My name is Kenny Greenblatt. I didn’t know I wanted to be an animator until I entered college, but I knew for as long as I could remember that I wanted to make images move. My first real taste of animation was when I was in middle school and joined an afterschool program at the Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (IMACS). I worked in a program called Microworlds where I would draw tiny pixelated images and was able to code a sprite to run through the images while moving across the screen. Even then I didn’t know what I was doing was animation, but it set the tone for my interest in computers and animation to this day.
I graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BA in Visual Language, which was the study of storytelling through computer animation, images, and character creation. After Visual Language I attended the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy studying video game design. Working on a student film in college let me understand the production pipeline for rendering, compositing, and animation, but FIEA gave me an understanding of a very different kind of pipeline. My time at FIEA focused on concentration in animation & motion capture, which required a completely different set of skills. I was no longer simply animating, I was working with environmental artists, producers, programmers, and making sure my animations worked in the game engine. Both experiences showed me the vast differences required for production of film and production of games.
I enjoy what I do immensely. I like having creative freedom when working with hand key animation, but I also enjoy working with teams, leads, and having my peers lend an eye and a helping hand so I can always improve what I’m working on. I can’t see myself doing anything else; I take great joy in bringing life to 3D models, taking them from polygons to moving personalities.