Meet Adam Levy

We recently connected with Adam Levy and have shared our conversation below.

Adam , thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

This is a fun question. I think I personally keep my creativity alive by constantly working at learning more. When I learn a new skill – whether thats drawing, painting, writing, understanding more about cameras and lenses, it all instills a new passion in me to want to try and go out and make. I dont worry about failing so much while trying, but more to try and better my skills. Once you learn and grow those muscles, it makes it easier to go out and create something that you can bring to completion.

Beside that, my creativity comes from daily life. If i see something that I think I could make in my own style, I usually go out and give it a shot. Those small (and sometimes big) efforts help me grow as a person, in overcoming small adversities, and as an artist, in learning new tools and techniques to create cool art.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Higher education:
Im a University of California, Santa Barbara graduate with a double major in Film and Media Studies and Communication. Ive also completed a certificates from UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting and the Professional Program in TV Writing.

Professional Career:
I’ve been in the film industry since 2009. I started out my career as a Production Assistant at DreamWorks Animation on “How to Train Your Dragon.” From there, I worked my way up to production coordinator on a few more DreamWorks films (Puss in Boots, Turbo). During my time at DreamWorks, I taught myself Maya, in order to learn how to animate and run cloth and hair simulations.
After gaining enough experience at DreamWorks, I took my skills up to Canada to work on “Jack the Giant Slayer” as a Character FX artist at Digital Doman. After my short stint in Canada, I moved back to Los Angeles to work for Walt Disney Animation Studios, where I have been since 2012.
Since being at Disney, I have worked on countless films including 5 academy award winners (Encanto, Zootopia, Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Feast). Not only have I wored as a simulation setup and technical animation artist at Disney, but have also lead teams in my role as technical animation supervisor, mentored and taught new artists who have joined the studio, given outreach talks along the West Coast and Canada, and developed unique ideas and short films.
Besides the work I have done at Disney, I have also developed, executive produced and directed animation for a series, written and developed a series currently being pitched around hollywood as well as directed my own short film, “Flutter,” starring Alfred Molina, which released in may of 2023 and won numerous awards on the festival circuit.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three skills I think that have helped me along my journey are being personable, listening, and being unafraid to ask questions. To me they all go hand in hand. If youre friendly enough, people will want to talk to you and work with you. If people want to talk with you, then you should be willing to listening. And that doesnt mean you let them talk and just wait for your turn to chime in. It means actually listen. Is there subtext to what theyre saying? I think its so valuable to hear and understand people to help achieve the best results for whatever youre trying to do. The last part, being unaffraid to ask questions, goes with both. If you genuinely dont understand/know something/are curious about something, people are usually quite happy to explain more or teach you something you dont know in order to make you better at whatever youre trying to do. Most questions are not stupid questions, but even if you ask a dumb one, if people know its a genuine question, they will definitely answer it.

I always tell people, when im doing hiring, id rather hire someone who is nice and is willing to learn, who knows absolutely nothing about the job, than hire someone who is extremely qualified but is a complete jerk to work with.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

Absolutely. Staying motivated to work on side projects that can help further what I want to do in the future.

With my paying job and a family, I find it so hard to store enough energy to work on my own projects after i finish up the day. I find it so hard to stay motivated. In order to combat this lack of energy at the end of the day, I started trying to work on projects early in the morning when Im feeling fresh after a nice nights sleep. Its not always easy to wake up early in the morning, but when I do, i find that I am more productive than I am at night

Contact Info:

• Website: https://adamlevy082.wixsite.com/adamlevy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamlevy08/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamreedlevy