Judd Albrecht talks about his experience at PresenterMedia.
Product Spread
Child’s Play Toys
A toy store that helps parents decide what their kids need.
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A Note from the UtHo A R
In today’s world, many companies are trying way too hard to jump on the bandwagon of whatever current trend is going on in the world over trying to stand out.
The way I see it, if you want to grab the attention of your target audience, you need to be creative and put passion into what you’re doing to have a presence and stand out among the competition.
You have to see what the competition is doing in order to come up with something different, not identical. Not to mention, doing something you enjoy will work out a lot better in the long run.
The articles in this magazine cover two interviews I did with two different people in different bussinesses to get their point of view of what it is like in their respective industries.
They talk about why they joined or created ther respective businesses as well as how they got themselves there. I’ve learned a lot of things from them since they have a lot of experience in the field.
This magazine was also made to expand my skills in designing to expand on what I can do for my community and for my future. I talk from experience when I say that it’s not easy, but life never was, and I had fun in what I’ve already accomplished.
Remember to follow what you love to do if you want to have a presence on others.
-Skyler Dohrenwend, Author
6 A Day with Judd Albrect
A Day with Judd Albrect
SKYLER DOHRENWEND
Iwent to a small local business in the southwest side of Sioux Falls called PresenterMedia. This is a business that focuses on making great presentations that shine and stand out in their words: A world of boring presentations.
One of the things they do that I find the most engaging is that they also do animations for their presentations which of course would make the presentations even more interesting.
walked in, examined a heavy object on the ground, and struggled to lift it at first, but he then pulled out a can of power juice which powers him to lift the heavy object.
Q: What are some of your favorite animation methods that you implement into all of your animated projects?
A: I try to hit on every animation principle so that it looks natural so that it doesn’t look either robotic or forced.
A brief pause to talk about The 12 Principles of Animation:
1. Squash & Stretch - This adds some flexibility and personality by exaggerating the shape of the moving subject to show character.
2. Follow Through & Overlapping ActionSome action that happens during and follows the main action, like hair flowing on a moving horse.
3. Secondary Action - Action that happens after the main action like a coat flowing after a person stops moving.
4. Exaggeration - Makes things like more weird or taller or crazier than what they really are.
5. Arcs - Everything that swings moves in an arc like a pendulum, not in a straight path.
6. Straight Ahead & Pose-to-Pose - Animate frame by frame or stat wit the first middle & final poses, and work your way in between.
7. Solid Drawing - Makes two-dimensional imagery work in three-dimensional spaces.
8. Anticipation - This prepares the audience for an upcoming action like an animal that’s about to pounce by crouching and being sneaky.
9. Timing - Puts speed & rhythm into some action in a scene.
10. Staging - This presents the idea or character in understandable ways.
11. Ease-In & Ease-Out - Makes beginning and ending frames end more smoothly so they don’t look so abrupt.
12. Appeal - Gives it a unique spin to make the animation distinct from other animations.
Q: What do you believe is the most important step in creating efficient storyboards?
A: Have a good sense of timing of when certain
10 A Day with Judd Albrect
poses will happen in the timeline so that you can remember to know where the frames are in a timeline.
Q: What do you believe is the singular most important tool in making an animation?
A: When it comes to making animations, no matter what tool or rules you apply: YOU are the key tool in making animations.
“YOU are the key tool in making animations.”
-Judd Albrect
This interview was a great experience for me in both my education and my future career. I got to learn about different kinds of 3D software besides Maya as well as his achievements and history.
I implemented what I learned from him into both my animation and design projects so I can improve myself overtime so I can get better. I now also have a contact at PresenterMedia if I wanted to have a job there.
This shows how anyone can benefit from talking to others with experience so they know what they need to have when applying for a job, what to do to improve their work, or even expand if the whole animation stuff is just a hobby. I know it helped me with some of the things I needed to work on.
What Mr. Albrect means when he says: “YOU are the key tool for making animations”, he means that it’s always up to you whenever it comes down to things like designing characters so you can decide whether they should be cartoony & stylized or as realistic as possible, making concept art and storyboards, and even making sure that each of the movements in the animations you make work with the style you chose and making sure it flows naturally with each key-frame.
This can also be applied to any job, you are the key to making sure that your work is done right whether it’s something as simple as cleaning floors and dishes to something as complex as building the newest space rocket or coming up with new medications for medical treatments.
That’s why when we do our jobs, we can and should use our own skills to progress ourselves in our careers and lives. We should also go with what we are passionate about in order for us to surpass in our skills to do what we love to do.
It was really nice to be able to talk with someone who knows a lot about what to expect when you want to become a part of the animation industry, especially when the place you want to work at is close to where you live. This experience can go a long way to help you out in the future when you become a part of any industry.
This for me was also a great experience of being social when meeting people for the first time. It allowed me to be more social and see more that I didn’t know about in the city I live at. I hope to do some more social things like clubs and events or even other trips to get to know other businesses that might have openings with my interests.
