Yvette Kaplan has worked in the Animation Industry for over twenty years as a Director, Producer, Story Consultant, Writer, Animator and Character Designer. She has creatively guided and supervised TV series as well as feature development and all aspects of production including pre and post in both 2D and CGI.
Yvette’s career highlights include: Head of Story on Blue Sky Studios’ full length hit CG Feature “Ice Age” for 20th Century Fox; Director at Film Roman on Fox TV’s “King of the Hill”; Co-Director on MTV/Paramount Pictures Feature “Beavis and Butthead Do America” as well as being Supervising Director on the “Beavis and Butthead” MTV series, Director on the Nickelodeon series “Doug”; Direction and Development of the Emmy-winning pilot for WNET’s “Cyberchase’ series; Creative Consultant on Scholastic Films “Magic Schoolbus” series for PBS and Director/ Producer of “ArthurÕs Missing Pal”, a CGI DTV Feature version of the long running PBS series. Writing credits include Fox Kids “Viva Pinata,” Klasky-Csupo’s “Twinkle,” Disney TV’s “Fish Hooks,” additional written material on “Arthur’s Missing Pal,” as well as numerous series development bibles and story notes on screenplays for clients including /Disney DTV, Lions Gate Films and Channel Thirteen.
Full Bio: http://yvettekaplan.net/bio.html
CTAN 522 Animation Seminar Fall 2016 
I really appreciated Yvette’s stories throughout her career working in the Animation industry. Yvette has shed light on the magnitude of how large animation has become at a global scale. As a student, I was a bit disappointed and discouraged to find out that some studios CGI/ animation is created outside of their studio. Despite this news, Yvette emphasized the message of showing the character’s heart on screen to convey the emotion to the audience. One advice that I really took to hear was to be open to all the opportunities that re thrown our way. Even if it’s a skill set you don’t normally know do it anyways because you might discover something about yourself. There will be times when a job will be offered that might not be something you normally do. It’s ok to say no, but be opened to it and try it out first.
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Yvette’s animation industry experience is so charming,she really directed so many good films, series,and shows!!! It is hard to image that how could they made a film without animatic! I believe that is also one reason why she says that today is the best time for animation. I am inspired by her answer of how to built the character and her feeling of the Disney’ character which we perhaps reckon they have so similar shape and design. She points out that the soul is the most important thing for building the character, and showing how and what the character’s think is is the way to do that. No matter what situation the character is,he/she always be him/herself and which will perfectly reflect their personality. And she says that even the Disney’ character, butch of princes and princesses, truly have the similar body,but the personality of them and the story make they to be different individual and always own their own history and story. Further mote. During whole the seminar, she always emphasize the story and the plot. I believe that is so significant. And the characters’ action, reaction and all the decisions they made will help the story to be smoothly and interestingly told.
Really Learning many from that night! Thanks!
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It was quite interesting to hear Yvette talk about her experiences in the industry and really reflect that in her work. To almost have equal experiences working on both children cartoons as well as adult animation surely provided unique insightful approaches to her work. A little to my surprise that the artists would be in almost completely opposite position while working on different projects, the fact that adult animation would be focusing on the story and the gag a lot more than the animation itself made them almost share a similar style of story-flow, while the children animation would be much more similar action and timing wise. This really did remind me of while I was interning in New York last year for a studio that as well made adult animation, how we followed closely to the script and coordinated with the writers to make most of the changes. I don’t dislike the fact that working in the industry is more of cooperating with other people than just applying your own ideas,I believe to “create and show a heart for characters” would be the aim for all the animators working on all sorts of different shows, and I really appreciate how Yvette mentioned this simple goal that sometimes is easily forgettable.
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Yvette Kaplan is such an experienced animation director. It’s impressive to watch her go through the films she had worked on. There’re a lot of them! And they are not just any shows; they are all high quality TV shows no matter for the adult or the children. I can see she really cares and love the characters she created. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why those shows are successful. It also fit her attitude to her works while pitching, always believe in yourself first, and you can convince other people that you have great works.
