Trish grew up in Montreal, Quebec. Many ILMrs may remember her as Trish Schutz. She grew up the youngest in her family with two older sisters. Her mother was a creative influence with painting, drawing, and sewing throughout Trish’s childhood. Her dad was a dentist. Trish attended Catholic school and after high school she took her first animation and art classes. She later graduated from Sheridan College in Ontario for computer animation.
In 1986 Trish went to SIGGRAPH in Boston at the recommendation of a teacher and discovered a realm of possibilities of ways to put her degree to work. Her first job out of school was working independently for about 8 months doing animation for education videos teaching math (also a favorite subject in school). A former animation teacher from Sheridan came knocking on her door encouraging her to apply for an internship at PDI. In 1993 she left Canada to work at PDI/Dreamworks in Santa Clara, California.
In 1994, after her internship Trish applied for jobs at Pixar, Rhythm & Hues, and ILM. She got a job offer from ILM to come work on Casper. Trish’s ILM credits include; Casper, Mars Attacks!, Spawn, The Phantom Menace, ET: The Special Edition, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Jurassic Park III, Pirates of the Caribbean, to name just a few. After about 9 years ILM, Trish returned to work at Dreamworks in Redwood City where she worked on Shrek 2 and Madagascar fulfilling an interest in working on fully animated features.
After the birth of her first daughter she decided to work freelance and worked for ILM and The Orphanage on different projects in a 911 capacity without the need for a full-time commitment. With the arrival of her second daughter she worked for a time at Tippett Studios. In 2009 her vision started to falter slightly and a following cataract surgery she left the business.
With her mother’s passing Trish decided to answer a calling to completely change careers and become a nurse. After going back to school, Trish is now an RN working full-time helping people in (from my POV) one of the most noble and selfless pursuits. Today she lives with her family in the Bay Area and brings her infectious positivity, kindness, and her keen animator’s observation skills, to her work as a nurse.
On a personal note, when I started this podcast I was so excited to eventually talk with Trish as I find her mid-career shift to be absolutely inspiring. Her story is a great life lesson for anyone who wants to shift gears.
