Meet Kyle Jones, Nashville-based Motion Designer & Animator.
Kyle is an award-winning motion designer, animator and illustrator from beautiful Nashville, Tennessee where he lives with his wife Amanda Joy Brown. He’s a Creative Director at GoNoodle, a neat classroom movement program used in more than 60,000 elementary schools in the United States. Kyle’s had the opportunity to work on projects with brands like: Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Sony Pictures, NFL, Verizon, Honda, Nat Geo and HGTV. We talk to Kyle about his background, how he got started, and what he’s working on.
Sandip: Let’s start from the beginning, where are you from? Tell us a bit about yourself (growing up, family, school, etc).
Kyle: I grew up in Nashville, TN. I come from a very creative family, my dad and his brothers are illustrators, and some of my cousins are also in the creative industry. I played some sports up until middle school, but after that my extra-curricular activities were mostly boy scouts, playing guitar with friends and messing with computers.
Sandip: Growing up, would your parents say your current career choice was pretty obvious given your hobbies or what you were good at?
Kyle: It was definitely obvious, if not predestined. My parents were very encouraging of whatever I showed interest in, which was mostly drawing and pushing buttons. Since my dad was an artist, I had a pretty rare opportunity of growing up in the early 90’s having a Macintosh with both Photoshop and Illustrator on it. While other kids were playing with MS Paint I was learning to draw vectors with the pen tool.
By the time I was in High school I had played with some trial versions of Macromedia Flash and my parents got it for me. I feel like I spent a majority of my time outside of school playing with Flash, learning some animation and programming. I really got into building simple games and experimenting with code- which got me into building flash websites (which were SUPER cool at the time). I also dabbled with some amateur software that let me do rudimentary special effects light lightsabers, so there are definitely some embarrassing star wars fan videos on an old computer somewhere.
Sandip: What was your first job in “design”? What did you like about it? What lessons did you learn? What did you dislike?
Kyle: The summer after my high school graduation I learned of a web design studio nearby in Franklin, TN. Interested in a career doing web design I asked if I could come tour their space. After meeting the guys there and showing them my “portfolio” as it were, they offered me an internship! So for the summer before college and the next 2 summers during school break, I interned/freelanced at Cabedge. It was an incredible learning experience to go back and forth between school and an internship. Lots of real world experience with client meetings, presentations, and real deadlines. I still remember the first time I designed a logo that I was happy with, my boss said, “that’s great, do another one”. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I had totally nailed it first try. I learned that sometimes you have to get the first easy idea out of the way to make room for other possibly better ones. I also learned that I loved working at a design studio.
Sandip: You illustrate and animate. How’d you learn both? If you had to pick, which would you say you’re the best at and which would you say you enjoy the most?
Kyle: Like most of us in this industry, I started drawing early and never stopped. I remember a note from my math teacher saying to “show work not art” in the margins of my homework. I was constantly doodling on everything. My first “published” illustrations were for my middle school’s student directory and my high school’s homecoming t-shirts. Having grown up with an artist parent, our shelves were packed with great inspiration like picture books, comic strip anthologies, and illustration annuals. I think I learned more from osmosis than anything.
I didn’t really have much of an education in illustration at college, but I just tried to absorb as much of the stuff I was interested in. I was always concerned about finding my style, but at some point I just started doing what felt natural and I went with it.
I wanted to be an animator from a really young age, but it intimidated me seeing how time consuming Disney style cell animation was. Then once all the Pixar movies started coming out I wanted nothing else but to work there - I loved the behind the scenes videos at Pixar where they had monkeys on scooters and it just looked like so much fun. I tried some 3D in high school but realized it was too complicated to learn on my own at the time. Midway through college I took a summer class introducing me to After Effects. I was immediately hooked. I had somewhat abandoned animation in pursuit of web design, but seeing how I could combine graphic design, illustration, animation, filmmaking, and music into the discipline of “motion graphics” it was the perfect fit for me. I spent the entire summer watching every online tutorial I could find and researching all the different motion studios.
My junior year in college I needed an internship credit. After having spent 3 summers already interning at a web design studio, I decided to branch out and try something else. I had made some connections at CMT (Country Music Television) which was about the only motion graphics place in all of Nashville, and managed to score an internship there. I learned a ton from the animators there, and got to work on some on-air graphics.
The art director at CMT moved to New York to work for Eyeball and convinced me to come interview for an internship there. I landed it and spent the summer in NYC working at one of my favorite design studios. It was another great experience and I felt like just being there pushed me to become a much better designer and animator.
After that internship I was offered some freelance back home that turned into a full time job doing motion graphics. I was there for 7 years eventually becoming creative director and working on all sorts of projects from projection mapping on Ceasar’s Palace to graphics packages for CMT, Nat Geo, and HGTV to stop motion food commercials. It was a blast, and was great to help build a strong animation team in Nashville, TN.
Sandip: I love Eyeball’s work, great people too! What tips would you give another illustrator that’s interested in learning animation?