It’s a little bit sad to hear she said that the glass ceiling for her is the age and she talks too much, because those two parts shouldn’t be issues. People in aged have more experienced, they should be more valuable in the industry. And the talking part is, if you don’t talk to people, how do you convince other people? How can you be a great director?
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It’s all about characters, layers, and heart. Yvette Kaplan perfectly summed up the reason why I was initially drawn to animation in the first place. That moment in Ice Age where Manny remembers his tragic story is the single most impactful sequence in the whole film. Watching it again on Wednesday brought back so many memories and feelings. While CG animation, texturing, rendering and lighting have all progressed wildly since this production, story, and characters have not. This sequence really stands the test of time. I found her advice on creating heart to be extremely helpful and interesting. In order to create unforgettable characters they must be unique, allowed to be themselves, the audience must see them think, and the director should pause on them, stop everything and let the characters come to decisions in their own time. There is so much value in a good close up or character reaction shots. If you can’t see what the character is thinking then it’s always good to see what the other characters think about them.
It was so wonderful to have her come and chat with us this week. Her discussion was a treasure trove of insider information and phenomenal pro tips. Yvette’s career may be eclectic and varied, but her commitment to characters has been a common thread through it all. (I’ll never watch Beavis and Butthead the same again.)
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I absolutely love Yvette’s utter dedication to portraying the heart and soul of her characters. I think it’s the mark of a true storyteller, and it’s something that I think is sorely lacking in many of today’s films, both animated and live action. After the seminar, we had a little bit of a discussion on why that’s the case, and I think that it’s largely due to who get’s to be in charge of the film. On the first Ice Age, the studio executives gave a lot of control to the artists/storytellers. This makes sense if you want to create a quality film. Telling engaging stories is what they do for a living and they’re good at it. Because of that great storytelling, they made a wildly successful film. Unfortunately, this was both good and bad. Because of the film’s success, the studio executives now saw it as a source of revenue, and so they took more control in the creative process on subsequent Ice Age films. These studio executives are nor storytellers, and so the films fail to tell truly good stories. As long as studios continue to fail to trust that the storytellers they hire know what they’re doing, success is always going to be a double-edged sword for animators.
All that said, Yvette Kaplan’s fantastic personality and positive outlook still confirm my suspicions that I’ve chosen the right line of work for myself. I have a feeling that I’m not the only one that was similarly inspired.
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I LOVE Yvette’s presentation a lot and all of her works . She is such a good storyteller and every character she created has strong personality and the most important thing is , they have soul. Every one can tell a story can make jokes but not everyone can make their character alive and believable. I alsolutely love the movie Ice Age, Yvette has only been involved in the first Ice Age movie and it was a big success . Even we all know the the later series of movie were not as good as the first one, but we still love to watch it. Because the characters has already been built in the first one , and that all thanks to Yvette.
It was wonderful to have her come here and chat with us ,she inspired me a lot !
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One of the things that stand up right away about Yvette Kaplan is her incredible versatility to work in a wide range of project. From prime time animations to kids shows, that variety bounds all together by Yvette’s particular approach to story as the core and the imprint of herself in all the animation projects she has worked on. This personal approach was notably evident as she told us with detail how, as a head of story in Ice Age, she got to transform one dull and disconnected scene in a memorable sequence appealing to the most humane parts in the character, as she did as her very beginning in Doug and she keeps doing nowadays.
Also, I really appreciated Yvette’s insight about how prime time animation and kid’s animation production differs from each other. During all the conference I was connecting dots in my head. When one understand that prime time animation relies more on writing than in any other part of the production process, the decisions behind the drawing style, the character design and the puns and situations become clearly evident. In the same line, as she explained how in kids animation, often the production was driven by the drawers and story boarders I started to visualize in my head how the graphical jokes, drawing and very specifically, animation style where evidence of the pipeline process.
