Channel Frederator Blog

Recent Ringling grad and pro animator Michael Rutter has some killer 3D animation skills (and charming OCD skills). Read on, reader!

Channel Frederator: What (or who) has influenced your style the most?

Michael Rutter: I suppose the most evident when watching my film would be the Goofy “How to…” shorts, or Wile E. Coyote cartoons. Both of them had a real knack for taking a simple premise and really exploring the possibilities…allowing an otherwise mundane situation to escalate into something truly ridiculous. As for the visual style, I felt this character was a pretty “inside the lines” kind of guy. The strong sense of solidity and geometry in the 1950s/60s decor seemed most supportive of that.

CF: Where did you get the idea for your film “On the Level”?

MR: Sadly, from myself. I was hanging pictures one day, meticulously placing a nail in each of the upper corners so as to prevent them from tilting. Something about the intensity with which I met that challenge just seemed utterly pathetic to me.

CF: What was the most difficult part about making it?

MR: Micromanaging my progress on each shot simultaneously. I would bounce around from shot to shot, trying to keep them all on pace with each other, but it was like fighting a losing battle. Most times, if I set a shot aside to work on all the others, it would be about a month before I could work my way back to that first shot again.

CF: You just graduated from Ringling. What are you up to these days?

MR: I’m currently a Jr. Animation TD at Rhythm and Hues.

CF: Are you OCD about anything in particular?

MR: I’ll straighten out the magazines when I go to the doctor’s office. And I count the number of periods in my ellipsis when I type…..it always has to be an odd number………sad.

Thanks for the interview, Michael!

You can watch “On the Level” right here on Channel Frederator………..

-Bailee DesRocher