Kyle: There are so many amazing resources now, it’s truly an incredible time to learn anything you want. A google search for technical tutorials on how to use After Effects or Toon Boom are aplenty, but there is so much to learn beyond that. Animators are really actors, crafting performances from behind the screen. Studying film and acting, improv, even music are great to learn about timing and storytelling. Books that Eric Goldberg or Richard Williams made are the de facto character animation bibles.
In reality though, now that most people have access to After Effects I would suggest just jumping in and playing with it. Once you learn the basics you can quickly experiment with keyframing, and effects. Try to emulate something cool you see. Pretty soon you’ll learn hundreds of little tricks that you can string together in an infinite way for endless animation possibilities!
Sandip: Do you shoot too? Ever wanted to get into 3D or live action work?
Kyle: Yes, I’ve shot and directed some. I really like getting out from behind the computer and filming things, but over the years I’ve realized that I can really only focus heavily on a few things if I really want to excel at them. Despite really enjoying filmmaking I can’t stretch myself out too much, and right now I’m not pursuing it heavily.
I’ve done quite a bit of 3D as well actually. I really like Cinema4D, but again- I’ve worked with people much better at 3D and I’ve come to terms that I can’t be a “jack of all trades”, so I leave that for the real pros. Occasionally I’ll still do some though!
Sandip: You’ve worked on all sorts of projects. From motion to illustration and for big clients and small. What would you say was the common thread for all of those projects to be successful?
Kyle: For maximum success, I’d say making sure the client is happy at the end. There are lots of times where halfway through a project you realize, “this isn’t going to be a portfolio piece” but it isn’t always about you. In the end, you’re solving a problem for a client and if they’re happy – then you’ve done your job.
Also make sure to communicate clearly and often with the client so that you don’t waste time and money and sleepless nights.
“It isn’t always about you. In the end, you’re solving a problem for a client and if they’re happy — then you’ve done your job.”
Sandip: You have experience working at agencies and in-house. What was the hardest thing about making the switch? Do you have a preference? Do you miss anything about working at an agency?
Kyle: It’s definitely a big shift. I was initially excited about switching to in-house because I’d be working on a product that continually grows and improves. In agency work, you work on a project for a month and then it disappears. After several years you really haven’t built anything beyond a bigger portfolio. However, I do miss a lot of the variety that comes with agency work. I like to work in different styles and constantly try new solutions. Each new client is a whole new blue sky opportunity.
Sandip: GoNoodle looks awesome and what a great idea. Is it extra rewarding working on something for kids? Does that present any challenges you didn’t think it would?
Kyle: So, as a primer for most readers, GoNoodle is a website with hundreds of videos and games that Elementary school teachers use periodically throughout the day to get kids up and moving or being mindful. We create all the content, and most of it revolves around kids following movements, dances, or breathing patterns. We hear it described sometimes as “School House Rock for the modern age”.
It’s pretty nuts that we have something like 15 million kids around the globe interacting with our content every month. It’s always fun to search “GoNoodle” on Instagram and Twitter to see kids from around the world dancing to our videos. We get tons of fan art too!
We have a ton of challenges including the technical challenges like building a product that can work on even the oldest school computers, with possibly the worst internet connections, and being projected in a bright room onto a whiteboard from a tiny projector. We have a really great relationship with teachers and we’re constantly working with them to create the best possible experience.
Sandip: Walk us through the process of starting a new project. What’s that look like? How do you start, who does what, the different phases, tools you might use, etc.
Kyle: There’s usually a kickoff meeting with producers, myself, and the client. We go over the scope and goals, and ask as many questions as we can to make sure we’re all on the same page. If it’s in the “motion design” realm I usually do some styleframes in a couple different design directions along with a pencil storyboard. We’ll go over these with the client, walking through the storyboard and explaining how it’ll play out with lots of mouth sound effects. Hopefully they like one of the style directions and we’ll make more frames for the rest of the scenes to make sure they’re all client approved before we start animating them.
Depending on the project or team, I’ll either own the whole animation from start to finish or work with other designers and animators to divvy up the load. With motion projects it can be tricky to show works in progress because you have to do a lot of explaining why large chunks of the piece look really bad or are completely unfinished, but we do our best to explain how things are progressing and what we’re still working on. We’ll also work with voice actors for VOs and sound editors for mixing and sound effects.
I’m typically using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and After Effects for most of my projects. I use Dragonframe for stop motion, Glyphs for font making, and run off of a Macbook Pro and a 13" Wacom Cintiq. I end up doing a lot of compositing / green screen work as well.
Sandip: What’s been your favorite project to date? Could you pick just one?
Kyle: It’s always my most recent project that is my favorite, until the day after when I hate it and start anticipating my next project which I just know will be the best thing I’ll ever create.
