Jonathan Gibbs Wins Academy Award for Animation
What could be easier or more natural than leaves blowing in the wind? That’s the problem, actually. Getting animated objects to move naturally isn’t easy! But Jonathan Gibbs (US’90, C’94) won an Academy Award last month for doing just that.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Gibbs and his colleagues Scott Peterson and Jeff Budsberg with the 2015 Technical Achievement Award for the design and implementation of the DreamWorks Animation Foliage System. First developed for Shrek (2001), this system was used to create more than 10,000 trees and countless flowers and fields of grass. More recently, it was used for How to Train Your Dragon 2, a 2015 Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature and winner of the 2015 Golden Globe in the same category.
After graduating from Principia with a computer science major and math minor, Gibbs earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of California, Santa Cruz, specializing in computer graphics. From there, he went to DreamWorks, where he worked first on Antz (1998). “Our team forged new territory with visual effects,” Gibbs explains. “I’ve been privileged to work alongside many talented people, and we were given meaty projects and design challenges to solve—from making Donkey’s fur look and move just right in Shrek to creating a highly stylized savanna forest in Madagascar 2.”
Gibbs attributes his readiness to jump right into complex projects to his Principia education. “Principia’s small size is an advantage,” he notes. “While I certainly value my education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the much larger setting creates a siloed learning environment, where faculty and students rarely reach out beyond their own discipline. This made me really appreciate my liberal arts education at Principia. The education I received on both campuses offered a solid foundation along with many enriching opportunities beyond my core focus of computer science. I realize now, for example, that going to Europe on the Music and Art History Abroad and taking philosophy courses has helped me in my career.”
Gibbs took full advantage of what both campuses offered him. While at the College, he DJ’d and hosted a call-in show on the campus radio station (WTPC), interned at Intel, did an independent study in computer graphics, played rugby, and especially enjoyed getting involved with house activities as a part of Brooks South. At the Upper School, he took college-level math classes, played varsity football, and earned four varsity letters on the swim team. “How could I foresee that I’d someday work in the film industry [back when I was] shooting a short movie starring some of my classmates for my senior project at the Upper School?” Gibbs muses.
With DreamWorks’ recent shutdown of PDI (Pacific Data Images), where he worked, Gibbs is networking with industry professionals and looking for new opportunities. “The availability of tools to create animation has never been broader,” he comments, “but there is still a very large barrier to entry. Many of us would like to change that.”
“PDI was a special place,” he reflects. “My colleagues there are an extended family, much as it is with Principia. Now is a great time to listen for what’s next.”