Bittersweet.....

Well I posted this on the Animation Mentor Forum a little while ago. I thought I might as well post it here too.


Hey everyone, this week has been the biggest emotional roller coaster I’ve ever experienced. I was fortunate enough to get 2 fantastic job offers. One from Dreamworks to work on “Bee Movie” and one from Sony to work on “Surfs Up”. To get those job offers was the greatest high. Either of them would have been my dream job. But then it came time to make the decision to move my family or not. This has been the hardest decision of my life. All through AM, my wife and I have been saying that we would worry about crossing that bridge if we ever got to it. Well here we are, ready to cross and I just can’t do it. I think it took getting to this point, for me to understand what I really wanted. I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old. They are extremely close to both of their grandparents. All of my family and my wife’s family live pretty close to us here in Utah. We have a beautiful new 5 bedroom house in a neighborhood that seems perfect. About 80% of the people that live by us are young families that have kids about the same age as mine. And I think this is what’s best for my family. If I was just choosing what is best for me, I would be at Dreamworks on Nov. 13. But I have decided that this is where I want to raise my kids. And there are some good game studios around here where I can make a great living. When it got right down to it, I realized that my dream job was more about my family than about my career. Some of you will understand this and others will think I am nuts. But I wanted to thank all of you for all of your support throughout AM. It has been one of the best experiences of my life, WAY more than just an animation school. Thanks Bobby, Shawn, and Carlos, you guys have something really special here. Keep it up. I hope everyone out there gets their dream job, you all deserve it.