Finally, the thing that interested me more about Yvette Kaplan conference was her particular insight about the studio environment as a woman. Yvette has been working for more than 20 years in positions of responsibility and power in an industry historically controlled by men (In history of animation we’ve only seen one woman animator until now and we already covered more than 30 years of animation). Though Yvette expressed she didn’t feel much sexism in her work, I dare to think that that is probably because of her open and decided personality, more than generalized situation. As the conversation steered to the studio environment relating the gender gap and women representation in animation, I started to think that the character representation in cinema is deeply ingrained with women quota in the high levels of productions. As more women work in decision making positions in studio, more well-rounded and less stereotypical are the female characters we find on the screen (And I’d say all the characters and situations in general). Likewise, when Yvette expressed that she felt that the gender gap wasn’t as big as the age gap, I thought that actually there is not much representation of older characters in animation, and I don’t mean elder people precisely, just not teenager and people beyond their twenties. Curiously, ones of the very few shows I’ve seen that have non stereotypical adult characters are Clearance and Steven Universe (Clearance’s mother has a boyfriend and appear as a whole character that interacts with Steven besides the “orders” and “caring” role, and Steven father is a totally independent character with hobbies and episodes devoted entirely to himself). The first one, a show where Yvette has power of decision and the second one, a show she admires. I think that as studios demographic changes and get more diverse, will see characters and situations more well-rounded and more humanely developed.
Having Yvette this week was very amazing and, as all the weeks with Seminar, I felt immensely grateful that we are having the opportunity to hear these great artists that come with such generosity.
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^^^ Amen to having more women and people with diverse backgrounds represented in writer’s rooms . ^^^ It’s tragic to learn that ageism pervades the animation industry as it is a grim foretelling of what we, as young animators, could face if we don’t work to change the perception. Fighting ageism benefits everyone in the long-run.
On the subject of age, I thought it was interesting to learn that artists have most control on children’s television whereas writers have most control on adults’ programming. This is a good thing to keep in mind moving forward. It was also helpful to consider how valuable it can be to pursue the credits you’ve worked for– doing so allows for flexibility should you desire a career shift in the entertainment industry. I felt very satisfied to learn that the team of Bojack Horseman ( a show I love very, very dearly) is unique in the way they offset the balance. I really loved Yvette’s lecture. It was such a treat to learn about the relationship she felt with her characters. I love that she felt like a mother to Beavis and Butthead! I could definitely see how those feelings of fondness imbued the scene she directed.
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I really appreciated that Yvette gave us a wonderful and memorable talk at night. She brought up so many significant ideas about how to conceptualize characters and direct stories. From her presentation, I can deeply understand how she is able to tackle with diverse genres of topics and forms in different animations because of sensitive heart, outstanding observation and trustworthy tone in describing things. She was really born to be a storyteller! And I love to see how she cherish and embrace each character as her children she creates! If you cannot convince yourself with your own creations you will not be able to convince others and audiences. Also, I admired her courage in diving into animation world from 2D to CGI since people always afraid of stepping out from comfortable zone. However, in her case, she has very positive attitude towards unfamiliar conditions and at the same time deal with the situation with her talent and wisdom.
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‘Beavis and Butthead Do America’ was always one of my favorite films growing up. It was one of the only films that I didn’t distinguish as animation, but instead regarded as a live action feature. When Yvette said that she always wanted to create a character like ‘Bojack Horsemen’ who an audience sympathizes with and wonders what’s next I thought; you already directed two of them. And in my opinion ‘Beavis and Butthead’ will stand the test of time far longer that Bojack will be remembered. Partly because we’re completely saturated with raunchy adult animated comedies making anything following the same structure lesser and lesser important, and partly because ‘Beavis and Butthead’ were the first really inappropriate, sexually explicit, wonderfully offensive and downright fantastic characters to breach the tight anus of the FCC. Nobody will ever be able to capture the hearts and minds of teenagers across America in the same way. Yvette’s humor is something that greatly changed the course of television forever and I still can’t believe we had her there talking to us and answering our film school questions.
Thank you Yvette Kaplan for the unique humor you so awesomely bestowed upon my teenage brain. It definitely changed my parent’s perceptions about my art…LOL…and also how I view the world today.
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Beautifully written.
