Who I am

My name is Joël Gibbs, and I am currently a director  and lead compositor at Magnetic Dreams animation studio in Nashville, Tennessee. I was born and raised in Saint-Nazaire France. I went to the Université de Haute Bretagne Rennes 2 where I graduated with a Masters in Art in 2003. I then pursued my university studies for an extra two years and got another Masters in Multimedia Product Creation. The second masters required that I pursue an internship. So in 2005, I came to the Nashville, to Magnetic Dreams for a 6 month internship to complete my studies. They decided they wanted to keep here, and I’ve been in nashville ever since.

What I do

Though I find myself loving directing projects, my involvement in projects is multifaceted.  From initial concept to final frame, I’m usually involved in the whole creation process. I roam the 2.5D world between 2D and 3D software. I’m often involved in storyboarding, and then take on 3D layout. Choosing that perfect angle with the right focal length bringing the composition home is where the magic happens.  For the nitty gritty of the production, that’s where everything is dispatched to the experts. I love the team player side of this, when you know that each person in there department is going to do an awesome job, and tell their part of the story. When you can work with all these moving parts, coordinate them, and guide them,  the end product is always  so much more than the sum of the parts. I usually hop back into production bringing things together in compositing and all that it entail to get your final frame.  I’ve been compositing in After Effects for since 2005, and have more recently delved in to the joys of node based compositing in Fusion.

I also have a strong interest in the big picture of production, sorting out workflows and establishing pipelines. I’m always trying to find ways to make things more efficient for the studio. Not that I could code anything…numbers give me a head ache. But in trying to see the big picture I try to get a feel for how things should fit together, where you loose time, where you gain flexibility.

What I like

I like comic and cartoons and movies! Avatar: the Last Air Bender, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, or more recently Wakfu are amongst my favorites cartoon these days. I even sit down in the mornings with my kids before going to work and watch cartoons on PBS. I’m also in the process of writing my own animated series. I’m sure I’ll get a website up for it soon. Movies? I love them also. I would go to the movie theater more often if it wasn’t so expensive. I guess I’m more of a Blu-ray guy. I do happen to get outside some. Traveling, hiking, and playing soccer are great!