Jason
Wen was born on December 11, 1976 near Minneapolis, Minnesota
but was raised in the Dallas, Texas area. He became fascinated
with computer animation when he viewed Luxo Jr. on a PBS special
about computer animation which aired sometime in the late '80's.
It
wasn't until 1993, when Jason saw Jurassic Park, that he concretely
decided to pursue computer animation as a profession. He was more
than likely the only person at his high school to sneak in copies
of Computer Graphics World to read during class lectures. It was
at this time that he purchased for himself a used copy of Autudesk
3D Studio version 1.0 Beta and eagerly went at it. From 3D Studio,
he switched to Hash's Playmation and then to Newtek Lightwave
3D version 5.0.
From 1995 to 1999, Jason Wen attended Ringling School of Art &
Design in Sarasota, Florida.
During
successive summers from school, he held internships at The Stokes
Group, Mesalogic and DNA Animation. At DNA, he worked on: the
short-lived CBS Saturday morning Weird Al Yankovich Show opener,
and very early pre-production for Santa Versus the Snowman - which
aired that holiday season.
Nearing
the end of 1997, in the middle of his junior year, Jason came
up with an animated project idea entitled f8. He quickly realized
it was beyond the scope of what could possibly be produced at
Ringling. So, he commenced prepratory production for f8 outside
of class - with the intent of finishing the brunt of it after
graduation - and worked on his one minute senior thesis, Whirlygig,
at school. Whirlygig was later accepted and screened at SIGGRAPH
'99. At this point in time, Jason's rough estimate for the f8
project was two to three years. From the very earliest stage,
Jason's brother Howard became involved as the project's screenwriter.
With Howard's aid, the animation quickly grew to a much larger
scale. The screenplay went through 5 major drafts over a year's
time; which was well into Jason's senior year at Ringling. As
graduation neared in April 1999, Jason met with a very talented
conceptual artist; Computer Animation major Andrew Jones. Andrew
gladly volunteered some of his time to draw up designs for a majority
of the characters and a large number of props and sets which appear
in the finished animation. Additionally, he played a great part
in the reshaping of the story.
On
May of that year, Jason graduated from Ringling with a diploma
in hand. It stands to this day as irrefutible evidence certifiying
him as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Animation holder. Now
working out of his parents' home, Jason occupied a very significant
majority of 3 1/2 years working on f8.
Jason's
thoughts on f8's production: I
almost got in over my head with this project. I thank my parents
for letting me move back in with them after graduation and continue
leeching off them as I worked on f8. I do not recommend anyone
trying such a large scale project on their own. I would have produced
a much better animation, I feel, had I come up with an idea smaller
in scope and length.
There
were a number of trade-offs which had to be made. For example,
the texturing could have been better and the animation, I feel,
is merely adequate. I also have nagging suspicions that people
are turned off by the unconventional structure and pacing. I am
still glad I persevered and finished all the computer graphics
on my own. I came out at the end with a greater understanding
of all the various tasks and problem solving skills required to
pull off an animation. I quite enjoyed the challenge of taking
the script my brother wrote and turning it into a unique vision.
It would have been quite simple to merely visualize the first
things that came into my head and be done with it. However, I
invariably decided my first ideas were not good enough and pushed
myself further to try and come up with a different aesthetic.
Consequently, the animation may be a bit abstract and too lyrical
and hard to follow for a number of people.
It
was my intent to create a piece which compels one to watch a number
of times until they form an impression of what is going on. Absolute
conclusivity was not my aim. I must add that having found a wonderful
concept artist in Andrew Jones helped to keep me motivated. He
conjured up such great designs that I simply could not have half-assed
the models which I built from his drawings.
To read more on Jason's f8 project, check out our featured article:
