"Alien Song" is a film that came across my desk a few years ago, sent to me by a friend. That's how most people probably saw the film... it was forwarded from email account to email account in a truly viral fashion.

Victor Navone is the animator responsible for this infectious little clip. It's fun, it's sassy, and well done. The gestures and facial expressions of this one-eyed alien put most animators to shame. I would credit the film for his getting hired at Pixar, although he swears that the one-eyed design of his Blit character had nothing to do with the one-eyed monster Mike in Pixar's Monsters Inc.

Have a look at the clip that introduced many of us to Victor Navone:

"This clip was never supposed to be famous. It was really never intended for anyone outside of the 3D animation community to see. It was just a practice exercise as I was teaching myself the art of character animation. It took on a life of it's own, though, and turbo-charged my career. It got me in the door at Pixar. It's given me opportunities to speak at conventions and festivals around the world. And yes, there has been some money.

Sometimes people write me and ask me to do another Blit musical animation. Or worse, they want me to create another such animation for their "viral marketing" campaign. Not only am I uninterested in repeating myself, I don't think I'd be able to recreate the success of Alien Song. This animation struck a chord with people and I'm not entirely clear why, so I'm not going to drive myself crazy trying to do it again. I've got plenty of other original ideas to pursue, and thanks to this androgynous monocular alien I've got the chance to show the world my stuff."

       --Victor Navone, October, 2003