University of Guelph

Biology and math were not what I had anticipated. Especially biology. I hated the smell of formaldehyde. It was one of the worse smells imaginable. I hated knives. Disecting animals was not for me. I’d done a bit in high school, but this was worse. Still I thought I’d give it a go. By the end of my first year, I knew this wasn’t for me. 

What I had enjoyed was my Biophysics class, where I learned the mechanics of animal movement. It was an ‘online’ class before computers. I sat and listened to a module off a tape machine in the library, then took the test for that module. Then did the next module. By the end I’d scored over 90 per cent. Animal locomotion was definitely something I was passionate about. Oh and calculus. 

Years later I would find myself sitting in the small theater at Disney Feature Animation at 1420 flower street. I was surrounded by the most talented group of individuals that to this day I consider my LA family, listening to a lecture by paleontologist Stuart Sumida. One of the leading experts in Hollywood for animal locomotion on feature films. This was a crazy improbability. The film was the Lion King, and this wouldn't happen for another 10 years. 

Art College

I decided I was going to leave Guelph for Sheridan College. Why I told my calculus teacher this I don’t know. I went to him for help with a Calculus problem. The teacher asked me, ‘if you’re leaving anyways why do you care about this?’

For some reason I told him that I needed to know. It was a challenge. Like a puzzle. Problem solving. Check the box for liking problem solving and math. The teacher showed me how to solve for the derivative and get a nice ‘ease in’ curve that came in very handy later on in technical animation. 

My first day at Sheridan College, my hands were shaking so badly that when I got my coffee at the cafeteria I couldn’t hold it steady enough to drink it. In my home room class I was seated at my own animation table. Peg bar, paper. 

The students around me COULD DRAW. Oh my god, could they draw. One of the students that sat near my desk was Andy Knight. He’d go on to open his own 2D animation studio. These were natural talents. 

I quickly realized that I didn’t know anything about structure in drawing. 

In life drawing class Bill Kettlewell would look over my shoulder and say ‘having difficulties today, are we Linda?’ I scored an E in his class. 

I was sunk.

I think the bottom was my 1st year animation exam. It asked to draw an octopus on a trampoline. My teacher’s comment, Vivian Ludlow was “yikes.” 

Years later I asked her why she’d passed me in 1st year. 

She said that she saw a spark in me.

My other life drawing teacher Suzanna taught us gesture drawing. I did well in that, More about quick sketches, locomotion and movement than draftsmanship. 

I had some understanding of movement through the U of G biophysics class. And the hours at the drawing board was sharpening my skills of observation.

Gesture drawing seemed to come more naturally to me. 

I might become a real artist after all.

Omnibus Computer Graphics

I was taking the 1 year post graduate program in Computer Graphics, when I saw an ad for an animator at a commercials house called Omnibus Computer Graphics. The ad said that they were looking for a 'Unix C' programmer. I asked my teacher Dick Friesen if he would write me a letter of recommendation. He said no, and told me to put everything you've got in your portofolio, and "go nail the damn job." 

So I brought everything to my job interview. Drawings, background paintings, 16 mm film, even print outs of PL1 programs from Guelph. I layed it all out on the coffee table in the office we met in.

What do you think they picked up first? The PL1 programs. I wondered, "What was I getting into?

My first week at Omnibus I did photocopying. The receptionist was furious. She pointed out that because I was a woman, that’s why they’d asked me to do it. 

I had to learn unix.

I mv’d everywhere (moved) and rm’d (removed) everything. I wiped out my account. Heads were shaking around me.

Omnibus and Abel were industry leaders, meaning they worked on, or in many cases developed, the highest-end, most specialized graphic workstations available before desktop 3D workstations became common. 

I remember thinking on one of my first days at Omnibus in January 1984 “where is the drawing tablet and the pen?”

I was asked to do a robot walk. We were using PMat and PPoly. A 3D language tool developed at the NYIT Computer Graphics Lab. These tools were pivotal for creating 3D computer animation in the era of early 80s

I made a robot from simple shapes. I cut out the shapes. Put them on graph paper. Measured the angles for the bends in the legs and arms, typed it all in.

We were in the company board meeting. They were going to show my training assignment the robot walk. I’d gotten one of the editors to put music on it, so I thought it looked pretty good.

The music played, the robot walked. A treadmill cycle. The music ended, the robot stopped. The editor used a freeze frame. 

Rick Ballabuck looked around the room with a look on his face - See, she DID IT!!!

Next assignment a logo. Again,  photostat over graph paper write out the coordinates, type them in.

I was sent to the University of Toronto for night classes in Unix C programming, so I could write the animation scripts for the logo commercials. 

I was at Omnibus until it closed its doors in April 1987.