Dave Redl

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked in construction building low income housing in Newark NJ where I saw a 10 year old strip an abandoned car under a minute while nailing up roofing shingles.  I worked in a garden center that was struck by lightning and crashed a golf cart used to transport flats of geraniums because I was listening to Led Zeppelin on my Walkman.  I worked a night shift at a factory loading clothes onto trucks with a dude named Steve, also a Zeppelin fan, who proudly showed me a corner in the rafters that was hidden from security cameras, perfect for naps and complete with a potato sac bed.  Unfortunately, I split before solving the mystery of which restroom was used by fellow co-worker, “Roberto” who had ridiculously enormous and feminine breasts.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
All of them.  If they put food on the table and made my boss happy… I was proud of them.  Not every gig you get looks good, possibly due to “tweaking” or “corporate politics” so you must find pride in doing what you can with what you got.  For example, I was Layout Animation Supervisor, where I drew nothing for a TV show canceled during production!  But the people I worked with had kind things to say.  That left me proud of being a good boss even though I have nothing on my reel to show for it.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
For as long as I can remember.  But growing up on The Smurfs, I preferred

cartooning for print as I liked the idea of being a one man show and not animating something like… The Smurfs.  But as the comic strip industry wained the internet / new media industry took off, in part due to Flash, so I made the jump to animation.

What part of your job do you like least? Why?
When I have no objective before me and no idea how to get there.  Times like that, fear becomes paralyzing.

What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
Networking.  There is no class that teaches how to get work because it’s a human condition we’re taught our whole life.  It’s a “class” we are in from birth.  Think of the hot girl in high school.  If you really look at her she’s not that hot at all.  Perhaps she’s a bit heavy, out of shape, has bad hair, or wears too much make-up and  has a really horrible personality.  You mention another girl who IS smoking, but since she’s not in the right click, she’s overlooked.  You start to think you’re flawed not seeing what everyone else sees, until the reunion years later and the girl once deemed “hot” is not, while your pick is now fawned over.  Then the conversation turns to, “I told you guys that years ago!”   The animation business is like that, where the best person for the job is not the person who gets the job, rather the one who runs with the right click.  This is not specific to animation as it is a human condition.

In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
Everyday.  I’ve seen some guys completely imagine a cartoon in their head and as if they were tracing over it, drew a perfect character in one shot on paper.  But I’ve seen great web cartoons and comic strips that no one’s ever seen which left lasting impressions and inspirations on me.  Greatness is not just the known.  It’s what inspires you.

 

Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?
Once I contemplated quitting cartoons and animation after not finding work and eventually running across a potential boss who told me to quit my aspirations as a cartoonist for a real job.  I had a postcard of my hero Hal Mayforth and for the hell of it called what I assumed to be a disconnected number.  Hal answered on the 1st ring, “Hal Mayforth!”  I stammered my name and explained I was a fan of his and that after much failure was considering quitting cartooning.  He interrupted me in anger and said, “Look… first of all, do you want to be a cartoonist?”  I answered sheepishly… “Well yeah…”  “Okay… then the first thing you gotta do is tell everyone to go fuck themselves!”   I was so surprised by the blunt over the phone smack in the face I in retrospect wished I had recorded it for replay when someone asks advice to get in the business of drawing silly little pictures for a living.  The answer is, “don’t give up”.  Also, if you should spot “Roberto” with the big ba-zooms lurking about in New Jersey clothing factories, end the mystery of which restroom Bobby ventures into!