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“I’ve been described as a Phoenix rising out of the ashes – I keep coming back with more ideas.” –Yvette Kaplan
I love that Yvette opened her presentation with this powerful statement. She may have delivered it in a humorous tone, however (much like her comedic animations), that did not lessen its impact. Not that she doesn’t feel the effects of the gender bias and ageism she spoke about, but to me, her statement proves her spirit beautifully transcends the glass ceiling. Yvette emphasized the importance of imbuing characters with “soul” that the audience can connect to, and I think the most significant step in being able to do that successfully as a writer, animator, or any other kind of creator is connecting with your own soul. It’s evident Yvette’s got soul (and plenty of it), that shined through her personality, presentation, and her work. I admire her for being true to herself in trailblazing her own unique path in the animation world.
The big takeaway I got from Yvette was the value of finding the heart in humor. Humor, outside of being entertaining and just plain fun, can hold an incredible amount of depth and meaning. Knowing when and how to tap into the dimensions of farce, when a story can become the most alive and real when communicated comedically, creates opportunities for magic moments and revelations to happen. This is a skill I’d love to develop more.
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Yvette Kaplan was part of some of the most inspirational animated shows of my childhood. Doug was jam growing up! I remember Doug was the one of two television shows (the other being Kim Possible) that I would binge watch whenever I went over to a friend’s house, or the few times I was allowed to watch TV in my own home. The comedic brilliance and heartfelt moments from Yvette Kaplan led the first Ice Age to success and thus paved the way for millions of Ice Age sequels.
It’s discouraging to hear ageism is prevalent in the animation industry and society in general, because no one has talked about it. How many other glass ceilings exist that are not even on people’s radar until the obstacles are already upon them?
Something that shocked me was how small the international animation industry is, though many separate industries exist in distant countries across the globe. Yvette’s cool demeanor when she discussed working with people all over the world for her show Zack and Quack, really seemed to illustrate how accessible the world becomes with technology.
Props to the person who asked Yvette how to fill characters with soul! A great question that lead to an informative answer. To create memorable soulful character Yvette says allow the character to think by letting audiences see the registration of an emotion on the character’s face. It’s so important in an era of quick cuts and fast actions not to forget the moments of calm. Yvette had so much great information to share, and I am excited to attend MIP CON in future years!
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I thought it was interesting how Yvette jumps around from children to adult themed shows. I think it does help keep freshness and interest in work. It is apparent that she feels most connected with Doug and Beavis and Butthead. Even though Beavis and Butthead could get pretty ridiculous she saw herself as their mother. My favorite of the seminar is when Yvette dissects what a successful show needs. How it is important to create characters with personality and history so the audience cares to follow the growth of the character. She said a useful technique is giving time to show the character thinking. I find that rare in animated shows nowadays; since shows are becoming shorter and shorter in length they often don’t leave breathing room for the audience to process the action. Personally I didn’t feel connected to cartoon shows growing up; probably it’s because I felt a lack of reliability. Animated or live action, I think it is important to have layers of personality in a character. I also appreciate Yvette giving a candid insight of the animation industry. Most people wouldn’t go deep into talking about shows being sent oversees but I find it important to understand the infrastructure of the industry. Yvette is an inspirational animator and I hope to see her own show later on in the future.
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Yvette Kaplan’s experience across genres, from Disney shows aimed at children to MTV’s teen-oriented “Beavis and Butthead”, provided valuable insight into the variations that exist between distinct segments of the animation industry. It was particularly interesting to hear about the differences between being a member of an artist-driven children’s show, versus working as an animator in the realm of writer-dominated adult cartoons. The valuable insight from industry professionals like Yvette provides someone like me, an artist primarily interested in the commercial sphere of animation, with realistic expectations of future work environments.
Ultimately, however, what will stick in my mind is Yvette’s advice: to say “yes” whenever possible, to understand the business aspect of the animation industry in order to maximize one’s opportunities, and to stay focused in order to excel and thus become an expert in one’s craft.
