Nathan Engelhardt is a supervising animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Nathan was born and raised in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, in a little town called Inverness. After that, he attended the Savannah College of Art and Design where he majored in Animation. 4.5 years and a lot of money later, he was a certified animator! At least that’s what the paper they gave me said. After college, he attended a few classes at Animation Mentor as a pseudo grad school.
Nathan was attending Animation Mentor, when Blue Sky first called him up. Looking back, he probably shouldn’t have been hired based on his reel, but it’s for this reason he is grateful for production crunches. It gives the really green people an opportunity to prove themselves.
Share an interesting or funny learning experience on that first job.
It was Sunday, the day before he began his first real feature job. The taxi had dropped him off at the corporate housing after taking a red eye from California. Exhausted from all the travel and schlepping of bags, he proceeded to check into my room so he could pass out ASAP. When the elevator doors opened, a smiley guy named Adam Green got in and rode up with him. He politely made small talk and asked whether Nathan was also temping for Blue Sky or not. He was "out of it" to say the least, but he replied yes, and asked him where the studio was. Adam gave him directions the best he could while pointing at elevator walls, then got out at his floor and they said goodbye. He found out later Adam thought he was standoffish in their elevator encounter. His tired Nathan-isms were foreign to him and Nathan must’ve rubbed him the wrong way accidentally. The lesson here is: be nice to everyone, no matter how tired or stressed you are because you never know who they are or how they will impact your life. They might just be one of your future best friends.
