Author Archives: Laura

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Jez Hall

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What is your name and your current occupation?
I’m Jez Hall and I’m currently series director on Fleabag Monkeyface.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I haven’t really had any proper jobs, let alone crazy….. I was an illegal wine waiter once. Illegal as in I was only 16. I wasn’t some kind on Pinot Grigio gangster. Drive by cork popping… I then drew comics before getting in to animation.  Animation is crazier than pouring wine.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Theres lots. I’ve been doing it over twenty years so it would be a big list. The list of projects I’m not proud of would be way bigger.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
People paid me money. Continue reading

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Martin McBain

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Martin McBain and I’m a Cinematics Director. I’ve most recently worked at Pinewood Studios on a super huge movie, having previously spent 13 years working in the games industry as both a Lead Gameplay and Lead Cinematics Animator/Director.
 
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
My first job involved site surveys; either I’d be working on technical drawings or else I’d grab my hard hat and theodolite to visit sites around the UK. Fortunately, I got into animation not long after!
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Whilst there are many projects that I loved being part of, being a huge gamer, and a massive fan of Rare’s GoldenEye, it was an enormous honour to be working on the re-imagining of GoldenEye. We spent a huge amount of time looking at what made the original so great and, as GoldenEye fans ourselves, what we would want to see in the game. Our goal was to bring this classic into the modern gaming era, and my task, in particular, was to create a more contemporary, bolder, cinematic experience for the player. As fate would have it, after Eurcocom closed its doors, Rare immediately offered me a position – I was absolutely thrilled to bring my industry experience to a studio that, as a massive fan of their games, I grew up admiring.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m originally from Greenock, Scotland. Whilst playing games was a huge part of my childhood, despite the calls from my dad to ‘stop playing those games, they will get you nowhere!’, a job in gaming wasn’t really a career option, being more of a niche undeveloped industry.  As a result, I opted to pursue a career in Architecture. Now don’t get me wrong, I love calculating heat loss and thermal conductivity as much as the next guy, but this wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind – creating great visuals and designs turned out to be a tiny part of the job.  Then it all changed, one day, when flicking through a creative arts magazine, there it was: an advert, a glorious full page spread showcasing 3d Studio release 3 – the original dos version ( thats non-Windows, to all the kids ) – before they brought out Max. Now, as I say, this changed everything for me. I rushed out and purchased the software and manual, Inside 3d Studio R3, and read that cover to cover. I then stared creating visuals, mainly based around architecture and product design, but I soon started to introduce characters and animation – bringing life to my renders. The guys at Eurocom saw my work and offered me a position as Senior Animator; this changed the direction of my career and led me to do what I love for a living.

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Mike Carlo

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Mike Carlo and I’m an Animation Director/ Director at Titmouse Inc.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
 I was an usher at a movie theater when I was in high school, and was subjected to wearing a really dorky uniform. I was also a Continue reading

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Jeff Liu

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What is your name and your current occupation? 

My name’s Jeff Liu and I’m an animator at JibJab Media Inc.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I actually started pursuing animation in high school so I haven’t had many jobs before I got into it. I used to teach private Karate lessons for younger kids at the dojo I went to haha.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I really enjoyed working on the opening for the 2011 CalArts Producers’ Show. I came up with the idea to have everyone (who was interested) animate something coming out of a box. We then put everyone’s animation together and it turned out to be really cool! It was also a cool representation of the wide range of styles among the students.

How did you become interested in animation? 
I remember seeing Flash at my friend’s house one time when I was in middle school. I thought Continue reading

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Pat Giles

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Pat Giles, and I am a Creative Director and co-founder (with Manny Galan) of Pat-Man Studios in New York City. We have several big Agency/Advertising clients. We currently run the creative assignments for several General Mills kids brands like Lucky Charms, TRIX, GoGurt and Honey Nut Cheerios for Saatchi & Saatchi. We partner with animation houses like Calabash and Laika, and cartoon gods like Sergio Aragones and others to make commercials, video games, short films, etc. We are also working on several series projects with Classic Media that aren’t announced yet, and we are in production on a project called “Captain Cornelius Cartoon’s Cartoon Lagoon” that will be out by the end of the year, whether it kills us or not.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked in children’s clothing for many years (not wearing it to work, but designing it). I designed tons (literally) of licensed products for Disney, Lucasfilm, Marvel, DC and Warner Bros., among others. The oddest was the line of “Hunchback of Notre Dame” pajamas I designed. While I am not knocking the artistry behind that film, Quasimodo made for some very odd pajamas.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve been extraordinarily lucky to work on a lot of awesome projects. Back in the day, I started out as a designer on “Disney’s Doug,” art directed the Disney Channel series “Stanley,” was the Design Supervisor on MTV’s “Daria,” and worked on several other series in various capacities. I started a comic book company called “Monkeysuit Press” with Chris McCulloch (aka Jackson Publick), Mike Foran, Miguel Martinez-Joffre and Prentis Rollins. That was really fun and liberating. Several years ago everyone thought I left “animation,” but taking an ad agency assignment only got me deeper into it, since all of my assignments were for these beloved American brands with animated characters like Lucky, the Trix Rabbit, Buzz, and Sonny the Cuckoo Bird. The craft applied to these commercials is magnificent. I get to work with animators, directors, CG artists, painters, composers, orchestras, engineers, voice actors, and a lot of live action/animation combos with great directors, actors and cinematographers. It’s been a blast.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
“At Conception,” hahaha…I was just hard wired for animation and Continue reading

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Luis Gadea

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Luis Gadea. I’m currently a freelance animator/concept artist and I’m gonna start working as a Flash animator for TV series.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I only had one real job before starting in animation. I was a salesman in a call center for a telephone company from Argentina, then thankfully I was hired really young in an animation studio for commercials.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I really don’t have one specific favorite. I think I have learned from every project and each one has given me new skills for the next one. I do have to say that working on commercials was a great experience because each one was very different from the other.

How did you become interested in animation?
At first I didn’t quite know about animation. Since I remember I’ve liked drawing. I remember as a kid I loved Disney, Warner, Hanna-Barbera, UPA and all the classics. I have a good friend older than me who started in Continue reading