Category Archives: Artists Interviews

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Sam Ellis

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Sam Ellis, Creative Director at Never Say Die Studios LLC.  I also teach Animation, Story Art, and Concept Design to college students, 2 days a week at the Art Institute of Washington.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a supervisor at a quick service chicken restaurant, a Mormon missionary in Arizona, a house framer in historic Williamsburg, a pizza delivery driver, a burger cashier, I built curbs all over Virginia Beach, an off-ice hockey linesman, as well as quite a few more freelance art jobs.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well, the one project that really helped launch my career and that is going into its 5th season is Archer. I was Lead Designer on Archer Season one and left at the end to go work on personal projects, but we were wrapping up an episode of the short lived Xtacles on adult swim and Adam Reed was getting ready to pitch a new show around called Duchess, Neal Holman was too busy with his other duties so Matt Thompson passed off the majority of the work over to me and Chad Hurd. I was to draw Duchess (later to be known as Archer), his mother, and his father, while Chad drew Archer’s love interest, his foil, and his car.  After his pitch was successful and a pilot was green-lit, I got to do quite a bit more designing, Chad and I were pretty delighted to start making some changes to the designs when we got hold of them, there was some great stuff already done by Neal Holman and Eric Simms, but with Neal working on creating backgrounds before we found Trinity Animation and Eric taking some heavy animation duties, Chad and I were like kids in a candy shoppe. We had a blast on that first episode, it came together real fast and we came up with some interesting solutions.  Even though I left Archer I still love the crew and am tickled when I see some of the art I did show up all the time, also I get a kick out of seeing my son every time I see young Archer as he was the model for it, Although he has never seen or probably will see Archer.  Outside of Archer I have been able to work on Cory Edward’s Krogzilla with the fine folks at GreenShoe Animation, Jason Shwartz’s company–man totally forgot, working with those guys let me work with Disney and Marvel I am heck’a proud of that I also got to foray into gaming and got to do some designs for that Avengers ultimate alliance game–that was fun.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I currently live in Spotsylvania VA, and I grew up on the east coast, most of my life was spent in Virginia Beach, VA.  I always wanted to be an animator and a comic artist, I love telling stories and find that using pictures and being able to draw was another great skill set in being able to Continue reading

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Megan Ann Boyd

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi! My name is Megan Ann Boyd, and I’m a toy designer and illustrator!

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I don’t know if I’d call it crazy, but I worked on a small virtual pet website called NeuroGalaxy for many years. I got to make all sorts of artwork for the website, ranging from pets, monsters and items to world illustrations. There was even a time I would make site merchandise in the form of keychains- it was a great little community!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I got to collaborate with Rovio and create the toys for the Angry Birds Stella line! I absolutely love Rovio’s animations and characters, so it was an honor to bring them into the world of toys. I’ve got all those little birdies and pigs on display in my work room.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from New Jersey! I was obsessed with cartoons as a kid, who wasn’t? I ended up Continue reading

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Ben Camberos

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Ben Camberos, Illustrator and Character designer.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I always been involved in art, i guess that would be pre press technician.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I still have a long way to go, but i guess that would be the current job i have right now…I’m working as a character designer for a feature animated film here in Mexico.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
Im from Tijuana Mexico, and i have to admit that Continue reading

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James Nethery

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is James Nethery and I’m a freelance Flash/Toon Boom Harmony animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well, the craziest was probably working at the Magic Kingdom park in Orlando as a “Custodial Host” (aka a janitor in Disney Park-speak) for a few years. I could probably start a series of blog posts on all the crazy stuff that went down on that job… from “how the heck did it get on the ceiling??!” restroom cleaning stories, to rude/angry park guests, to employees getting fired for coming in drunk/high, to insane employee policies that parks put in place. That was a fun job (and the free park admission was a major perk) but it could certainly be tough sometimes.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Three words: Cyanide and Happiness. That show is a lot of fun to work on and it’s great working with the guys over at Lowbrow Studios and Explosm who are a really talented bunch. I love seeing how much I can get out of such simple designs. So far, I’ve worked on about 11 shorts, two of which haven’t been posted online yet. Some of I’m animated fully, so I’ve just helped out a bit on doing animation revisions and such.  I’m also working on another project right now that’s really cool that I can’t really talk about… all I can say is that its being animated in Toon Boom Harmony and that’s its based on another very popular web comic.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Orlando, Florida. I got into the freelance animation business basically by working my butt off on my demo reel and applying to every job I could. It was tough starting out, but Continue reading

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Carla Pereira

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi! My name is Carla Pereira (http://carlapereira.com/) and nowadays I am working in the filming of a stop-motion short movie. I work also as a freelance illustrator.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Before working in the animation business I have tried a bit of everything! But one of the most curious jobs I took was as an artistic nude model for the faculty of Fine Arts. I worked there for many years.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite one is the stop-motion series “Clay Kids”, from Clay Animation (http://www.claykids.com/). I worked with a good deal of wonderful professionals, and I learned a lot.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Buenos Aires (Argentina), but I did study Fine Arts in Valencia (Spain). I focused in Continue reading

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Randy Bishop

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name’s Randy Bishop and currently, I work as a freelance illustrator and character designer which is fantastic.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?

Oh goodness… I’ve worked a lot of jobs before being able to support my family doing freelance. I’ve worked landscaping, retail, construction; I even drove an ice cream truck one summer. That was a cool job.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?

Right now I’m actually working on a project that I’m really excited about. The Thrilling Adventure Hour is a old timey radio performance show that has a great fan base and a lot of great people working on it. I was approached by the creators to illustrate one of their properties into graphic novel form and it’s been a blast to work on. It always helps when you enjoy associating with the people you work with. My very favorite project to work on is a personal project I’ve been collaborating with a friend of mine on for a few years. It’s a property called Monomyth that we’re very proud of and very protective of. We’ve had to put it on the back burner for a while until we get the time and funds to really work on it full time, but once we get started it’s going to be phenomenal. We’re planning on telling an epic story directly influenced and surrounded by multiple ancient mythologies including greek, norse, egyptian, as well as others. It’ll be done in graphic novel form, but we like to think of it in terms of animation. The stylization of the characters as well as the storytelling itself lend it to eventually being made into an animated franchise.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 
 I’m from Idaho which isn’t a place where you’d Continue reading