Rare Magazine, 'Up and Comers' Issue
By Amy Wald | Photo by Carlos Benavides
Published January 2010, pg 8-9
Shortly after graduating from Baylor University with a graphic design degree in 2004, Sacco landed a position as one of fifty animators for Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, the 2006 film starring Keanu Reaves, Winona Rider, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson. Notorious for its use of a design process called "interpolated rotoscoping," this opportunity allowed Sacco to dive head-first into the world of digital animation, and it put other just-out-of-college jobs to shame.
"Getting Scanner was the thing that puts my foot in the door every time," Sacco says of how his first professional position influenced his career. "It gave me instant credibility among a lot of people."
After completing the film, Sacco put this credibility, along with his newfound expertise in vector illustrations, to use by creating an Adobe Illustrator tutorial for those who aspire to imitate the movie's animation techniques. The tutorial was a huge hit, and it became one of Sacco's many post-Scanner accomplishments, on a list the includes providing illustrations for ESPN Magazine.
Locally, Sacco went on to earn notoriety with the mural he painted on the side of South Austin Music, located on South Lamar. The piece, which features thirty Austin-area musicians, is a testament to Sacco's versatility and ability to capture the intricacies of human expression through various mediums.
"I think that [for] artists, there's not really a specific career path," explains Sacco of his work's diversity. "You just have to roll with the punches and see where it takes you. Most of things I've been involved in, I never would have imagined. And it was much better than I ever dreamed it would be."
One thing that does remain consistent, however, is Sacco's love for art.
"The first month that I was working, I just kept thinking to myself 'I can't believe I'm getting paid to draw.' I always knew that art was what I wanted to do, but there's just so much false information out there that artists can't make a living."
Sacco proves that the starving artist myth is just that. In the wake of his personal projects and success on the big screen, it was not long before he found his work gracing a smaller one. Sacco was commissioned to use his rotoscoping expertise to illustrate a series of animated Charles Schwab TV commercials. Upon airing, the campaign boosted Schwab's business by fifty percent, thus affirming the appeal and power of Sacco's work.
Aaron Sacco doesn't merely steal the show, he helps create it - scene by scene and frame by frame. So whether you're simply channel-surfing during a commercial break or going for a drive down South Lamar, you just might discover Sacco's art has found a way to animate your life.