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So Yvette Kaplan has a lot of experience under her belt, as one may be able to guess by looking at her filmography. What surprised me were the various animations she worked on that I have/had become familiar with over the years. There was of course Doug, a show I had watched during my early childhood, and Futurama, another show that I grew up with over the years. Perhaps of most interest to me was her direction under Beavis and Butt-head. This show, was and still is, truly awesome. Its humor helped to guide future comedies to come. Although I don’t think I’m quite as edgy in my animations’ stories, I would not doubt that it has some sort of influenced on my sense of humor. That she directed Beavis and Butt-head, Futurama, and Doug truly shows not only her wide range of talents but that the animation industry as a whole seems to allow a degree of flexibility that I did not realize before.
As an aside, Ice Age had a certain charm to it, one that as Yvette puts it has “heart”. Its sequels seemed to be unwatchable messes, and it goes to show that without having something (like heart) to glue the plot together, feature films filled only with gags are relegated to the trash bin of animation history. Cheers to Yvette for trying to tell a story rather than simply gags.
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I really admire artists with good sense of humor. Yvette is one of those. She successfully expresses all the fun into her works. In my opinion, no matter which target audience for the show, everyone could uses some good laughs. Yvette had perfectly nailed that thought. It is really impressive to see the way she managed to work on many different styles and genre, from children cartoon like Dough to adult cartoon like Beavis and Butthead and to Ice Age on the big screen. Personally, I also work on character animation and storytelling. I enjoy adding good laughs into my works as much as I can. Seeing Yvette’s works really inspire and motivate me to keep exploring and having fun in this direction. I love how she was able to add some comedic elements into those works and make them even more valuable.
She said she wanted to create characters with hearts that make the audience really feel like they’re actually existed. For me this is a very wonderful thought, which I think she had already succeeded doing that in her shows.
I love her attitude as a director and an artist about being opened, take chances and not afraid. Thank you for the wonderful lecture Yvette, It was a great night.
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Yvette’s presentation was very inspiring and informative. As I like to be a story artist I got really valuable information from her speech. I was familiar with her work from Beaves and BUtthead. I think she had a wonderful eye for directing and I must admit that I liked her work in ice age better than her other works. I consider her personality as one of the elements that fit her for a directorial or story job. Her explanation about the show that she created abroad and the pitching process was useful for me. I had a talk at the end of the session with her that was extremely helpful for me. She was very kind and welcoming.
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It was very inspiring to hear Yvette Kaplan’s presentation. She has clover and well directed view of producing, and it was very excited to hear her experience and works in her animation field.
It was good to hear that she almost never hasn’t felt any gender discrimination in her whole career. I think she didn’t because she has a power and great ability as a producer. Also it is very respectful that she is the head of the story, and especially she does the comedy part. In Japan we have a lot of discriminations, and especially we have strong gender and age discriminations. I didn’t notice them when I lived in Japan, but after I started to live and know the culture of U.S. when I was 13, I realized we have very strong gender and age discriminations there. Women would be able to work as animator or producers, but they wouldn’t get hired as director or story writer, or story artist.
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Thanks for Yvette’s presentation. Yvette has held an incredibly diversified career in the animation business that has spanned from character design on network specials to director on groundbreaking comedies. Personally I admired the versatility of Yvette’s work, from something pure like Doug to something grotesque like Beavis & Butthead. She has great passion to storytelling, and she truly has the skill and talent in animation. I really love hearing from directors, producers, and writers who actually have had creative animation experience such as character design. There is a whole different perspective regarding approach and understanding the reasons behind key decisions in a production when you can actually see it before it shows itself. Thanks Yvette for the great presentation.
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I really enjoyed Yvette’s presentation. It’s like having a good conversation of her awesome stories, not just one person giving a lecture.
As a student who tries to pursue my career as story artist, I often meet a difficulty of covering different genres. When I watched her reel and listened her stories, I have full respect on her ability of dealing with many different types of work, from comic to drama, kids to adult. That’s really amazing. The part in ice age is a great example of what she talked – showing the character’s thought and heart. The sequence works beautifully.
Listening of ageism quite surprised me because that is something that I’ve never thought about before. I really do hope all the discrimination in this industry or wider area disappear soon.
After seminar, I thought myself that the most important matter is always how to deliver the story well not a technique itself. Thank you so much for the great inspiration, Yvette!!
