Meet Avner Geller

Today we’d like to introduce you to Avner Geller.

Avner, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Israel, just outside of Tel Aviv. From a very young age, I was drawn to animation and comics, spending endless hours drawing and watching cartoons. At age 7, I would geek out on small things like the way the character’s mouth shapes didn’t match the dialogue (movies were dubbed in Hebrew) and would refuse to watch them until family friends would come to visit from the US and brought me the English version VHS. At one point I received a copy of The Nightmare Before Christmas, which completely rocked my ten-year-old world and it was very clear to me that animation is my path. A few years later my family took a trip to the states (I was born here and they wanted to show my sister and I where we were born). While visiting Disney World in FL, I picked up a pamphlet (more like a bunch of stapled xerox pages) with the portfolio requirements and shipping address for applications. As we returned home to the other side of the world, I put in a plastic sleeve, placed in my “important things” drawer and guarded it with my life. This was pre-internet, and in my mind, it was the most precious piece of information I could ever possess.

After graduating high school, I had to serve in the military for three years (service is mandatory in Israel) which meant putting my plans of working in Hollywood on hold. I spent all my free time and weekends in those years working on my skills, so I could be ready as soon as I was discharged, but even then I had to wait two more years as I didn’t feel ready, and had to save up a lot of money, as studies in the states were way beyond my reach. Eventually, with money for about one semester, I took the leap and moved to FL, to start my Animation studies at Ringling College of Art and design. It was the most creative and inspiring four years I could have ever hoped for. One of the reasons I chose that program was the requirement to make a short film as your thesis, which was very important to me. My graduation film “Defective Detective” (co-directed by Stevie Lewis) ended up winning the Student Academy Award for an animated short, which was an absolutely surreal experience. I interned at Pixar Animation studios out of college which led me to my first job in San Francisco shortly after, at a stop motion studio led by Henry Selick, Director of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I worked with some incredible artists who were part of the original crew of the film, and it felt like everything came full circle as I was now working with some of the people who inspired me to get into this business, to begin with.

For the past seven years, I’ve been working as a Visual Development Artist and character designer at Dreamworks Animation, where I worked on films such as Trolls, Peabody and Sherman and Penguins of Madagascar.

Has it been a smooth road?
The hardest part of this journey throughout all those years is probably the distance from home and family. It’s been 12 years now since I’ve moved and I still can’t believe so much time has passed (basically my whole adult life) I work with so many people who moved here from different countries and it seems to be a common thread among most of us. There is something strange that happens after year five of living in a different place, let alone country, where suddenly it starts to feel like home, but not quite. And the more time passes the sense of having two homes becomes stronger and stronger. It’s a feeling that comes in waves and could be distracting at times. We live in a time where working remotely is easier than ever, however working on big productions is a huge collaborative effort and I find a great value of being in the room and talking to my team on a daily basis, and being actively involved in each other’s lives. It’s hard to replace that with skype calls. For the time being, I enjoy being immersed in that environment, but my mind does wander quite often thinking about other ways to be involved in those projects while having a more flexible schedule that will allow me to explore other areas of my life, including seeing my family more often.

Tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
At some point, after working in animation I started to feel like a lot of times I find it hard to relate to the content we are working on. The animation world, and commercial feature animated films, in particular, are still in a place where they mostly tell stories with a tone catered to younger audiences (there are exceptions of course, and the landscape is changing faster than ever these days). I love the aesthetics, craft, and attention to detail that goes into those productions, but personally felt like I wanted to explore making content that is closer to where I am at in life. A few years ago while living in SF I started illustrating little vignettes based on conversations I overheard (I call them #ThingsThatiHear). I felt like those bits of conversations were an acute reflection of a moment in time and of our culture. I am fascinated by our obsession with social media, dating, adulting (all subject matters are key ingredients in plenty of conversations in LA!) and wanted to bring a new fun aesthetic, that usually might be associated with younger animated movies, to illustrations that depict situations relevant to a more mature audience. These days I am finishing up a book that compiles all of these illustrations,

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Like many others, I have a love-hate relationship with LA. I grew up in Tel Aviv, and spent four years in San Francisco, both incredible cities full of culture and super walkable (I never had a car until moving to LA). I am not gonna lie I was pretty worried about moving here, and I knew it was solely for professional reasons. LA is the hub of the animation industry; I really wanted to experience that and as I mentioned earlier, I think it’s really valuable being here especially when starting out. There’s an incredible community of artists here, which is a huge part of staying creative and inspired as well as building your professional network. I truly believe that there is nothing that can replace meeting people face to face.

That being said I think it’s really easy to get sucked into a small bubble when working in the industry which could become creatively destructive over time. I know quite a few artists who got burnt out from the grind, and there are times where I recognize hints of that feeling in myself. While It took me a couple of years to find my groove in LA, it has a huge potential to feed your creativity, as long as you embrace all it has to offer. Once you do that it’s quite an incredible city to live in. I love being outdoors, backpack and camp, and it’s so easy to get out of the city here. Another thing that really made it click for me here is the music. I love live music and I can’t think of many other places where I can go see world-class music almost every week, from the funkiest bands playing a Tuesday night show in a small venue downtown, to the biggest stadium artists. All those experiences feed right back into my daily work and projects, I feel very grateful to live in a city that has so much to offer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.avnergeller.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/avnergeller/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/avnergeller
• Other: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/579333122/things-that-i-hear?ref=delwbq

Image Credit:
Avner Geller

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