I’ve got an odd response to this I think. My favorite project was actually a series of stop motion videos I made 2 years ago. Getting out of the office to find all the miniatures and build a set, figuring out how to build an animatable monster made out of real bacon… then straining my back to painstakingly animate the scene one photo at a time.. I loved it. It was just so tactile and I didn’t have to wait for the scene to render in 3D. I say it’s an odd choice because the end result isn’t the best animation I’ve ever done, nor does it conform to other work in my “style” but I just had so much fun doing it. On another note, I’ve been having a ton of fun doing some short 5 second looping gifs recently. They’re like moving illustrations, and they’re short enough that I don’t get bogged down in complexity.
“Make sure to communicate clearly and often with the client so that you don’t waste time and money and sleepless nights.”
Sandip: That sounds awesome! So what do you think is the hardest part of what you do, in terms of the job of a designer or animator?
Kyle: How can I choose!
The hardest part is probably not getting to do what you want most of the time! The reality of being a commercial artist is that most of the time you are solving problems for a client, and not always getting your way.
It’s also hard just coming up with ideas. Figuring out interesting and unique solutions is taxing–seeing finished work out in the world can seem like obvious solutions, but getting there is always a journey. It’s also really hard to estimate how long something will take you. Sometimes you get it right away and sometimes you redo it 5 times till you’re happy.
Sandip: Animation is widely becoming a toolset that designers are learning for web and mobile interactions. What are some things you’d share that would help them be better at this? Maybe things they wouldn’t normally consider or might overlook.
Kyle: Animation really is about giving life to inanimate things. Even if you are a UX designer doing simple interactive animations, I think it’s worth familiarizing yourself with the basic principles of animation. The same concepts that Disney pioneered for character animation are completely translatable to motion design. I love seeing animation with personality, and that could be as simple as a box moving around a screen.
Sandip: Tell me something people reading this might not know about you?
Kyle: I met my wife swing dancing (specifically Lindy Hop for the dance nerds out there). It’s really fun and something my teenage self would never believe I’d do.
Sandip: What advice would you give your 20 year old self?
Kyle: Don’t be afraid to change jobs if you’re unhappy. Reach out to people, you’ll be surprised who responds. Keep making the kind of work you want to make, and share it. Travel the world sooner- I waited till I was 30 to finally explore beyond North America and I wish I had started years ago! Also, enjoy the now- don’t always be waiting for some ever-distant future reality.
“The same concepts that Disney pioneered for character animation are completely translatable to motion design.
Sandip: Do you have a place, thing or person that inspires you? If you’re in a creative rut, what’s something you do to help pull you out?
Kyle: Sometimes good music will get me out of a funk, specifically happy music. I’ve also really started enjoying going to the gym and running–it helps me clear my head and deal with stress. I feel like a lot of people say they look to nature or other things for inspiration, but honestly seeing other awesome work out there really does inspire me. I like trying to go to a conference once a year if possible–I’ve been to ICON the illustration conference, which was incredible, and just got back from Creative Works nearby in Memphis. It’s great to meet twitter friends in person and hear inspirational talks from the stage.
Sandip: You’re in Nashville, TN, what do you love most about living in Nashville? If someone was was coming to Nashville for a few days, what would be your list of must-do, must-see, must-eat places?
Kyle: There are so many new restaurants opening up every week, it’s pretty great but also overwhelming. My favorite restaurant is actually a sandwich shop in East Nashville called Mitchell Deli. Their sandwiches are so good and have won international awards. It’s a good thing it’s a short drive and not a short walk away. We’ve got tons of great coffee shops: crema, Barista Parlor, Steadfast, etc; lots of fancy restaurants: Husk, Henrietta Red, City House; We’ve got some cool unique things here like Jack White’s Third Man Records, a full size replica of the Parthenon. The Ryman is a superb and historic music venue.
Sandip: Favorite book or podcast (or both)?
Kyle: I listen to a ton of podcasts, some of the must listens are: “Reply All” on Gimlet, Radiolab, “Still Untitled” with Adam Savage, “How I build this” with Guy Raz, 99% Invisible, Revisionist History, Planet Money, Song Exploder, “Two Gomers Run for their Lives”, holy cow I could keep going.
Sandip: What are you listening to now? Do you have a favorite artist or band?
Kyle: It’s always changing. Some of my heavy rotations right now are: Lake Street Dive, Vulfpeck, Agnes Obel, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Oscar Peterson, Black Keys.. check back in a month
Sandip: Do you have any daily morning/evening routines? Something you do almost daily?
Kyle: I feel like I’m pretty boring. I wake up with enough time to eat cereal, shower, and get to work- then it’s the 8 hours of work and the drive home. My wife is also an artist so a lot of times if we both have projects we actually keep working a bit through the evening, but find a show to unwind our brains with before bed.
Thanks for reading! Each week our team will be publishing an interview with designers, illustrators, filmmakers, animators and artists that inspire us. A big thank you to Kyle for taking the time to chat with us! You can see more of his work over on his site or Dribbble. You can also follow Kyle on Twitter and Instagram.
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