"VIZA 627 (Design Communication III) is a course in which every summer they bring in reps from the industry," Phillips said. "They help us through production of a short animated film."

Phillips said that as a TA, his role is to be an immediate source of help for students. The other TAs help with animation, modeling and programming.

"I help the class with the technical aspects of doing their project," Phillips said.

But Phillips doesn't consider himself to be anyone's teacher, and likes to keep his relationships with students on a peer level.

"To me, it's just helping friends," Phillips said. "They are my fellow students."

Josh Rowe, a graduate student in visualization sciences, said that Phillips is always busy as a TA in the visualization lab.

"Kurt, at any one time, is helping with seven different projects," Rowe said.

Jessica Riewe, a graduate student in visualization sciences, said Phillips is a talented visualization student, and that he recently received a scholarship from Pixar.

Phillips works 20 hours a week and gets paid about $14 an hour, and this is his third semester as a TA. Phillips plans to move on to a much more intense job upon graduation.

"I'd very much like to move to California and work for Pixar, Industrial Light Magic or Rhythm and Hues," Phillips said.

Once Phillips gets to California, the unofficial national headquarters for the visualization industry, he would like to focus his career on compositing fields, wherein multiple multimedia formats are combined. Phillips said the "Star Wars" movies are good examples of compositing fields.

"They'll have some background footage from a model, actors will be shot on a blue screen, and there will be computer-generated characters and effects like smoke and fire," Phillips said.

Phillips said compositing fields come with a certain level of artistic freedom and that of all the animated films that Pixar has produced, his favorite is "Toy Story."

"I liked the story and humor mostly," Phillips said.

Phillips said he enjoys animation as a hobby and hopes to join the growing number of Aggies in Hollywood who are an integral part of the animated film industry.

By Ashley Dias
Battalion News Writer
The Battalion/Texas A&M University