Growing
up in Arizona, George Maestri was well renowned as the
kid who could always draw a really cool Camaro. He got his first
taste of computers before high school when he taught himself to
program computer games on his Dad's mainframe. He landed his first
programming job at age 16, writing code for the Altair 8800. He
earned a degree in computer science and Silicon Valley quickly
seduced him, where in the 80's, he worked as an engineer on early
UNIX based graphics systems. After a few years, he noticed that
the people who created art on computers had a lot more fun than
the engineers who made the machines. This sparked an early mid-life
crisis and George embarked on a career change.
George
enrolled in the animation program DeAnza College Cupertino, CA
and was soon making his own student films. It was there he met
Joe Murray, who had just pitched an animated series idea to Nickelodeon.
Joe hired George to help with development of "Rocko's Modern
Life." Soon after that, George found himself working day and
night on the pilot as an animator and assistant producer. Miraculously,
the show was picked up and George moved to Los Angeles in 1993,
where he worked on "Rocko's Modern Life" as a writer for
the entire run of the show, earning a Cable Ace nomination in
the process.
During
his time at Nickelodeon, George taught himself 3D animation. His
interest in this subject soon landed him a monthly column covering
3D animation for DV magazine. George has continued working as
a freelance journalist, writing articles on animation production
for magazines such as Computer Graphics World, Animation Magazine,
Film & Video, and Digital Magic.
In
1995, George found himself at Film Roman as a writer & creator,
developing new concepts for animated series. Several of his projects
were picked up for development by major networks. George also
got his first taste of 3D animation production, animating a 3D
Felix for the CBS Series "The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat."
When
was learning 3D animation, George realized that there were no
good books on character animation. He mentioned this to an editor
at New Riders Publishing, and before he knew it, George had a
book deal. In 1996, he published his first book, [digital] Character
Animation, which was created as an animation book for artists.
The book soon became a top seller and a standard text at many
top animation schools.
George
worked as a freelance animation director, until, in 1997, he was
hired as the original animation producer on "South Park."
In this capacity, George ramped up production and hired the original
staff of artists, animators, and technical directors. He also
used his computer background to develop the techniques and technology
for animating cut-out characters using Alias.
After
South Park, George went back to freelance and found himself on
the road. He taught animation at NanYang Polytechnic in Singapore,
then flew to Paris to direct a live action/3D pilot at Medialab
for Film Roman. George then became an animation consultant at
Curious Pictures in New York, where he helped set up the production
of "A Little Curious," the first TV series animated in
Maya.
During
this time, George was creating and pitching his own projects.
He sold two properties into development: "The Experts,"
(co-developed with Jerry Beck) to Warner Bros, and "The Forgotten
Ones" to Disney/ABC. George wrote and directed both pilots.
In
1999, "The Experts" was renamed "Karen & Kirby"
and George's characters became part of the Kid's WB family. George
set up the production and directed all 13 of the three minute
episodes, which aired during "The Big Cartoonie Show."
George, along with Jerry Beck, also acted as story editor. One
of these episodes, "When Animals Go Berserk," was shown
to wide acclaim at a number of festivals, including the LA Animation
Celebration and Siggraph 2000.
George
has just completed his fifth book: [digital] Character Animation
2 - Advanced Techniques, and is also working as an editor on his
series, which will include books on digital lighting, textures,
modeling, and compositing.
Thoughts
on Production: Production
can be really fun or it can be a real nightmare. The best projects
are the ones where you get to hire really talented people that
you trust. In those situations, the creativity enters some sort
of feedback loop and the final project comes out better than you
ever imagined. The nightmares don't come from lack of budget -
I've had some great experiences on really tight budgets. If people
are given the creative freedom to come up with clever solutions,
they will. The nightmares come from people promising more than
they can deliver, or people who have no idea what it takes to
deliver. My theory is to keep your promises modest, then deliver
way more than people expect.
