We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jack Tenbusch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jack thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

SymBionic, my animated short film, would fall into the “passion project” category. Its concept was one I had been dead set on making since transferring into art school, and it was a real challenge for a few reasons, the first and foremost being that it was a solo project where I would be doing every step of animation myself. That along with having less than a year to work on it because I was a transfer student meant I had to hit the ground running!

Thankfully, I wasn’t a stranger to working solo – I had gotten into art school to begin with by making Perspective, my first animated short that taught me just how much work was involved in every element of animation, and the time investment. In order to make what I imagined for SymBionic and its story within the deadline, I spent every break between semesters working on it. Once my supportive professor saw the storyboard animatic, he greenlit me to work on the film full time.

So I just went for it. I didn’t let myself get frozen or intimidated by how much had to be done – I just kept on the grind, embraced every new skill I had to learn to make what I had pictured in my head a reality, and stuck to my self-imposed work hours every day. What carried me initially was discipline, but then once it all began to gel – moments where I’d see what the fully finished film would look like a frame or scene at a time – I was on fire. I was doing everything I wanted to do most: telling a story I was dying to, and creating a window into my imagination right there on the screen.

I learned so much about every step of animation production, its software, and the multitude of techniques that were required for my vision to be fully realized. Finishing it, then seeing it go on to be selected and awarded in film festivals I’m honored to have been part of, has given me with my greatest sense of meaning to date. It’s informed me on every project I’ve been a part of since, such as my most recent: the animated music video for Laurie Geltman’s “Radio.” As a collaborative project between Geltman, Juliet Gilden, and myself, that keen understanding my workflow and process was huge, and I’m glad to continue learning with each new experience.

Jack, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a 2D animator and storyboard artist who’s created a lot of works solo and on small teams, so I’ve become something of a jack of all trades capable of every step involved in the 2D animation process from pre to post production!

Storytelling is at the heart of everything I do. From conception to completion, I take whatever idea a client might have for an animated work and help them visualize it through the initial concept art, storyboard animatic, and then the 2D animation production from rough to cleanup. Personally, I have a special affinity for cleanup and storyboarding/revisions.

Everything I’ve ever drawn has a story attached to it, and for the most part, the narratives I create are about hope. Light in a dark world or situation shines all the brighter, and tales I depict are often based around that determined struggle to make things better. Accordingly, I strive to create characters who bare their hearts in their expressions, body language, and mannerisms – it’s those elements that impart a sense of life, and an empathy the audience can root for. Sharp, stylized designs with distinct silhouettes are my favorite to draw, ranging from cute to creepy – and especially a mix of the two.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Something I wish I’d known more about earlier in my artistic career is the importance of finding your community as an artist, and more specifically, those that are online on platforms such as Discord.

Posting and commenting on each other’s artwork is nothing new, so during most of my education, the topic of online interaction was largely brushed over for being a given. In the wake of lockdown, however, there’s a lot more awareness to its potential, and that merits focus. It can be a game-changer if you take the time to poke your head in and engage with these online groups, and they’re always there for you wherever you’re at in your creative journey.

In my case, just on a whim, I joined a Discord group and starting streaming what I was working on, which was largely the creation of my animated thesis film. This was back during the middle of lockdown, so despite how weird it was to hop into a public voice chat and broadcast my work for anyone to see, it was functionally similar to being in a classroom, workshop, or studio. I was just working on art that anyone online could see in passing as if standing over my shoulder, and as quickly of an icebreaker it is in real life, someone joined the voice chat channel to watch and ask what I was doing.

Then someone else would join in. Then others, who then started streaming what they were working on too, and before any of us had really realized it, we were meeting up in a snowball effect. Friendships were being formed – connections were made simply by our drive to create and tell stories – and we were all being inspired by one another. That’s how it goes when you’re among creatives! You bounce off each other, get new ideas just from chatting, and share the energy to keep working and keep creating.

In just a few short months, I was being invited to help run the creative and recreational events organized by the animator who owned the server. I’ve met and befriended so many wonderful artists, made connections among professionals and hobbyists alike, and even met many of these people in real life. It’s a network, right there whenever I want it, and with it comes a sense of belonging I never realized I needed until I had it.

When you’re a creative, finding your people is one of if not THE most important step of your journey. With exception to those who isolate as part of their method, artists and creatives are communal – we find our drive in one another and share our passion. Yet, despite how available the means of finding our kindred spirits has become, the stories about how we fell in with our teams and communities are usually just preludes to discussions about other topics.

Personally, I think there needs to be more emphasis on finding your people as an artist, because it is the connections we make with like minds that help support our growth. You can always refine your skills to be as masterful as anything you want to be, but the real secret sauce of creativity – that coveted and elusive lighting in a bottle we call inspiration – can be found many times through the people next to us on their own journeys.

Meaningful and even lifelong connections are there to be found by those who seek them, and too many don’t know where or how to begin that process. People need to know what’s out there sooner rather than later, and with how tough the world can be for us, we can’t let artists feel alone in it – so please, talk about it!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

While there are a lot of rewarding elements I can talk about when it comes to creative work, one of my favorites — and certainly the one that leads to a plethora of inspiration and opportunity — is how what you create can spark something in other people. After all, it’s how we all get started: we see or remember something that activates our imagination, and from that, became the cartographers of the worlds in our heads by producing own works of art in whatever medium suits us best.

As I mentioned with how important a community is for artists, creative energy is something that’s shared and gifted when we congregate, and it’s unbelievably potent fuel. Beyond that, people will come across your work who may not even consider themselves to be artists, but either by being immediately inspired or remembering what you made later down the road, they may be inclined to try their hand at it for the first time.

Frankly, that’s how artists are made. We’re always multiplying ourselves by showing the world what we create, and when you’re actually TOLD that your work prompted someone else to step up and begin their own, there really is no finer a feeling.      

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jacktenbusch.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakkrabbitart/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tenbusch-573b69206
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jakkrabbitart