Abdullah Interviews Ahmad Al-Awadi

“I want that young film maker, the guy who did ADS with all that 3D animation mess, I want him on p0ach.com, i want people to see him, specially big companies” Thats what I casually said the other day to one of my colleagues. I swear to you, this country is so small, minutes later, my friend came back and said hey, I know how to get him for you. The rest is history.

Ahmad, is a dime. He was one of the people who worked on the iMax excellent piece “Journey To Mecca” that was showing in Kuwait’s Scientific centre, Perfection. This is where he turned his interest/hobby into a professional career, earned a diploma in 3D animation, got invited to visit PIXAR studios for an all around tour, met with the brightest people, learned all he could, brought it back with him to only grow bigger and better.

He’s extremely polite, down to earth, smart and passionate about what he does. Get to know him, meet AHMAD !

Ahmad the floor is all yours, talk!

My name is Ahmad Al-Awadi, I’m 25 years old. I got my Bachelors in Business Administration from Kuwait University, and in 2010 got a Diploma in 3D Character Animation from Animation Mentor – an online animation school. I currently work full-time at my business: “Moving Blue”.

I’ve always been interested in art, technology, and filmmaking since I was a child. My interests back then was almost second nature to me which didn’t need much self awareness from my part. To be honest I never imagined actually working full-time on that field, it was just a hobby back then.

Entering that field gradually happened step by step. Although I studied business, I did in-fact work on video projects on the side. During college I directed my first video commercial and also worked on other smaller projects. At that time I considered it my creative outlet from college, an urge I get to work on creative stuff, I felt I needed something that fed my right brain, but still.. it was a hobby.

After graduating I worked at the investment and real estate sector, a traditional job “playing it by the book”, but going through boredom day after day it soon made me realize that it wasn’t the area that I’d like to pursue, I needed something creative enough that challenged me, at that point I made a career switch which was the turning point for me, it eventually lead me to a series of events that shaped my new path: Filmmaking and Animation.

Preceding the career switch, I had applied for a job interview to work with the camera crew for the IMAX film “Journey to Mecca” . After getting accepted I resigned and packed my stuff and headed to KSA during Haj 2007.. It represented a great learning experience which I would never forget, it gave me hands-on training from talented and experienced people. It opened new doors to me of what teamwork can do. It allowed me to work within an actual film crew, from the cameramen to technicians covering all aspects of the filmmaking process. Basically, it was my film school.

After completing my part from the IMAX film project, I returned to Kuwait then applied for a job at  “caviar” one of Kuwait’s advertising agencies as a TV commercial producer and coordinator, I worked on a total of 12 video commercials and photo-shoot projects, it gave me experience from a producers point of view, like how to manage the crew and make sure everything is running smoothly.

Moving ahead, I still wanted to fill the gap between traditional video and 3D, I wanted to connect filmmaking to animation. I then focused my entire time into learning, so I became a student again. I applied at Animation Mentor, one of the best animation schools on a 18-month 3D animation diploma course. It was really fortunate to be mentored by amazing people from Pixar, Disney, Weta Digital and Blue Sky- These are the same people that worked on numerous award-winning films such as WALL-E, Ice Age and King Kong. It’s worth mentioning that during that period I was invited to visit Pixar Animation Studios and got a quick tour around the studio.

Studying business ended up being one of the best decisions I made, it taught me a valuable lesson to actually take advantage of my skills and build a business around it. During the animation course I started establishing my own business “Moving Blue” which focuses on animation and visual effects. After graduating from the online school in 2010 I gave it my full attention.

So now I work full time at Moving Blue where I help entrepreneurs and established firms market their business by producing 3d animation and visual effects. So for instance sometimes you may see me working on a video commercial project that has visual effects in it for TV, sometimes a 3D project with character animation or a 3D logo animation project. At times I work on some motion graphics videos intended for facebook/youtube. So it depends really on my clients needs. Aside from managing the business I also produce, direct and animate. I juggle between different roles, indeed I also work with a team of talented individuals that together make all that happen.

Other things about me: I’m a huge Apple fan, I like water activities which my favorite is freestyle swimming and I absolutely enjoy it.

What inspired you to tap into who you are now  ?

It all began with a home video camera, my Grandmother owned one of those huge home video cameras that recorded on VHS tapes and I was fascinated by it as a kid. It was one of those long summer days when I began toying with it along with my brothers and cousins, it made us laugh and kill time, we literally turned our basement into a kids studio. Then over the years my interest grew especially after stumbling across a visual effects software which I bought from the net. I began adding visual effects to home movies that I shot, then self taught myself how to edit and produce short films. I used to send those videos to my friends for feedback and slowly through word of mouth it picked up pace and got me actual paid work. But again it was merely a hobby back then. However linking the things that I liked together and turning it to a full career finally made things “click” for me. Well .. I guess its a series of events that inspired me. I believe it’s all about connecting the things that you like to form who you are.

Childhood flashes?

As every kid I’ve been fascinated by the art of animation whether in games, 2D cartoons or 3D. I enjoy seeing behind the scenes videos on how studios do their magic tricks using computers. I used to draw and color all the time and also had a huge interest in lego building. I remember at times I used to leave the lego manual aside and build original things from my own.