This can allow for anyone to earn not just new friends, but also investors, contacts, partnerships, and references that can benefit everyone involved. This can also open your worldview and build your confidence to get involved more often with things you want to partake in.
I want to do more of these career and social improving chances like this interview in the future to help me earn more experience when I start my career and see events I want to partake in. I also hope others will learn from this as well when they’re planning on doing the same thing when they get the chance to do it too, since we can all learn something from this:
We ourselves are our own responsibility to use our own skills in order to succeed in our careers and education. We can make fantastic art when we put in all of our effort into it, like many people before us. We can even inspire the next generation to do the same, maybe even more. So we must make sure we let these chances count.
PresenterMedia building in Sioux Falls
Judd Albrect’s Office at PresenterMedia
Child’s Play Toys Interview Questions with Mrs. Savage
This article is about an interview I did for Mrs. Savage, the manager and founder of
Child’s Play Toys, a small local toy business. I asked her some questions about a few topics related to her job and career like how she was motivated to make her company in the first place, what does she do for her business that benefits everyone, and even things like how her daily work life goes on a regular basis.
This was mainly to get some insight into how small local businesses work and what they would do for someone who would want to be in a small business. I reason why I chose Child’s Play Toys to have this interview was because of my very own interest in both children toys, as well as my own child-like imagination. After all, just because we will all become adults someday, doesn’t really mean that we should no longer like some of our favorite childhood possessions and interests.
Unlike big industries like Walmart, Walt Disney or McDonald’s, small businesses like Child’s Play Toys are usually only one to three small shops within their local towns and cities that are started by a family and would most likely remain small so they keep their main goal and focus on track. So whenever you walk in the store, you would more often than not normally always see the same friendly faces whenever you would shop there.
Child’s Play Toys has been open for quite a few years now, and is still going strong. They have quite the great selection of thing to offer for your kids like stuffed animals, learning sets, and even sweet candy, especially around the holidays like Easter and Christmas time. I myself saw a couple of things that I like while I was there, including their collection of Lego sets.
Since I was talking to the founder of this toy store herself, this resulted in some the answers that she provided for me to be a little bit more personal to her than what you usually hear from a
Child’s Play Toys
current supervisor of a single store of a company that has been around for so long, like a very big supermarket company, so her responses that she gives talk about why she chose to open a toy store and what gave her the idea to do so.
Her responses also has passion and genuine love and care for what she does for her job which shows that she really enjoys what she has done for so many years up to this point, and likewise what she will continue to do for many years to come, which is what I say is lacking in a bunch of big companies we see today.
I can describe Mrs. Savage as someone who takes something she has seen from her time as a mother and puts a lot of love and effort for her business, and enjoys her time doing what she loves to do at her job. She makes sure her working environment is fun for everyone to enjoy when the com to her store, even her employees.
These are the questions that I asked her when I went to meet her at her store on Phillips Ave.:
Question from me: Tell me about a typical day at work. How does it start?
Answer from Mrs. Savage: So normally my day starts when I walk in the door and look around the store, I would normally take a walk around the store and see what the whole place looks like at the moment before we open up shop.
Q; Where did this all start?
A: I started the store 14 years ago and I have been working in corporate retail for many many years before working for lots of other different companies doing lots of big things for these big companies, then I had my daughter and stayed home for work for a few years, and would travel to some of these toy stores, and I just decided to move back to Sioux Falls and start the toy store.
Q:What do you expect from this job as a toy store salesperson?
A: I want my stores to be a place where people can come and enjoy and spend time together as loving families and play with fun things and when they need something they really like, I hope they decide to buy it from me.
Q: What do you like to do in your working time at your store? Discuss what your some of your passions are as a Toy Salesperson.
A: My passions that I have are running the toy store, and I probably work too much because I really enjoy doing my work so much.
Q: Tell me little bit about yourself. What level of education do you have?
A: So I grew up in Sioux Falls, I graduated from Lincoln High School, and I went to the University of Sioux Falls, which is where I met my husband. We moved all around the country and have lived in all sorts of different places.
Q: What do you consider to be your best achievement so far & why?
A: I would say bringing the Toy Store to Sioux Falls because of how it improved my family’s life and how much I enjoy running it.
Q: If you ever felt like you were hitting the proverbial “wall” & getting burned out, what would you do to re-energize yourself?
A: Vacations & time-offs are important, so we reduce our working days to 4 days a week in the summer to keep our energy.
Q: Do you consider yourself a team player when you work with others?
A: Oh, I absolutely do. I always have been a team player for a very long time.
Q: Tell me about a time at one point when you had successfully handled a situation.
A: During Covid, we have pivoted, so we closed for 6 weeks & we had to use the website but it wasn’t current, so we made our new gift Easter baskets for children in neighborhoods.
Q: How well do you multi-task?
A: I do a pretty good job at multi-tasking things whenever we are getting constant phone calls at the register all day.
Q: What are some qualities that you believe are essential to have as a manager?
A: The biggest quality as a manager is to listen to others to know them better, and to make sure that you can multi-task so you wouldn’t have to worry about burning yourself out.
