About a year and a half ago, I set out to interview the entire animation industry, 2d, 3d, Flash, video games and visual effects. It’s been a hard thing to do as many artists are shy and private but I am VERY proud to say we hit our 600th interview today! I could not have done it without my beautiful wife Laura, my brother Andrew as well as my daughters Melissa and Megan who help with the posting and management of the site. And of course none of it could have happened without all the people who shared their art, life, stories and advice when they took the time to be interviewed!
Yep, we’ve interviewed 600 artists so far and there’s many more interviews ahead. You should be next!
What is your name and your current occupation?
Paul Driessen / Animator of short personal films.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I was in the Dutch army (compulsory), counting its bolts, underwear and tanks / otherwise nothing much job-wise, trying to sell my cartoons with very little success.
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How did you become interested in animation?
I drew cartoons since my childhood / When I grew up I didn’t know much about animation, for Holland, where I spent my school years didn’t have an animation tradition / I’d seen the odd Disney film but that was about it / In 1964, when I was 24, I read Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?Â
I’m Neal Warner and I am currently directing a live stage show called Rock & Roll Rehabwhich features a live band playing in sync with animated music videos projected on a large screen above the stage. It’s been an ambition of mine since I was in Junior High School and saw the re-release of Walt Disney’s Fantasia. It recently finished a run at the Hayworth Theater on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? Before I went to work as an inbetweener at Hanna-Barbera during my summer vacation between graduating high school and starting college I was a published cartoonist in the “Free Press” and in “underground comix”. Ironically, the only job I ever had after creating the underground comic character Pizza Fella and starting full time in the Animation Industry was as a pizza delivery guy while attending San Diego State.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? I wrote and directed the John Lennon themed stage show, A Day In His Life, which was represented by the William Morris Agency and followed that with the Rock & Roll Rehabshow, both of which include a lot of animation as part of the multimedia projection. I published PaperCuts, The Illustrated Lyrics Magazine in the 80s which included a two song record insert and featured the songs’ lyrics in comic book form, I produced several animated music videos, one of which won the Gold Plaque in Music Video at the Chicago International Film Festival and was included in a screening of “The World’s Best Animated Music Videos” at the First Los Angeles Animation Celebration and I produced The Tooner’s Trip Disc enhanced CD and The Tooners’ Rocktasia CD (available on iTunes). Those are my favorite “pet” projects but I’m also proud of my work on The Heavy Metal Movie, Ducktails The Movie, the two Rugrats Movies, The Puff The Magic Dragon TV special and some of the many TV commercials and series I’ve worked on either as an animator, an assistant animator, a director or as a timing director for studios such as Disney TV, Klasky-Csupo, Marvel, Murakami-Wolf, Filmmation, Film Roman, Sony, Universal, Fred Wolf Films and many others.
How did you become interested in animation?Â
I was a cartoonist whose work was published in my junior high school newspaper, the cover of the yearbook and animated my first film, The Jogger, in the ninth grade. In high school I was the school’s staff “political” cartoonist as well as a paid contributor to professional underground comics and in college I was elected into Sigma Delta Chi, the Society Of Professional Journalists for my political cartoons in the CSUN campus paper. Although Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? My name is Alan Foreman and I’m a freelance animator and director working out of Brooklyn, NY.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I don’t know if I would label any of my previous jobs as crazy. I got into animation right after graduating from college. Before that it was mostly your run-of-the-mill highschool jobs… working at a movie theater, a children’s museum, basic manual labor jobs… things like that.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? There are a lot to choose from. Home Movies (Adult Swim) was a lot of fun. Directing Three Delivery (Nicktoons) was very challenging and satisfying. Recently I finished a music video for my band that is on the festival circuit that I’m very proud of. Doing that has gotten me excited about producing independent films again.
How did you become interested in animation? All I ever wanted to do all my life was draw. While a freshman at the Rhode Island School of Design I had Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? Kenn McDonald. I’m an animation supervisor for Dreamworks on the Dragons tv series.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I don’t know if I’ve had a truly crazy job. I’ve made pizza, served ice-cream and taught English in Japan. The coolest job outside animation I had was working at a fine art foundry that cast bronze statues. That was a gas.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? Going way back to my 2d days I’d say Cat’s Don’t Dance. I love that movie and it was one of the best times I’ve had on a production. Some other high points would be Stuart Little 2, Beowulf, which was my first gig as a supervisor and Watchmen. I’m having a great time on Dragons now.
How did you become interested in animation? That would go all the way back to sitting on my Dad’s lap while he drew for me. He’d draw a lot of superheroes and stuff like that. He still paints. From there I was Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? My name is Sandra NÃ Chonaola and I am an Animation Supervisor at JAM Media in Dublin, Ireland.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? Hummm… I don’t know if I’ve had any ‘crazy’, jobs, but I did start out studying Fitness Instruction only to go onto a career in accounting to finally find my way back on track with animation.
What are some of your favourite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? The current one, ‘Tilly and Friends’. Its not only mind-blowing to work with such talented, enthusiastic seasoned animation directors every day, but to get to work on such unique project is truly inspiring. Based on a series of books by author Polly Dunbar, the show is heavily traditional, though it is drawn digitally. We aim to honour the books as much as possible, when a shot is approved in animation it put through After Effects and given a paper texture and a boiling line, that allows it to look just like the books. Its so beautiful, I love it! It’s a pleasure to look at eight or more hours a dayJ
How did you become interested in animation? I have been a huge fan of Warner Bros for as long as I could remember. The likes of Daffy Duck giving out about his lines etc… persuaded me that these characters where alive… so the concept of becoming an animator happened fairly late for me. I was probably about nine years old, when I got Continue reading
About a year and a half ago, I set out to interview the entire animation industry, 2d, 3d, Flash, video games and visual effects. It’s been a hard thing to do as many artists are shy and private but I am VERY proud to say we hit our 600th interview today! I could not have done it without my beautiful wife Laura, my brother Andrew as well as my daughters Melissa and Megan who help with the posting and management of the site. And of course none of it could have happened without all the people who shared their art, life, stories and advice when they took the time to be interviewed!