I also shot several stop-motion animation using GI-Joe figures, where they fought each other in a wrestling ring.  But the best part is after acting with my cousins, we gather around the TV and see the final result of our home films when its finished, the reaction we get is priceless ! I love gadgets also and yea how can I forget my spiderman suit !  Moreover I remember once using a magnifying glass as an attempt to cook a chicken drumstick using the sun’s rays- well I guess I was a bit insane and creative But yeah I had my share in toying around and having fun.

So talk about your business, what differs you from the rest of the competition out there?

We are unique in the way we run our animation business, we work with a team of talented individuals both locally and internationally, for our end it means lesser overhead and improved productivity by leveraging timezone differences to our advantage. For our clients that means we can produce quality work at competitive pricing. This also allows to scale easily, which mean we can work with individuals and small businesses as well as scale up to established firms, being that flexible and without compromising on quality. Another thing to note, that we value the ethics in this industry, we fully support having licensed copies to our software. I know its tempting to use a 2kd app from hawally vs an original that costs many more. It’s even sad to know that many graphic design and video production companies here in Kuwait are profiting and making money out of pirated software.

Apart from that, we love team work, before a project we have our creative meeting to bounce ideas around. I’m a firm believer of what a brainstorming session can bring to the table, we throw ideas and analyze the ones we like best, and always the best idea wins doesn’t matter who came up with it. This brings out the best in people when they feel that their opinions and inputs are valuable.

Animation and character motion graphics work also sets us apart, we are considered one of the few if only studio in Kuwait that specializes in character animation work. We are also known in mixing animation/effects with video for commercials. Quality control is something we are aware of in every project, whether its a 3D Animation project or video commercial project, and this what I try to do today everyday at Moving Blue.

Overall these points I think sets me apart from my competition.

What were the difficulties you faced and how did you overcome them ?

The career switch decision was risky, I didn’t know exactly how things will turn up, but I knew that if I stay in my previous job I would hate myself knowing I could do better, I believed that moving on is the best thing to do. Also when I enrolled into the animation course I did it full time. It was difficult financially as I had to pay for the school and I didn’t have a job that backed me up, plus I was investing to start up Moving Blue. At the beginning I was studying and working on projects from home at the same time, but alhemdella things became much stabler as I moved to an office after I graduated, giving my business its proper attention.

One of the main challenges around creative jobs is keeping the passion high and hot, I don’t want to lose the spontaneous nature of my job and turn it into something mechanical and dull, with passion we thrive and without it we don’t have fuel, and thats not good. So this is something I’m constantly trying to address in keeping the creative juices flowing.

The Animation video, creatively, how did you come up with it ? Describe your thought/thinking process.

Of the things that I learnt at school is the importance of the planning stage, pre-production is probably the important stage in any work, here is where everything starts, and ideas gets jotted down and explored, the thing about that stage that you got nothing to lose and all you need to do is just leave your thoughts flowing. The video was the showreel thats done for my school, its basically the collection of my assignments. And empty piece of paper and a pencil probably resulted in 60% of work finished by just exploring ideas and drawing, the rest is just progress.

Support system. family & friends ?

My family are my true support because they had a part in everything I did from the start, they believed in me and encouraged me to go further, I got lots of support by them including my loving grandma, aunts and younger brother Mohammad which I consider the go to person when I need honest feedback. Plus my close friends who say “Steven”. Also I’d like to mention Mishary Almutawa who gave me my first project opportunity, Wael Alomani who taught me a lot in video production, and all the great 6 mentors that taught me at my online school: Jon Collins, Sean Ermey, Marlon Nowe, Michelle Meeker, Kenny Roy and Jason Taylor. Plus I’m thankful to all who gave me his advice and support.

Where do you see yourself 5 years from now ?

Inshalla in 5 years I’d like focus on Moving Blue to be Kuwait’s leading 3D animation and visual effects studio, and this is what I plan to work on. And there are two things on the side that I’d love to do: One is to get into teaching and education, |’d love to inspire people to filmmaking and animation, and second: I wish to work on a short animated movie, one that I can take my time on, that tells a good story through art and filmmaking, it would give me a change from the deadline business routine.

Throw something for p0ach readers.

I think its something I learned back when I used to play with lego toys. See once you buy your lego toy, you would see the final construction when looking at the box’s cover, you’ll see how complicated it is, but taking it block by block you’ll realize that each block is a simple piece that gets you forward till completion. The moral to this: is to find the simple blocks in everything you do, the concept of finding the fundamentals is what sets you apart from others, learn to break things down to its essential pieces, analyze those pieces, take it step by step. There is no need to get overwhelmed, because most things are simpler than they seem- its a life concept.

And thanks for giving me the opportunity Abdullah to be featured at p0ach.com ! Wishing you all the best

Website: Moving Blue

Facebook Page: Moving Blue
Address: Seven Zones Design Center, Mezzanine Floor Office #20, Shuwaikh Industrial Area

Email: info@movingblue.com Tel: +965 55360007

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