The
way Kris Kapp got started in animation is a little strange.
Kris grew up on a farm in Lucas, Texas and went to college at
Stephen F. Austin State University located in east Texas. He graduated
with a Bachelors Degree in Accounting. He had some weird idea
of joining the FBI and even chose Criminal Justice as a minor.
But after graduating, Kris moved to California and instead took
up skateboarding.
After
a nine month visit he moved back to Dallas, Texas and started
working as a network engineer at Nortel. Kris briefly pursued
a MBA but lost interest in it after a couple of semesters. Kris
started flying and got his pilot’s license in 1992. He also took
up motorcycle road racing in the Central Motorcycle Racing Association
(CMRA) about that same time. He raced a couple of times at the
end of the season, just enough to get his novice license. In March
of 1993, Kris had a new bike for his first race and broke his
leg in three places. It took two surgeries over a two-year period
to get his leg back to normal.
While
he was waiting for his leg to heal, he was given an old Macintosh
that had a couple of programs (PhotoShop, Bryce, and Illustrator)
on it and since he had nothing better to do started messing around
with them. This is when he developed an interest in 3D. Soon Kris
was designing his own tee-shirt’s and selling them to earn money
to fix his bike. Kris went back to racing in 1994 and with several
of his friends, formed the endurance racing team: Team Speed.
They traveled to tracks all through the southern U.S. and Mexico
racing motorcycles. Kris explains, “This had to be some of the
best times of my life. We had a pretty good following and even
won a couple of trophies”.
In
1995 Kris was asked to endurance race with Come From Behind Racing.
They had a pretty good season and won their class championship.
Kris also won a sprint championship that year. In 1996, he had
to decide between racing and a career. While he felt that he was
pretty good, he also thought he was also pretty old to try and
be a professional racer. Kris was getting a little bored with
being an engineer, and his girlfriend at the time suggested he
go back to school. He applied at and got accepted by the Art Institute
of Dallas. He remember seeing Aladdin at the Granada Theater in
Dallas and he thought it was hilarious. Kris
also was a big Loony Tunes fan so he decided to try and animate
characters of his own. Kris notes, “I liked 3D, more than 2D.
I guess it appealed to my technical background”. Kris also confides,
“It was a little strange going to art school because I had never
picked up a pencil in my life”. Kris graduated with honors at
the end of 1997 and was awarded Most Outstanding Portfolio, mainly
based on his animated short ‘Cajun Calamity’ .
After
enduring a couple of more years as an engineer, Kris quit his
job and moved to Austin. He started working for Humancode and
published several games. He did a variety of tasks from low-poly
modeling on Mickey Saves the Day, animating animals in
Barbie’s Pet Rescue, to cinematic cut scenes on Disney’s
Dinosaur Activity Center. In 2000, Kris finished his next
animated short ‘Rabbit of the Apocalypse’ and entered it
in 3D Designs Big Kahuna contest. It was nominated for an award
in the category of Best Storytelling. In March of 2001 he volunteered
to work on the animated short ‘Major Damage’ and ended
up becoming the layout supervisor.
Plans
for the Future
Kris recently started his own animation company, Risk Studios.
It is a full service Maya shop, including rigging, modeling, dynamic
simulations, and pre-visualization. Currently he is working with
the Austin Fire Department on a public service video. He hopes
to expand on this and grow large enough to do a couple of 30 minute
made for TV specials and then go on to do a full length animated
feature. “I named the company Risk Studios, because it seems like
I am taking a big one”, explains Kris. It is also an anagram of
his first name.
Kris
is looking to go back to school and take some screenplay and film
classes, and he is in the process of writing a script. He also
has a plan for another animated short titled Seasons, starring
the rabbit, and another character he created, the Big Fat Chicken.
It's going to be a musical piece where the two characters get
into a dance-off, while the seasons change.
In
Kris’s free time he enjoys doing things outdoors. He goes mountain
biking quite a bit and snowboarding whenever he gets the chance.
He is also doing some sailing and would like to sail around the
coast of Italy.
Kris'
thoughts on production: The thing that I enjoy most about production is getting the
opportunity to work with some amazingly talented people. I’ve
been lucky and have made some good friends over the years. I also
enjoy having a finished product. There’s nothing like the feeling
of accomplishment you have when you finally get a tough project
done.
