AA脚踏实地。）

----------------------------------------------------FIN------------------------------------------------------
看完这里说明你很有毅力！另外，文中加了一下自己的旁白，希望不会影响诸位阅读！
P.S. Alex的另一半真牛！居然是暴雪的！

不早鸟，本人也洗洗睡了！