DANIEL DERCKSEN SHARES A FEW THOUGHS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN ANIMATOR DAN BARKER, WHO WAS ONE OF THE ANIMATORS ON 'HORTON HEARS A WHO!'
An online course in animation turned the childhood dreams of South African animator Dan Barker into big screen reality when he was selected as one of the animator's on Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! the latest CG animated feature from 20th Century Fox Animation, the makers of the "Ice Age" films.
The 28-year-old animator was born and raised in South Africa and completed his first animation at the age of ten. After finishing his schooling he embarked into 2D and 3D animation for local post production facilities, such as AnimMate, Ministry of Illusion and The Refinery. He also worked on various advertising campaigns for prominent brands such as KFC's Chicky and Vodacom's meerkat. Barker then moved to the US to develop his passion for animation and completed an animation course through Animation Mentor.
New York's acclaimed animation company, Blue Sky Studios, took on Barker as a temporary animator for HORTON, where he animated crowd cycles for some of the film's sequences. He went on to full animation, animating most of the main characters for a number of shots for different sequences leading to him being one of the eight animators that worked on the "Whoville" intro sequence - a spectacular scene which introduces audiences to the "Who's" in "Whoville".

WHY DID YOU VENTURE INTO ANIMATION?
It's something I've always wanted to do. When I was a 10-year-old-kid I did my first animation in primary school. I did not know how animation worked but just drew pictures on paper and then filmed it; eventually my dad knew someone who could speed up the animation. I fell in love with the concept of bringing characters to life.

WHERE DO YOU THINK THAT DESIRE CAME FROM?
I loved drawing and art. It was something I was good at. Drawing was something I could always do really well. I loved all the television shows I grew up watching - Thunder cats Gummi Bears - I always wanted to be a part of it.  When I was thirteen, when Aladdin and The Lion King came out, I definitely knew that that was what I wanted to do.   

IS THAT YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO?
I told my friends when I was seven or eight that I wanted to be an animator. One of my friends asked me what I would fall back on if I did not become an animator? That was the first time I've ever heard the phrase 'fall back on', because it never occurred to me that I wouldn't become an animator.

WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT ANIMATION?
The most exciting part, every animator has this thrill, once you have completed your shot, when you look at the animation and show it to people, they see the characters come to life. The rush of actually breathing life into drawings  - or 3-D models, claymation - seeing your creation come alive, get to breath life into characters. That is such a rush. It is such a long process, there's a rush at the end when you've contributed to another shot. Working, and the audience responding to it, that's the best. When you are trying to be funny and the audience gets the joke. What you intended to do, and the audience understands, that's the most satisfying thing. 

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED AS AN ANIMATOR ON 'HORTON HEARS A WHO'?
I took an online course in animation presented by animators from all over the world who would be animating their films during the day, and teach at night. The course was good because it gave me an opportunity to go to the States, where I could change gears from being a South African animator to an American animator; they are ten times more specialised and focused. It made me realise where I was going wrong as an animator. When I was in the States I was referred to Blue Sky studios who contacted me an offered me a job. It was really lucky, actually, going from online to the big screen was just meeting the right people at the right time. Luckily I was doing well in the course, and the timing was right for me.

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES ANIMATING 'HORTON HEARS A WHO'?
Every single shot was a challenge. Being my first feature film; when we got hired there were a whole lot of animators onboard. When I was hired and at the end of the tunnel, 35 guys were brought in on top of me to help finish the film - there were 70 animators total, about 35 of us were brought in. There were huge deadlines; I worked on big deadlines in South Africa and understood how to deal with pressure. The challenge was to maintain the high calibre of animation within a tight schedule.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTER IN 'HORTON HEARS A WHO' AND WHY?
The Mayor (of Whoville). There was a lot of control in the rig,and  he was animated in a very cartoony way

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN A FAN OF DR, SEUSS?
I have. I remember watching Chuck Jones' 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas?' and his version of 'Horton Hears a Who?' as a kid. Coming to work on this film was particularly inspiring because I not only contributed as an animator but we spent a lot of time getting Dr. Seuss right. I was proud to be a part of that.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE ANIMATED FILM?
I have to say that I have three; they are films that I can put on and watch, stop, and watch again straight away. First it would be The Lion King (the African theme and story), The Incredibles (the human characters, because it's the hardest to animate and was one of the first CG films completely driven by mainly human characters); and Horton Hears A Who from animation point of view because it's probably the best animation I've seen without a doubt, the animators pushed themselves past what has been done before.

WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION?
Everywhere. Definitely looking at other animated films like The Lion King and The Incredibles.  As an animator you are always aware of how people in real life act and behave; you must be able to describe and illustrate that with your animation. I find a lot of inspiration just around me.

WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES A GREAT ANIMATOR?
Patience is definitely one aspect; you can spend a week of your life generating 2 seconds of animation. You need to be open to criticism; if you spend so much time to animate a character that you want it to be perfect and need to be able to handle criticism.

WHY DO YOU THINK ANIMATION IS SUCH A POTENT MEDIUM?
Animation appeals to all ages. Generally growing up you think animation is pretty much targeted towards kids; which I know a lot studio's do definitely do, but it's a medium in which, given the way you do your story, you can get to all audiences.  There are a lot of things you can achieve in animation that you can't necessarily achieve in camera or with live action, and that's what it makes it quite potent. You are only restricted by what you can imagine with animation, that's your limitation. If you can draw it, you can make it happen. It's not exactly playing God, but it's kind of like whatever you wish to create; if you wish to create a world for the character you can, animation is the medium with which you can.

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR ASPIRANT ANIMATORS?
Follow your dreams, if that's what you want to do, nine-to-five it. Find animators that you like, study their work, find out what it is you like about their work and try and emulate that.

WHAT DID YOU EMJOY MOST ABOUT WORKING ON HORTON HJEARS A WHO?
It was an amazing process to be part of. It was rather organic, as well. The directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino were amazing; they know how to get a lot out of their animators. It was quite amazing; they directed each animator and you really felt like you were contributing to the film, they would give you an idea and ask you to go with it. At the end of the day they would get exactly what they wanted by making the animators feel their ideas counted. 

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