We were lucky to catch up with Luke Shaw recently and have shared our conversation below.
Luke, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I had originally followed a path towards engineering in my early schooling. Having worked through most of high school with proficiencies in math and science, it seemed a reasonable path forward. I had always loved expreasing myself creativly outside of school through rough animations, youtube videos, terribly cringe worthy comedy skits with my friends, but the thought that I could merge those interests in my professional life never occured to me. I went on to get two associate degrees, one in engineering and another in mathmatics and sciences at a fairly local community college, and through these channels landed some job shadows. I was going into a manufacturing shop and making CAD models of various industrial parts when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasnt truly happy, I was just going down the path of least resistance for so long because it felt like the responsible thing to do and I was fairly good at it. None of that matter though when I was actually doing the work, surrounded by people who looked equally as miserable, clocking in and clocking out everyday for something that didnt necessarily drive them. So I took what scholarships I had lined up for my last two years at a private university and switched my major over to digital arts and sciences. I had no formal background in arts and my creative expressions had always been such a personal part of me that it was terrifying to put it all out there but I knew that I wanted to tell stories that actually mattered to me, to connect with others, to share a grand escape from life a heartwarming perspective of a challenging topic, or an exciting adventure. All I knew was that I wanted to create, everything past that was caution to the wind.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
What I do has always been a bit of a complicated question. The easy answer is I work as a creative, but it never really seems to do justice to the depth of that. I’ve had several years of focused training in 3D character and creature animation, ran a video production department for a midsized company, am a certified drone pilot, have my own creative production business, a heavy background in VFX working on various short films, 48 hour film projects, and corporate pieces, do a fairshare of editing work, am a bit of a gear head with my hands in production, and have been dabbling more and more with pre-production in creating my own narrative pieces. I have always been fascinated with the process of creating and my need to understand drives me to learn as much as I possibly can. Currently I am working on a fully animated short film that has been a massive undertaking as I have to shoulder the bulk of the actual production outside of the fantastic creative insight, sketches, and advice from my friends and coworkers. Oddly enough, one of the things I am most excited about in this endeavor is getting to take myself through every step of an industry pipeline in film creation from a CGI standpoint to truly have a better understanding of the practice. It’s just such a mesmerizing field that I feel so lucky to be a part of. What other kind of job do you get to create worlds, breathe life into characters, and tell stories that can resonate with people in such a profound way that it can fundamentally change how they see things around them.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The nature behind my need to learn and develop as many skills as I can make it hard to narrow down, but at the end of the day their are probably a few fundamental skills that matter far and above over everything else. Learning how to craft a story at the end of the day is what all of this builds to, you can have the best effects in the world, the coolest shots someone has ever seen, but at the end of the day if you aren’t telling a story that’s worth someone’s time and attention you’ve failed to truly connect someone to what you want to say. I’ve also spent a lot of time learning motion both in motion design work and character animation and that has truly helped me develop an eye to tell when things are and are not working. Outside of the obvious body mechanic doesn’t feel right, there is so much more to see whether it’s the pacing of a shots movement or the action in a scene, the beats you hold on something, or the rhythm to which you hit certain notes in a work. Finally, I’d say above all else, the ability to seek out and embrace criticism is absolutely vital in this field. There will always be someone better than you, so you need to drop your ego off at the door right out of the gate and share you creations with the world. Not everyone will like it, some criticism may not seem valid, and this piece you’ve poured your soul into may not have actually worked. But you absolutely need to take it all in so that you can continue to push yourself ahead of where you have been. You cant get defensive and even when you receive criticism that suggests a change you feel would fundamentally change the meaning of your work, you then need to sit back and find what that criticism was really about and how you can embrace it while still staying true to your work.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
Time
As I’ve grown, formed a family, taken on a full time job in addition to my freelance and more narrative creative endeavors, the time I have to truly push my passion and tell my stories is always challenged with the overwhelming array of other needs. To spend time with my family, be present in my friends’ lives, fix up our house, go on adventures, succeed at my job, these vital parts of life that I truly love all directly pull away from my love to create and you will always need to find compromise. If you lean any way too hard you are bound to hit burnout or compromise the more personal areas of your life, so it is so important to prioritize what matters the most to you and find a way to manage everything else around you. As I have tried to work within the time I have, there are several methods I have implemented to help bring order to the chaos. Creating a list everyday of things I need to do and making marks next to the items each and every time I give them attention helps me look back on the past several days and identify areas where my attention has faltered. Scheduling practice and improvement in key areas as a marathon and not as a sprint is also crucial. I spend 30 minutes every morning working on practice animation assignments, along with a little bit of time in zBrush teaching myself to model, and training in Nuke daily. While this isn’t the fastest way to learn, it is the most consistent and reliable way for me to develop in a way that allows continually growth in the fields that I love while still leaving time for the larger passions in my life such as spending time with my endlessly patient wife and two puppies, and allowing me time everyday in the evening to dedicate towards the development of my short film, and some room to spend a little bit of time hanging out with my friends in a discord chat before bed.
Contact Info:
- Website: Personal – http://www.templarshawcreations.com/
Professional – https://www.entertainmentcheckpoint.com/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lukeshawanimation/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luketemplarshaw/
Image Credits
Susannah Darling (my wife)
