In
1997, locked away in the middle of the mid-west, lived a man…
a man with a dream. That dream was to get out of the mid-west.
His name is J. Todd Constantine. Some call him “T”, some
call him “Shaggy”, some call him “Asshole” when he cuts them off
in traffic. This is the story of how he escaped.
After
finishing two different art schools in Colorado (neither of them
big enough to mention), Todd finally got his opportunity to move
to California. His friend Matt was attending a renown chiropractic
college in the Bay Area and he needed some roommates to fill a
four bedroom house. Todd jumped at the chance and moved to the
east bay. Todd’s dreams always consisted of creating artwork for
the entertainment industry and California was definitely the place
to do it. Through months of tests and parties, Todd found out
that living with three chiropractic students just south of Oakland,
wasn’t helping him find that job in the industry.
SIGGRAPH
’97. Todd read about the convention and decided to attend with
the hopes of meeting people in the industry and maybe getting
a real job. Moving from Colorado with mostly a traditional art
background with some graphics training, Todd was blown away by
all the “shit” that he saw. He met this great group of people
that showed him the ropes and took him to the big parties. After
returning from a great week in Los Angeles, Todd kept in contact
with that group of friends and was placed on several industry
email lists. Todd’s first break came from Santa Barbara Studios,
when they needed a video I/O person. Todd raced down for an interview
and found out that the job position was filled while on route
to Santa Barbara. Todd interviewed anyway with one of the producers,
Ms. Diane Holland. Diane liked Todd (I’m guessing) and offered
him a PA/Film Runner/Artist position at SBS.
After
Todd’s one-week notice to move, he started at SBS and was working
on Star Trek IX: Insurrection. He was put on numerous tasks ranging
from updating the company intranet with the newest shot info and
animatics, to matte painting, rotoscope, and tracking. The fun
part of the job for Todd was that he lived in LA and every morning
he would pick up dailies at the lab, run a print over to Paramount
Studios, then drive to work…….in Santa Barbara. After work, he
would grab the exobyte tapes, drive home to LA and drop off the
tapes at the lab for overnight processing. Todd’s hours were usually
10:30am to 3:30am.
After
the movie wrapped, Todd was wondering what to do with his life.
Diane had taken a job at a Los Angeles based interactive firm
just 3 blocks from Todd's house. Diane offered Todd a job as an
internet designer. After considerable time thinking about this,
Todd realized that he had no money and happily took the job. Two
years of working at Magnet Interactive, Todd moved up in the ranks
to Flash Animator. He worked on numerous websites covering automotive,
apparel, original web cartoons, online trading, medical, and comedy.
Todd worked with a great team. He made many friends and learned
that it is good to be able to get your boss drunk.
The
market for the internet took a bad turn and Magnet Interactive
was forced to merge with a group of companies hoping to miss the
fallout. After the merger, the “new” company decided that they
didn’t need an LA office and closed it down. 80 people were sent
to the streets to fend for themselves. Todd has been freelancing
his flash talents ever since but he is considering getting back
into the effects industry.
Todd's
thoughts on production:
My thoughts on production vary day to day. When I was working
at SBS, I loved the long hours and movie magic. The people I worked
with were all cool and unique individuals. I’m finding that out
all over this industry. However, I wasn’t prepared for the constant
redoing of the most ridiculous elements that only lasted 2 frames.
Unfortunately, this industry gives birth to great work with people
that don’t ever want to look at what they spent 8 months creating.
When I was at Magnet, I again worked with amazing people. The
work environment is key to a happy, day to day lifestyle. There
were scooters, video games, snacks, and a lot of professional,
hard-working people. However…(you knew that was coming) you always
ran into clients that wanted everything for nothing or didn’t
know anything and said they knew everything. I guess that’s what
makes it interesting. So, my philosophy these days is to roll
with the punches, make sure you’re having fun everyday, and when
the day is over, you want to come back for the work and the people.
Todd
enjoys watching Saturday morning cartoons and Japanese animation.
He
dabbles in cartooning himself. He recently acquired an original
Optimus Prime transformer toy.
Quote from Todd: “I am the acorn that becomes the oak. You can’t leave, all
the plants are gonna die!”
–John Winger
_ Stripes
