{"id":818,"date":"2013-03-10T07:34:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-10T07:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/?p=818"},"modified":"2016-11-30T01:46:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T08:46:11","slug":"i-am-vfxpdx-susanna-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/?p=818","title":{"rendered":"I Am VFX\/PDX: Susanna Luck"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ‘I Am VFX\/PDX’ series continues with Portlander Susanna Luck, a traditionally trained artist and FX Animator who has found a home at LAIKA.\u00a0 Often times she gets the call to provide FX that, although existing in a digital world, are still created by hand.\u00a0 We’re talking frame… \u00a0 by… \u00a0\u00a0 painstaking… \u00a0\u00a0 frame.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Her evolution of\u00a0pen into a Wacom stylus is fascinating, as Susanna moved from working traditionally to digitally.\u00a0 Her unique work slots right in as the bridge between the digital VFX accents being created by machine, and the\u00a0tangible, physical, “real” world being shot on the stop-motion stages.\u00a0 Often, with a wave of her stylus, Sus<\/em>anna can take the digital edge off of an effect such as the flame from a torch – that would otherwise be generated procedurally or simulated using VFX software – and give it that human, hand-made touch sewing the digital and analog realms together.\u00a0 Her work is seen in LAIKA’s most recent animated feature, ParaNorman, and we’ll talk plenty about that, but also reflect on her formative years as an artist, and what about Portland makes her heart race.\u00a0 (other than the coffee!)<\/em><\/p>\n

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VFX\/PDX:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 In your case, Susanna, I might just have to talk current events for a moment and then work our way back, <\/em>since we’re hot off the heels of the <\/em>ParaNorman Oscar nomination just a few days ago.\u00a0 Exciting!\u00a0 I can imagine everyone is dying to hear about your recent experience on <\/em>ParaNorman at LAIKA, so let’s not keep them waiting.\u00a0 I might just have to go all the way back to…\u00a0\u00a0 yesterday?<\/em><\/p>\n

What’s a typical day like at work for you?\u00a0 Or, let’s say a typical day during <\/em>ParaNorman?<\/em><\/p>\n

Susanna:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> It would vary quite a lot from day to day.\u00a0 Sometimes I had a brief from the directors or my supervisors and I’d just be left to get on with it, which means that I’d come in to the office I was sharing with four funny, smart, incredibly talented guys, laugh a lot, get some coffee and then sit down in front of my Mac, plug in to some music or a podcast and get to work.\u00a0 Sometimes I would be scheduled for a meeting with the VFX Supervisor, who would give me feedback on something I was working on, or give me a launch on something new – which means that he’d interpret for me what he thought the directors wanted, based on his much deeper knowledge of the overall project and what we were all aiming for.\u00a0 Often there were meetings during the day where a group of us would sit in the screening room in the FX department and look at what everyone was working on and receive feedback and notes from the VFX Supervisor.<\/p>\n

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Norman and company<\/p><\/div>\n

About once or twice a week (and more frequently toward the end of the production), we’d all schlep across the street to the main building and screen the scenes for “Director Review” that week in the main screening room, and get feedback from the directors themselves. Sometimes I’d also meet separately with the directors in the smaller editorial suite and they’d give me a launch on a new scene, or notes on what I’d done so far.\u00a0 And then I would draw and draw and draw and make things look like they’re moving around.<\/p>\n