Frans Vischer

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Frans Vischer. I am an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation.  I am also an author/illustrator. I have two children’s books published, Fuddles and Jimmy Dabble, and another book being published next year.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
In high school I did weekend janitorial work at a Montessori school, and I was a lousy busboy at a Mexican restaurant, spilling trays and breaking lots of plates. I delivered pizza for a single night after my 2nd year at Cal Arts, (when thankfully an animation job came through.)

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” “Cats Don’t Dance” “Back To Neverland,” “Back to Neverland” “Michael and Mickey” “The Night of the Living Duck,” (a Daffy Duck short.)

 

How did you become interested in animation?
When I was thirteen, my mother sent some of my drawings to the Disney studio. Don Duckwall, the aptly named animation department production manager, wrote back inviting us to visit the studio whenever we were in the area. We lived in Cupertino, in Northern California, and the following summer we vacationed in Southern California, and made part of our plans to visit the Disney studio in Burbank. I met Mr. Duckwall, as well as Ed Hansen, who would succeed him in the job, (and later become my boss.) I also met a number of animators, who inspired me to make my own animated films. My parents bought me a used 8 mm. camera, and my dad built a light box with a set of pegs, and I jumped right in and started experimenting.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. When I was eleven, my family moved to the United Sates. During high school I met Chuck Jones at a talk he gave at a junior college. I wanted to show him one of my Continue reading

Lionel Freitas

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Lionel Freitas, I’m graduated in advertising and also a freelance animator and illustrator.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
The craziest job I had was working as an office boy during the week and taught drawing and football full-time on Saturday and Sunday for underprivileged childrenduring 4 years.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
So far I did not participate of any major project, only small illustration work for magazines and animations for mobile games.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
Like everybody, watching great classics on TV like Woody Woodpecker and Tom and Jerry since I was little. But only after watching Lion King at the movies I decided that in some way I would like to work with drawing.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Brazil.I don’t consider me totally inside of that market, since Continue reading

Lotte Reiniger, animation pioneer, predated Walt Disney by more than a decade

Vox has an article about Lotte Reiniger – commemorated in today’s Google Doodle – who in 1926 released the first animated feature film which was apparently beat Disney to the punch by 10 years. The film was so unprecedented “no theatre dared show it.

Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation: Hand-making detailed black cardboard cutouts put together with wire hinges, she would bring her puppets to life by capturing small movements frame by frame on a multi-plane camera with a strong backlight. It took Reiniger, and her partner Charles Koch, three years and 96,000 frames to make The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

Disney’s Moana

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On November 23, the Rock is set to make his mark on the Disney Universe as Maui, a demigod who’s playing companion to the newest Disney princess, Moana. The film is coming out of Disney Animation Studios (not Pixar), and it’s being directed by the same guys who did Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. If the plot of a young woman embarking on a journey to save her family doesn’t have you excited, then the film’s music might just turn your head. Not only is the film being orchestrated and soundtracked by Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda, but they’re going to make Dwayne Johnson rap, so …

Roja Huchez

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Roja Huchez.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
When I was a kid I used to work in the automotive industry handing out car parts to Mechanics. I realized early in life I needed to go to school to get a better life otherwise I’d be doing that type of work for the rest of my life. A great job, but it wasn’t for me, I needed to do art.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I worked on some characters in the movie Avatar among other films in a studio in New Zealand. It was a humbling experience being part of such a talented team. I learned a lot and hopefully now can share that knowledge wherever I go.
How did you become interested in animation?
Same old story as everybody else I guess. I was one of those kids who stayed in to draw. Mostly copying comic book covers. All the way through school I found Continue reading