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Yvette Kaplan is a cheerful outgoing and sunshine person.Not only when we talk to her, but also we can feel her characteristic in her animation works. I was so exciting when I watch her works. Actually, I am a big fun of Ice Age. I watched this movie over and over again. And each time I watch this movie always can make me laugh. I like all the character design in this movie, all of them has their own unique characteristic. So I love her works very much. She is an amazing character. And thanks for sharing.
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Doing animation is not an easy thing. At most time, we can only see the top layer of the work which is the final released edition. However, Yvette’s presentation leads us to the behind of the scene, to see what a good story was told and amazing characters were made. I really love the ice age part because it really clears that how a animation scene was made. Even at the beginning, the story was quite different and still got problems in it. The speaker showed us how she made changes and why she made them, to illustrate that a string of thinking. Making people laugh is not easy, and make them think after the laughter is even harder. Yvette makes that perfectly. For me, I am also trying to figure out how to create laughter and real humor, not low level funny but the fun that people can taste for good. I think her presentation helps me make a progress. Thank you!
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I think what I enjoyed the most from listening to Yvette was her insight on pitches. I feel like I got more answers about the pitch process. I really enjoyed her talk about her experience working on Doug, Bevis and Butthead, and Ice Age. It was really encouraging that when she saw something wrong with the story or just felt that some things needed a push or some tweaking, she was not afraid to give her input and opinion. Although, it is a little sad to hear that now that is beginning to change a little depending on what studio you are working with. I wish we spent a little more time talking about the business of the animation industry. I still feel like I’m left in the dark as far as what the artist owns and how much the studio owns once the show is picked up. But in all, I really enjoyed her visit to seminar. I really appreciate her range in comedy and audience she is targeting. I feel that same trait with her because I too love the cute children’s shows and would like to pitch one some day, but I also enjoy adult or mature humor. She was a pleasure to listen to and very inspirational 🙂
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Hi Espy- you might find this article useful. It explains copyright including “Work for Hire” issues.
http://www.rubberonion.com/copyright-and-what-animators-need-to-know-about-it-parody-fair-use-fan-art/
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I find Yvette’s viewpoints and experiences very valuable and I appreciate her strong personality. I was surprised to find how differently artists, writers, and directors are treated while working in feature film versus television series. It seems that in features, the film direction is heavily influenced by the artists and the whole process is very visual with many storyboards and art layouts and create the story. In tv series production, the writers have more control over the story layout. After hearing this, I felt like there was so much subtle interactions and relationships that happen in the industry work environment I am still clueless about. Yvette mentioned her feeling that age became a limiting factor for her as she continued through her career. I was so shocked to find this to be true; I thought that people who have been in the industry for longer and are older would be more respected than the younger generation. I feel there is a lot more I need to research and understand about the industry dynamic before I fully understand how it is working at a large company.
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incredible artist Yvette. I was really enjoying to listen her experience on wonderful works such as Ice Age. Even though I have watched the animation many times ,I feel differently about it after I see her and hear back ground stories from her. Also, she inspires me to think myself as a young female artist. There will be hard time in working as a women. Then How, in What way I want to solve the issue. it will not work well if I raise my voice to push my opinion which I tend to do a lot. is it because I am a woman ? I think it is simply how people communicate efficiently. I thought I should learn how to suggest my opinion to others. I think this is one of qualities that we should have.
Also, I was surprised the range of her work . she worked in different type of style such as comedy, drama, and humanism. I wonder how she can be such a talented artist in expression of emotion.
Not only expressing but also sharing.
She made me bring the time that I also wanted to share my thought with others. I want my works to be understand or connected with people and make them laugh, and cry.
It was pleasure to listen her presentation!. Thank you!
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Yvette’s lecture was a wealth of information, especially about the industry. It is nice to see someone who knew about primetime tv, children programming and feature all together. It somewhat saddens me that Yvette isn’t directing a movie, because she to me seems to be someone who really knows how to make amazing animation. She’s a director, producer, writer – it’s amazing! It is definitely inspiring to see such a prominent female artist in these roles. I wish I could listen to Yvette talk for hours and hours about all that she knows about animation, her experiences and her knowledge on story/humor.
