British Airways interviews Jeff Pratt animation tutor

As far as cool CVs go Jeff Pratt must have one of the coolest. After studying mechanical engineering at Purdue University he headed south to Florida to work for NASA as a Space Shuttle Systems Engineer at Kennedy Space Center.

After 8 years Jeff decided animation was his thing. He quit NASA, deciding on a radical change, and went to study Graphic Design and Computer Animation.

After graduating he made the jump to Pixar, working as an animator on films such as 'Toy Story' 1 and 2, 'A Bugs Life', 'Monsters Inc'. and as modeller/rigger on 'Finding Nemo'

After taking some time off, Jeff moved into teaching Animation at Expression College just outside of San Francisco before he crossed the Atlantic to start designing and teaching our Animation courses.

Having Jeff onboard is an honour for Escape and tutors of his calibre are the standard across all of our course disciplines. As the man himself said:

If you have the passion and dedication to animate then Ill help with the rest.

http://www.escapestudios.com/en_GB/training/courses-main/animation-course.html

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• animation
• vfx
• films
• movies
• games
• studio
• interview
• pixar
• 3d
• cg
• modelling
• compositing
• showreel

[tattoobaker]

hi, I have been looking at your online maya core class. I'm just starting with maya 2010 and want to start class. I have looked at yours and Gnomon school in hollywood. don't know witch one would be better for me. Is there any videos of past students that have took the core class? thanks, Jeff Baker

[escapestudios]

Hi, thanks for enquiring about our online training.

I'm not best placed to talk about Gnomon, but I can say that our training is very different to standard DVDs through the many added functions included in our online system. I would be happy to explain more by email if you could drop a line to the training department through our website. I can also show you some examples of work recently produced by our Maya Core online students.

I hope to hear from you again soon.

Best

Joe - Escape Studios

[escapestudios]

Hi there,

Thanks for your comments - I'm sure Jeff will be delighted!

There are several webinar's with Jeff which will be taking place before Christmas. They are online, so you just listen in from home.

Jeff will be taking about the golden rules of Animation and what it takes to be a world-class animator. If you're interested in attending I can add you to the list.

Thanks,

Bethan

Escape Studios

[methywoz]

yaaaay for jeff pratt!! i'm proud to say i was a fellow student of jeff's while attending art school. VERY talented and intelligent guy! =0)

[VaderGaming]

I'm a 16 year old from London who is homeschooled. I've decided to take a turn and start learning Maya, with not a lot of money I downloaded the PLE. It's a beautiful program, Jeff Pratt is my inspiration for this, Pixar were a massive part of my childhood, I still have my Worn-Out Toy Story and A Bug's Life VHS Tapes, I would watch them every night.

I would love to meet Jeff in person and maybe get some tips, or even just to interview him.