Author Archives: Laura

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Lori Hammond

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hello my name is Lori Hammond and until recently I was the Program Director for Animation at a local Film school. Currently I am an Artist/ an Instructor/ a Consultant/and an Events coordinator for a couple of companies related to Animation & VFX industry.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Before getting into the animation industry I suppose Barista of alcohol, could be “crazy” on certain nights with certain customers. (Laughing) especially since at the time I did not drink.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite projects are perhaps “Princess and the Frog” working as a Training Specialist on that movie.  At Disney I was able to work with some amazing artists, as a trainer I got to work with Layout, Animation, EFX, Color stylist, etc. it was an amazing time teaching classes for the Disney Academy. I actually got to teach some of the greats such as Glenn Keane on some of the software for the production.  I also enjoyed a small short animation project that was started at Disney and is currently finishing up production called “Mila” by Cinzia Angelini, helping this production connect with some upcoming talent and watching that project develop has been amazing.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
Originally, I am from Illinois and I received my BFA at Northern Illinois University, where my major was Painting. I moved to New York after my undergrad days and attended Pratt Institute where I majored in Digital Arts with a focus on 3D Animation. I loved the fact that as an artist, not only could I develop more work from my original painted vision, but Continue reading

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Cara Daly

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Cara Daly,I am a children’s illustrator / artist. I also am the owner of Carla Daly Kids Wall Art. (http://www.carladaly.com) were I sell a range of wall art decor for babies and kids rooms.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Any work I have done since college has been related to my art, I have put my art on some crazy products though – Toliet seats, 3d Tshirts, door knobs, Cows (Cow Parade). You can see a little history of my work on my blog http://www.carladaly.blogspot.ie/

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I have illustrated some great kids books and one of my favorite was by a BAFTA winning author, Roy Apps called THe Twitches. It was featured on the BBC in Jackanory. Another great project I am proud to be part of is my online business selling my own designs for decorating kids rooms and nurseries http://www.carladaly.com, I started it on a very low budget and now I sell to countries all over the world.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
When I was growing up watching great animation, my favorites were Dastardly and Muttley, Top Cat, Pink Panter, Danger Mouse and many more. I loved children’s artists such as Richard Scarry, Maurice Sendak, Dr Zeus, I just love art for kids! So when I started creating my own art I had ideas for Continue reading

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Doug Vitarelli

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Doug Vitarelli. 3D animator at one of those big networks. Adjunct professor at NYU.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a roustabout for the Big Apple Circus. Spent 2 summers travelling the northeast with some seriously interesting characters.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I directed “The Buddy System”, a pilot that went nowhere but was a lot of fun to work on. Won a bunch of awards too. I was an animator on “Sonic Vision” an updated 70’s laser light show for the American Musuem of Natural Histoy’s Hayden Planetarium. Going into the theater and seeing your work projected in a dome was a ton of fun.
How did you become interested in animation?
In high school I was given “The Illusion of Life” for a Christmas present and finished reading it in 3 days. I was always Continue reading

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Gordon Kent

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Edit: Sadly, Gordon Kent passed away last year due to Cancer but his 38 year career lives on…

You can read our article on his passing here.

What is your name and your current occupation?
Gordon Kent – Animation timing director at Bento Box on Bob’s Burgers

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
I was pretty lucky to get into animation almost right out of college. However, while I was in college I spent one summer working in an auto body repair shop as a “lot boy” – the worst part of the job being cleaning the toilet – those guys were not as careful in the bathroom as they were when repairing or painting cars. I also did scrimshaw for about a year – pendants, earrings, belt buckles… lions, tigers and bears mostly (oh, my!)

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve been doing this since 1977… I worked on a show called CBS Storybreak for two seasons. I was associate producer – but my job entailed hiring character and background designers, storyboard artists and story editing (and some writing). I also was the voice director for most of them and worked with the composers and sound effects people as well as working with the engineers on the final mix. I got to learn and do a lot. That was for Buzz Potamkin at Southern Star. I also worked for him years later at both Disney TV and Hanna-Barbera. At HB I got to be Supervising Producer on a couple of movies for TV – Titles change in animation all the time – today that would be supervising director. The Flintstones’ Christmas Carol was my favorite project there. I’ve been an animation timing director since then and have been lucky enough to work on Kim Possible, Teamo Supremo, Billy and Mandy and Bob’s Burgers among dozens of other shows.

How did you become interested in animation?
It wasn’t animation per se that I loved it was just the idea of being a cartoonist. Drawing funny pictures that made people laugh. What I really wanted to do was be a strip cartoonist. I tried several strips, both alone and with a partner, but was never able to create anything that the syndicates liked enough to buy. However I did write the Rugrats comic strip for five years. I learned a lot – it’s a very tough job.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from McKeesport, PA – but we moved to Los Angeles when I was seven. I went to Cal State Northridge as an art major and in my last year I met Martin Crossly, who worked at H-B in the Xerography department. He told me that H-B was beginning a class. He told me to take a portfolio to Tiger West and tell him Martin sent me. This was in the summer of 1976. Somehow I made the cut and I was Continue reading

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Shaun “Ormagoden” Patterson

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My Name is Shaun “Ormagoden” Patterson and I am a 2D/3D Artist & Producer working for a small video games studio in Prince Edward Island Canada.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve had lots of different jobs from: Art directing an Indie film, Working as a window dresser for a major retail company and even directing live to air stock car racing for a local TV station.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I just finished producing a game for a major brand in the states and that was a really cool experience. It fun any time you get to work with an established brand such as A&E TV shows and Six Flags.

How did you become interested in animation?
I have been an artist all my life and after realizing that Continue reading

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Jason Fittipaldi

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http://vimeo.com/100823735

What is your name and your current occupation?
Jason Fittipaldi – Animator

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Putting letters on those signs that fly behind planes. You would have to construct the sign banners (kind of like putting letters on a movie theater marquee) in this hot, buggy field. Then, you would set it up on this goal post construct with a tight rope across the top. The plane would fly low with a big hook hanging from the bottom and (most times) snag the tight rope at the top and take off with the new sign. You would have to break down the one it just dropped and set up another for the next round. We had an ongoing wager with the company next to us in this makeshift airfield that any signs that went up backwards, upside down, or wrong and you had to buy the other team a case of beer.  Right before going into animation full time, I wore every hat possible at a small construction company that sold prefabricated buildings worldwide. Everything from Marketing and Sales to IT and Conceptual AutoCad project drawings.  What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?  I really enjoyed the creature work we did on Underworld: Awakening. We got to work very closely with the directors on that project and had a lot of creative freedom for some of the sequences (which is not always the case).  Thor was one of my first professional projects, so that definitely sits pretty high on the memories list as well. Animating some of the Destroyer shots on that show was a blast.  Right after that, we moved onto X-Men: First Class, but we didn’t get to do any character or creature work on it (other than digital doubles for vfx). We did animate a lot of the super power fx for Havok, Banshee, and  Darwin. X-Men was one of my favorite comics growing up so the younger version of myself was hitting me with all kinds of high-fives from the past.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I grew up mostly in Southern New Jersey and have spent a lot of time in Florida as well. When I was younger (about ages 4-5), my grandmother had a couple of flipbooks of things like ballroom dancers that I found. They were incredibly fascinating to me and I started to make my own flipbooks on sticky note pads. Every single one of Continue reading