After graduating from PGSS, local boy Keith Baxter couldn't decide whether to follow a career in music or art, so he chose both.
Initially, leaning toward a music career, Baxter moved to Los Angeles.
"This was before the Internet and I didn't know whether to be an artist or musician - I loved them both equally and I didn't even know how to go about finding an art school. I was reading a copy of Guitar Player magazine and the Musicians Institute had an ad in it and that's how I chose what I was going to do."
Baxter said he played music for a living for a number of years and then took his art work to a number of animation studios and was hired immediately at a company called Filmation. The company is no longer in business.
"I worked my way up," said Baxter. "I started as a character designer, then a couple of years later I got hired at Warner Brothers."
That's when he started work on Steven Speilberg's Tiny Toons and after that he became director of the Taz-mania series. From there Baxter studied computer animation and then he went back to Warner Brothers and worked on one of the first computer generated cartoons called Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension, which was also a theme-park attraction in Movie World theme parks in Germany and Australia.
Baxter continued to write and play music throughout his career in animation and also wrote a lot for Warner Brothers.
I did the theme for Mask, the animated series, said Baxter, and the theme song for the Beethoven animated series.
After that, Baxter got hired away from Warner Brothers by DreamWorks, and Baxter was given the task of writing all the songs for the Toonsylvania series.
Disney was Baxter's next stop where he worked on the Tigger movie and the Piglet movie, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas and a feature movie called Home on the Range. He also worked on Flushed Away, Madagascar II, Shark Tale and Despicable Me.
It was Baxter they video taped when it came time to animate Jackman's character, Roddy, playing the ukulele in Flushed Away.
"They taped me playing the sequence and then the animator co-ordinated Roddy to match my fingers," said Baxter.
Baxter comes back to Prince George frequently to give talks and present workshops to schools about his career in animation and music.
"This is the first time I've come back to Prince George to play music," said Baxter, whose life-long friend Tim Yule made the arrangements for the concerts and workshop.
"At the concerts I will be doing a collection of standards as well as a song that my brother (Neil) wrote," said Baxter.
Baxter also manages careers in music and animation and has written original songs for movies like Flushed Away, including the song called Ice Cold Rita, performed by Hugh Jackman, and has worked as an artist on movies like Dispicable Me and Shrek the Halls.
Baxter will be returning to Prince George to play jazz guitar at Hummus Brothers Tapas Bar at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $10 with reservation by calling 250-562-7344.
Baxter will also take part in a jazz improvisation workshop on Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at Sound Factory.
Admission is $40. For more information and to register call 250-649-0134.
