By Carol Badaracco Padgett
At the end of last week and into the weekend, the Midtown Atlanta campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) hosted its scheduled AnimationFest educational sessions and panels, creatively dodging the weather to keep attendees safe from the rain and winds of Hurricane Helene.
In a schedule-adjusted Saturday afternoon keynote address at SCADShow by legendary Russian-American animator and writer Genndy Tartakovsky, animation students, filmmakers and animators, and the creative community in attendance sat riveted. Tartakovsky shared his journey into a career in animation and provided personal early sketches, animations, and short animated film sequences with attendees. Showcasing his early, rough drawings of characters for animated series “Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Samurai Jack,” and others, Tartakovsky allowed those attending to glimpse inside the serendipitous windings of a creative career path.
One example: Tartakovsky was originally an advertising major at Columbia College Chicago. But a happenchance selection of an elective led him into his first animation class. “I smelled the paper when I walked into the classroom, looked around [at everything], and immediately changed my major to film and TV – animation,” he said of his love-at-first-sight formative career experience.Another nostalgic jewel of wisdom from Tartakovsky, “The line between success or failure is a conversation.” In the early days leading into his career, for instance, he was accepted at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Santa Clarita, California, armed with a scholarship to study animation. Upon arrival, his funding promptly fell through. As he told another student about what had happened and that he had no place to turn, the student said, “Go talk to the head of the department and tell him.” So Tartakovsky did, and he shared the result of that conversation. “The head of the department listened, said ‘yes’ you can stay, and then funded my whole education right there.”
The legendary animator added, “What would’ve happened if that guy hadn’t told me to go talk to the head of the department?” And greater still: what if Tartakovsky hadn’t listened and given it a shot?
Relationships, connections, creative collaborations, and skin tough enough to take criticism and rejection — these are all critical components of what it takes to reach an exceptional long-term creative career, according to Tartakovsky as he candidly shared personal experiences and insights with the packed SCADShow main stage.
Prior to the keynote address, SCAD AnimationFest honored Tartakovsky, a five-time Emmy winner, with the SCAD AnimationFest Award of Excellence.
Find the full, weather-revised schedule of sessions, panels, and screenings from this year’s SCAD AnimationFest here.
