Author Archives: Laura

One Comment

Mark Simon

  By


This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
Mark Simon, Producer, director, story artist. I currently own 3 businesses: Animatics & Storyboards, Inc. (www.Storyboards-East.com) A&S Animation, Inc (www.FunnyToons.tv) Sell Your TV Concept Now, Inc (www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com) Currently boarding commercials, directing animated pilots and working on WB’s Hong Kong Phooey feature. Produced the animation on Fox’s Tooth Fairy 2 with Larry the Cable Guy which was just released on DVD.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve worked in Hollywood since I graduated college. I started off in live-action and still work a lot in live action.
Before that I designed and built my own line of skateboards for Schwinn when I was 12. I published a magazine in college called The Belligerent Beacon. I had a syndicated comic strip called Hollyweird, a parody of Hollywood with animals as the characters which is currently on www.sunnyfundays.com.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
seaQuest DSV with Spielberg was awesome. Biggest show on TV. Spielberg. Awesome food all day. Spielberg. Sci-fi. Spielberg. Did I mention Spielberg?  My series Timmy’s Lessons In Nature is always one of my favorites. That’s the one we won the first Grand Prize in the Nicktoons Film Festival and it also appeared in Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted and with Happy Tree Friends & Friends. I love that Timmy is too stupid to talk or to understand pain. Now that’s dumb. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN3hp9QthQI
I’m also partial to anything I’m currently working on. I get totally stoked working out story elements and creating new projects.

How did you become interested in animation?
Loved it since I was a kid, like most of us. I was doing little animations at home. My dad found a studio in Houston and set up for them to show me around their studio. We took measurements from their discs and built our own Continue reading

No comments

Kali Fontecchio

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
Kali Fontecchio and I currently work at Walt Disney Animation as a designer.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well nothing too crazy, my first job out of high school was actually as an art director on a cellphone massive multiplayer game. It was before anyone was doing that in the US so it didn’t really take off.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite projects have been here at Disney, but I’m not allowed to discuss them. Of the ones I can mention, probably The Looney Tunes Show, Yo! Gabba Gabba, Rick and Morty and various John K. projects. I’m proud of every opportunity I get, but whatever the most current project I’m on becomes my favorite.
How did you become interested in animation?
Watching Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny growing up inspired my love of cartoons, also Continue reading

No comments

Brent J. Zorich

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


What is your name and your current occupation?
Brent J. Zorich and I am the Chief Technology Officer of BRENT ZORICH PRODUCTIONS, LLC.What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
One summer during industrial design school in the 90s at Ohio State I worked as a bouncer at a dueling piano bar named Howl at The Moon. I didn’t realize it when I took the summer gig, but occasionally throughout the night the staff had to get on stage and dance to songs from Grease… ah, the memories.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I played MADDEN growing up so getting to be a lead rigger on that was pretty rewarding. Seeing my name in Star Wars credits was really rewarding also. I loved sitting in dailies critiquing shots on TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. My favorite intellectual property is actually HARRY POTTER; at Lucasfilm Animation Singapore I was in charge of arranging sequences for monthlies in addition to my regular tasks. The monthlies that I arranged were for HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE and I got to work with the raw footage of Daniel Radcliff and see the before and after… really fun. The music I used in the backdrop when I showed to sequence to the all staff was Eulogy by Tool. I remember being at Lucasfilm in San Francisco and opening up a script for Indiana Jones written by Steven Spielberg and realizing I made it! I loved going through executive training at Lucasfilm, it was a weeklong through the executive trainer, Larry Seal, and I was being prepped to run a studio. I also enjoyed being on the Lucasfilm Best Practices Steering Committee that set the direction for all digital assets in regards to Lucasfilm Animation, LucasArts, and Industrial Light and Magic. There were about ten of us on the committee.  But, I’d have to say the most rewarding experience was in Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and my film game convergence group that I was in took the television version of Ahsoka Tanu, Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan, and I modified it so it would work in the Unreal Engine. We showed it directly to George Lucas when he came to see the studio in summer of 2008 and he couldn’t tell the difference between my Ahsoka rendering on the XBOX 360 and the version used on television.

How did you become interested in animation?
Three years old in summer of 1977, “A long time ago in a galaxy, far, far, away….” You’ll figure it out.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I am from Columbus, Ohio and I got into the animation business by Continue reading

No comments

Andrew Martin

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?

Andrew Martin, 3D Artist and Animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
Worked part-time in a Vegetarian restaurant in Soho as a ‘Stir Fry Cook’ whilst I was looking for animation opportunities in London.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?

I have just completed the first part of my short film called ‘Hola’ which is very special to me. The concept, characters, design and animation are all my own work created over the last year. I collaborated with my friend’s band ‘Dusty Plankton’ on the sound track; I’m really proud of how it’s turned out. The whole process was a great learning curve.  I also created and animated the Mascot for the Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games 2011; I was born on the Isle of Man so I was very proud to be asked to design the Manx Symbol for the International Games.

How did you become interested in animation?Ever since I was a child I’ve been obsessed with animation. I’ve always draw my own characters, cartoons and creatures ever since I can remember, probably about 4 years old. I was fascinated by creators such as  Continue reading

4 Comments

Walter W. Wirtz

  By
What is your name and your current occupation? 

Walter W. Wirtz, Current occupation Freelance Animator and Illustrator by day, caped vigilante and batman lookalike by night.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
That’s an easy one, being a dad.  Kids are a full time job with no paid OT.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
One of the most interesting ones was working as an intern for a SFX studio in Santa Monica where we were working on Hostel: Part II.  Specifically in Animation I was very happy to work on a 5 part mini series done for a Central American government about a 10 year old girl and her Social reality.  It was an interesting eye opener.

How did you become interested in animation?

I’ve always been a story teller, first with illustrations, later on I dabbled in a little writing, Animation was the natural step to take to merge both.  Aside from that, Continue reading

No comments

MARK BROOKS

  By

What is your name and your current occupation?
MARK BROOKS. WRITER/DIRECTOR/MUSICIAN
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
CAB DRIVER, ROADIE, PLAYING IN BANDS
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
METALOCALYPSE, LIL’ PIMP
How did you become interested in animation?
I WAS ALWAYS INTERESTED IN IT FROM THE MINUTE I SAW Continue reading