Author Archives: Laura

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Chad Essley

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Chad Essley, and I’m the owner  / director of CartoonMonkey Studio.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I started into my animation career in my early 20’s, so I have to go back to my teens to remember early crazy-ish jobs..hmm..
I once worked for a short period of time, at a factory where they made basketball hoops. A robot would weld the hooks onto an iron hoop, and I would stand with these thick leather gloves on, grabbing the hoop as it came off the robot (still white hot from the welding) and file off all the extra bits before stacking it on a forklift palette. The place was full of 40 to 60 year old people who really never saw the sunshine outside the bounds of this dismal industrial factory who would drink on the job, and smoke copiously in the break room. Think I lasted about four days before walking out into the sunshine, never to return.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Someone from Microsoft contacted me, and flew me up to the Tablet PC headquarters to design all the game graphics for a children’s handheld tablet console called the KidTab. I was given a big bunch of money, and given almost total free reign to come up with whatever I wanted. This was for the research and development department, and I workedwith some people on the Continue reading

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James McDermott

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What is your name and your current occupation?
James McDermott, currently I’m the Character Design Lead on a newPrimetime FOX series being produced at Bento Box called “AllenGregory”.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting intoanimation?
My first job, I worked as a kids counselor at a summer camp when I was 14. I was incharge of twenty 6 year old kids every week. Looking back on it I’mnot quite sure how I did that but I did it with joy. I once was asked to dress up as a feltfilm strip character in front of a boardroom full of people, selling itas a brand hallmark for a movie theater chain, I forget which one, for$100 while in art school. Needless to say it was very embarrassing atthe time as a teenager.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been apart of?
Well even though it was cancelled, my time on “Neighbors from Hell” was probably one of the better experiences I’ve  had in production. I loved the style of the show, so much fun to draw. I had the opportunity to work with Continue reading

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Michael Hill

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Michael Hill. I’m a Lead Artist at Hound Comics, character designer and creator of the new original spy series Operation Spyhard.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve done it all! lol From unloading trucks and stocking dairy to making hams and sacking groceries. The jobs weren’t crazy but a lot of the people were. lol I should write a book. Hmmm…………..
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Since I’m new to the animation industry, I haven’t completed a project as of yet but I’ve met some of the amazing artists who have worked on projects like, Young Justice, Justice League, Batman TAS, The Boondocks, Batman Beyond, DC and Marvel animated features, and more! Incredibly humble guys who have respect and advice for  genuine new talent that are serious about growing in the industry. I’m honored to learn from their years of wisdom and success.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m originally from Birmingham, Alabama but I will soon be relocating to Los Angeles to have direct access to Continue reading

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Jon Rennie

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jon Rennie and I’m the Managing Director of Cloth Cat Animation.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Besides the usual stints in call centres and copy typing pools, the best job I had before animation was as a tester and writer for Bullfrog Productions. Bullfrog was a games company eventually purchased by EA but while I was there I got to work on titles such as Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital, Syndicate Wars and Populous: The Beginning. It was a fun creative place to work and a great place to learn how to develop my skills in the media industry.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve had a diverse career so I’m proud of all the work I’ve been able to do. My favourite game at Bullfrog was working on Dungeon Keeper, but then I moved into VFX and animation and so Grandpa In My Pocket has been a major part of my career up to now.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Cardiff in Wales and I came to animation from the VFX industry. I studied filmmaking at university in Newport but found I had an affinity for manipulating images and footage. I experimented with bluescreen and colour correction so, when I came to make my own short films, I was able to do a lot of the work myself. A local animation company needed a compositor to work on a Continue reading

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Eva Bruschi

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My Name’s Eva Bruschi and I’ve just started working as 2d Layout artist for a feature film, that is “Iqbal – Tale of a fearless child” dedicated to Iqbal Masih. This is a co-production with Italian Gertie, Editions Montparnasse, Spectra Animation and 2d 3D Animation. I’m very honoured to be part of this team.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to work in a special archive made of lots and lots of audio and videos recordings which contain stories from italian popular music and traditions.  There we had to digitize all the old analogical recordings made by researchers all around Italy, from the 50s till our days.. and sometimes there were crazy weird things to listen to! I’ve been there for almost 4 years 🙂

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m proud of having been part first of all of “Ice Banana” team, the short film made by my class at Scuola Internazionale di Comics. Then I’m very proud about almost all the projects I’ve been working (yes, I’m an enthusiast!), starting from other feature films like Pinocchio by Enzo D’Alò in which I did animation assistant and Gladiators of Rome 3D by Rainbow cgi in which I was storyboard artist, until smaller one like some Italian TV series, with many drawings to do in a very few time! 😀 Those projects gave more certainty and awareness of my own work, even if the road has just started!

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Florence, in the beautiful Tuscany and here I attended Scuola Internazionale di Comics like I said before. The school gave me the artistic and technical fundamentals and introduced me to Continue reading