#icalumni

Liam Harrison graduated from Ithaca College in 2000 with a degree in television/radio and has gone on to animate a broad range of content. Some of his most recognizable work comes from music videos for Rihanna, Ben Harper and, most recently, Trey Anastasio. He was kind enough to answer some questions from Joe Morris ’14 via email.

Joe: Did you know that you wanted to go into animation, art direction, or filming when you first attended Ithaca College? 

Liam: I got really into the history of animation when I was a kid and thought I wanted to be an animator in a traditional Disney & Warner Brothers sense. When I got into high school though, I became daunted by the amount of work hand-drawn animation takes and frustrated at my drawing skill level so I broadened into communications in general. After a character-building year in community college I transferred to Ithaca and the Park School [of Communications]. 

Joe: Were there any pivotal points in your college career that steered you one way or the other?

Liam: I produced a show for ICTV where we did lots of sketches that incorporated chroma keying and animation and that sort of cemented that I liked the post-production side of it all.

A still from Liam's video for Trey Anastasio.

Joe: Are there any classes or experiences that you had at Ithaca that you think contributed to your success in animation and art direction?

Liam: I got a lot out of working with Mara Alper on my senior video project. I also took a number of writing classes with Elisabeth Nonas for my scriptwriting concentration. Ultimately, you kind of figure out that everything needs three acts, even 30-second spots, and if you can break that down from the beginning, it makes the work a lot easier.

Joe: You’ve done work for a large variety of clients ranging from Nickelodeon to pharmaceutical companies. Were there any clients that were particularly interesting for work with?

Liam: The best clients are the ones open to your ideas and they can be anywhere. In recent years I've done a lot of pharmaceutical work; I enjoy working on them because the budgets are good and the timelines are usually pretty reasonable, whereas cable promos and music projects usually have a very tight timeline. I try to mix it up to keep it interesting for myself as well as make money.

In terms of a particular project, I was hired to do a lyric video for Ben Harper and he and his management ended up liking it so much they released it as the official music video which was exciting.

Joe: You recently worked on a project with Trey Anastasio’s “Valentine” music video. How did you like working with Trey?

Liam: Trey and his management were really great. I've done a lot of music jobs and have worked with the artists in varying degrees but Trey was the most hands-on and really just excited by the whole process. While I was working on it, he was finishing up his album, touring with Phish and his band, and working on a Broadway play. He's a machine! And a really nice guy.

My first roommate at Ithaca was a huge Phish fan so I thought of him and the Ithaca community a lot when I was working on it.

Joe: Do you have any advice for students who want to break into the animation industry?

Liam: When you are getting started, people aren't usually terribly interested in your work because it may not be that good yet (mine definitely wasn't). Which is fine. They are looking for helpful eager people. The best way to be helpful is to know the software being used and becoming fluent in it. And then just volunteer to do whatever it takes to get work done faster.