Sony Pictures Animation Art Director Andrew Harkness will be on campus today and Saturday to inspire and advise art students.
Most people can do well in animation if they give 100 percent and are able to deal with and overcome rejection, Harkness said.
“If you want to draw and be happy drawing for the rest of your life, anybody can do that as a hobby. You can start anytime,” Harkness said. “If you want to make a living drawing, you really need to love drawing and be able to draw for the rest of your life. There are politics involved and it is very competitive, so it helps to love the work.”
The Visiting Fine Artist Program, the MSU art department and the College of Arts and Sciences are promoting Harkness’ visit.
“We try and get nationally and internationally acclaimed artists,” art department gallery director Bill Andrews said. “The important thing is to gain more exposure for our students and to show them what is available and what they would be doing after college.”
The presentation will focus on the animation industry and the art director position, Harkness said.
Harkness will lead a workshop for fine arts students on portfolio development from 9 to 11:30 a.m. today, and he will look over student animation in the afternoon.
Tonight he will present a workshop on art direction at 7.
“I’m going to be talking about art direction, covering the process and what it entails,” he said. “I will also talk about my road and how I got to the position.”
The art director for an animated feature film deals with the elements of design and color-which can determine the success of an animated movie, Harkness said.
Harkness worked with Disney for almost 10 years. He joined Sony Pictures in 2003 and was made art director for an upcoming animated movie.
“I will be the art director for ‘Open Season,’ Sony’s first 3-D, full-length production,” Harkness said.
He said working in animation for a company such as Disney or Sony can only be described as an amazing opportunity.
“The atmosphere at work is amazing,” Harkness said. “When I started I was happy to draw one
line on any character just to have something in the movie.”
His father, John Harkness, a professor and lab animal vet at State, recalled Andrew’s steps to working for Sony.
Harkness interned at the Disney animation studios in Orlando in 1994 and 1995. During that time he worked on Disney’s “The Lion King,” John Harkness said.
“Disney hired Andy in ’95,” John Harkness said. “They recently closed the animation studios at MGM and let most of the staff go, but kept Andy.”
“He quit and he works for Sony now,” he added.
Andrew Harkness graduated from Starkville High School in 1991 and received a scholarship from the Columbus College of Art and Design, John Harkness, said.
“Andy is a very talented guy. He came back here and worked at the ERC to learn a lot about animation,” art professor Brent Funderburk said. “He came before we had the animation program.”
State was one of the only schools teaching animation in the South for a while so Mississippi State alumni have been involved in many animated motion pictures recently, Funderburk said.
“We had two alumni and one undergraduate from MSU work on the ‘Lord of the Rings.’ One alumnus worked on ‘Red Planet’ and two worked on ‘The Cat in the Hat,'” he said.
The art department, which already offers an emphasis in graphic design, will be starting a graphic design master’s in fine arts degree program within a few years, Funderburk said.
“Our graphic design program is one of the strongest graphic design programs in the South,” Funderburk said. “We have a great number of students out there involved in the film industry with software, games, television and special effects.”