Author Archives: Laura

One Comment

Larry D. Whitaker

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
Larry D. Whitaker (director and animation director)

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
(Painting houses and graphic design for small business).

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
 (Tigger Movie, Space Jam, Mighty Joe Young, and Tiny Toons)

How did you become interested in animation?
( I was always drawing since I can remember and was very involved with both art, writing and drama as a student before college.  I went to school in Oklahoma, and had art class as part of the curriculum from K-12th grade.  While in jr. high and high school, I was heavily involved in Continue reading

No comments

Becky Wangberg

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
Becky Wangberg. I am the Executive Assistant to Butch Hartman on TUFF Puppy and The Fairly Odd Parents.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to be an Office Manager for a small production company that mainly does commercials and music videos. Before I got hired I was their intern, and my first weeks there I had to clean the garage and clean the BBQ. I also did the weekly grocery shopping, and even acted as a personal chef and valet driver.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I co-wrote a short film that combines live action, CG & 2D animation, and it just got accepted into its 50th film festival! I’m also currently developing a drama pilot with some friends that I’m really excited about.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Sacramento, CA and I got my degree in Screenwriting at Chapman University. When I was in school, I interned at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and loved the culture there. Though I actually interned in Live Action Development and Current Series, we were stationed at the Animation Studio, and it became my goal to Continue reading

No comments

Jean Ann Wright

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
Jean Ann Wright, Animation Pre-Production Consultant/Author (“Animation Writing and Development”, Voice-Over for Animation” along with MJ Lallo, 6 chapters in “Write Your Way Into Animation and Games” by Christy Marx).
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Professional Dancer, Telephone Information Operator, Game Show Production Assistant, and (during a break in animation jobs) Buyer of all the cars and trucks on “The Price Is Right” game show.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
 “The Flintstones”, “The Jetsons”, “Scooby Doo”, “The Smurfs”
How did you become interested in animation?
I had been interested in writing and illustrating children’s books, but animation provided a full time job and my various somewhat unrelated skills could be used.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Canton, Ohio, (USA) but I grew up in Burbank, California (home of the Disney Studios) and grew up with kids whose fathers’ worked for Disney.  I had just finished an art major after returning to college when Continue reading

No comments

Ivan Pinzon

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
Ivan Pinzon, Principal Engineer, SketchBook Dev Lead.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked for Imaginova Corp, developing an Astronomy App called “Starry Night”.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My current project, SketchBook for iOS and for desktop and Starry Night
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Bogota, Colombia and 14 years ago I moved to Canada. I got involved with the digital artist world when I joined Autodesk to work in SketchBook.

 

What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
It’s a combination of different things: code, debug, investigate and learn, plan and schedule future releases and a bit of customer support.
What part of your job do you like best? Why?
I really like to investigate and play with new concepts and ideas, try to find something that is going to be useful for our users.I also enjoy optimizing code. Faster is better.

What part of your job do you like least? Why?
Finding / reproducing bugs that caused our users to lose work. It’s frustrating to get these complains and more frustrating sometimes to not be able to reproduce these issues.

What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis, how has technology changed in the last few years in your field and how has that impacted you in your job?
My main development machine is a Mac and developing for iOS requires to have some iPads, iPhones and iPods. It’s incredible how technology has evolved. The latest iPhone/iPad are more powerful than the computer I had a few years ago. This has allowed us to push for unbelievable features for a mobile device. Something that a few years ago was just crazy to even imagine. The current trend were mobile is getting closer to desktop is very interesting. Seems that these 2 will eventually merge.

What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
Keeping up-to-date with all the technology changes and being able to take advantage of them in a short period of time. It’s both challenging but at the same time motivating.

If you could change the way the business works and is run how would you do it?
I would like to spend more time investigating to find new innovative tools. But, work has to be done so finding a good balance is never easy.
In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
I’ve had the chance to watch and listen to a few amazing guys, from sketching artists to animation professionals from studios like Pixar and Marvel. Different techniques and tools.  This has given me a chance to understand what artists need and with this I try to find a fun, simple and effective way to expose this in our software.