I really enjoyed the moment’s Yvette would talk about explaining her break through, or things in stories she fought for. The ice age scene was a great example, to me, how important visual artists are in the story telling process. I am a huge fan of just about everything Yvette has touches, so it was amazing to hear about how Porkchop from doug was a character that visual artists often had complete control over, or what working with Mike Judge was like, or even her early days with Beavis and Butt-Head. I also loved all the animations that Yvette is a fan of, I think she mentioned Steven Universe and Bojack Horseman few times which I am obsessed with!
That thing that bothered me a little, was how little input story artists seem to have these days compared to how they used to. Show runners for prime time are still predominately male, so to me it was a bit disappointing that someone who worked alongside Mike Judge as a co-director doesn’t have her own show and is even not given the right to offer her amazing insight. It worries me about the subliminal politics of animation, and how much or little the industry has really changed. Are men now the show runners and writers, and women moved from ink and paint to roles like production? In the case of Yvette I think it proves that one can blaze a trail for themselves. Yvette mentioned that she felt age was a huge factor of prejudice in the industry, and I personally know Hollywood has had a long history of shelving women after a certain age. Yet Yvette is making her own shows, and having huge success along the way. I think it goes to show that even if there is some prejudice one can still overcome and enjoy great success.
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What a wonderful and informative presentation today! Yvette Kaplan is such an experienced director. One of the things that stand up and resonated me most tonight is her attitude of creating characters. While in 3D animated feature, animation, modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering have all developed, however, story and characters are still the key elements. Yvette mentioned that characters must be unique, allowed to be themselves, so that audience cares about the growth and change of the character.
Another thing that stands out is the variety of her works, she works both on 2D and CGI. Looking forward to see her work on big screen in the future!
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“Ice Age” is one of my favorite animation feature films, in particular, the story is very attractive to me. as an audience, I always pay attention to the humorous story, rather than the CG technology. Yvette Kaplan is a very good story artist, I think it is my personal pursuit. From “Beavis and Butthead” to “Ice Age”, the media and style has great changes, but the only constant is a good story. I think she had told the secrets of good story in the lecture , the importance is the role of emotion and personality, if the audience can feel the emotion and love of them personality, it will be a success story. Of course, in addition to story skills, communication skills is also an essential quality of professional animation, how to communicate with others, better cooperation, but also in the career of an important skill.
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I really appreciate Yvette giving us such a wonderful speech, especially her career in animation industry. The experience worked in both animation show and kid show gave her lots of inspiration. She told us to be open, because you don’t know what’s coming and you have nothing to lose. What surprised me is that her variety in the works, which are both 2D and CGI. And she was really good at expressing the emotions in each works. Looking forward to seeing her fur works!!
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It was such a pleasure to meet Yvette and listen to her presentation. One of my favorite aspects of her lecture was how she basically just chatted with us, let us ask questions, and talked as if we were all a dinner party. She has such a wealth of knowledge in terms of this industry, doing pitches, and how it all works. It was a shame to hear how certain shows limit the amount of say the board artists get, and that a lot of it is in favor of the writer. It also was interesting when she brought up ageism in this industry, which is a topic that I don’t think people address much at all. It certainly can be a young persons game in this field, when you’re more willing to throw in long hours (because you’re able to stay up that long & bounce back after, or you don’t have a family yet to take care of, etc etc.) It would be interesting to discuss this further, and what we might be able to do about it.
I like how Yvette is constantly working on projects and is passionate about what she does and creates. I loved how Beavis & Butthead were like her ‘kids’ – I think that really shows in the work itself when you love them that much. I’m looking forward to keeping up with what she does and to hopefully see her in person again down the line!
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Yvette gave us a wonderful night that she shared a lot of helpful experiences to us. I really admire people who has passion on their works. She showed her passion and she is a talented artist who understand how to create a story and characters in appropriate way. I learned that if I wanna create a character, I should let the character to be themselves, I should understand each different character has unique personality, they need to be unique. Thanks Yvette for this presentation!
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