Describe a tough situation you had in life.
Leaving my family and my past in my home country and starting from scratch again in Canada while keeping my wife and kids afloat
Any side projects you’re working on that you’d like to share details of?
All I can say is that I’m working in some interesting technologies/features that I hope eventually are going to see the light of day.
Any unusual talents or hobbies like tying a cherry stem with your tongue or metallurgy?
I love airplanes. I have a private pilot license although I haven’t flown in a few years and I like to build and fly aerobatics model airplanes.  I’m lucky to have my son Nicolas as my partner and we compete in Canada and the US.  I also like to play the piano.

Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?Although I’m not an artist, I’ve had contact with many that have started from zero and have been persistent enough to develop a clear style and technique that differentiates them from the rest, finally becoming successful and recognized. Take advantage from the social networks: Deviant Art, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, …

 

No comments

Nate Wragg

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Nate Wragg and I’m currently working as a Visual Development Artist for Animation
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well not many, paper route I guess isn’t that crazy.  I did work with my dad for a while as an assistant electrician.  I got to do lots of fun stuff like crawl through spider webs under really old houses, that could get pretty gross and creepy.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well Ratatouille was the first project I got to design on as a professional, so that’s one I’ll always be proud of.  It was both exciting and stressful making that transition from student to a working artist.  Designing the end credits with Harley Jessup, Teddy Newton and Andy Jimenez was way too fun to.  I couldn’t have asked to work with a better group of artists.  I also was excited to be apart of Toy Story 3.  Character designing on that film was also a real challenge, but in the end, I’m very happy with the characters I got to help design.
How did you become interested in animation?
 As a kid I developed a love for both drawing and cartoons at roughly the same young age.  So naturally I Continue reading

2 Comments

Aliki Theofilopoulos Grafft

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and current occupation?
Aliki Theofilopoulos Grafft

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well I suppose I will go in order and explain why…The first would be my first job in animation…the movie “Hercules” at Walt Disney Feature Animation. I had completed a 3 month training internship, and was hired on to this film to work with Supervising Animator, Brian Ferguson, on the character “Panic”. He was the one who gave me my break, and taught me so much. His love for animation was infectious and I felt so lucky to be mentored by someone with such talent.  Next would be the movie “Tarzan” also at Disney. On this film I mentored with Supervising Animator John Ripa on the character “Young Tarzan”. I had seen an animation test John had done and just knew I had to work with him. I went to his office and asked if I could assist him, and he told me yes, but under one condition… when a student of animation, or anyone seeing knowledge asked for help, that I would pass on what he had taught me. He said James Baxter had made him give that same promise and he had tried to keep it. I learned so much from John and will be forever grateful for the teaching, the time and the kindness he gave me. He was completely generous with his knowledge, and never let an opportunity for teaching pass by. This made working on the film so exhilarating for me. I will never forget it. And yes, I have tried to keep my promise.  Later I would move into television and was honored to be a part of Fred Seibert’s shorts program at Nickelodeon, “Random Cartoons”. I created two shorts..the first was “Yaki and Yumi” and the second was “Girls on the GO!”. It was an incredible experience making my own films. This is where I believe I went from being a draughtsman to a filmmaker. I completely fell in love with telling stories and the whole process of making a film. I also discovered a love for television type storytelling, and cartooning rather than animating.  And of course the show I am currently on, Phineas and Ferb. I am writing and storyboarding on the show and am also an Emmy nominated song writer too(still shocked about that)! I am really proud of the work that we are all doing on the show. I have really grown as a storyteller from watching my peers and working with some insanely talented people. I laugh every day at my job! I am surrounded by some of the funniest people I have ever met and I love the challenge of keeping up! It’s never a dull moment, and I think the fun we have with each other has a big impact on the way the show is turning out. It is fun to be on a show that is loved by so many people and I am honored to be a part of it.

How did you become interested in animation?  
My grandfather loved cartoons and drawing. He would sit down with me and draw. He always encouraged me and would patiently sit by my side and teach me little things he knew. But I feel like I was Continue reading