Category Archives: Artists Interviews

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Spotlight- “The Lift”

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Today begins with a new feature here on Animation Insider where we showcase films of our interviewees. Todays film The Lift comes from New Yorker Robert Kohr. You can also catch his interview here!

About The Film: The Lift explores the consequences of one very common behavior of not holding the elevator door open for someone rushing to get on or worse, lifting your finger and actively pushing the close button. In this film, an elevator interaction between the two lead characters goes wrong, prompting a young woman to learn about being insensitive and to be more considerate in the future. 
A true labor of love, it took Robert and his team over 4 years to complete this 5 minute plus film that has been screened in over 55 festivals around the world, winning awards in 15 of them. Robert explored working with artists found online, all of whom he had never met and have developed continued working relationships with some of them. In this day and age it’s important to leverage social networking into your business model and The Lift is an example of this trend. 
Robert lives in New York with his fiancé and his computer. 

 

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Patrick Reyntens

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What is your name and your current occupation?
I’m Patrick Reyntens, an animator/designer from Antwerp, Belgium.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I checked tiny parts for helicopters. I had to push a button if the part was faulty, but I never pushed the button. The company went bankrupt 3 months after I left. I once had to crush slightly deformed potato chips for pigs. For half a year or so I gave drawing classes to prisoners. I once made a caricature of a prisoner. Him in a ballerina outfit. Afterwards I found out he was a pedophile…I guess that’s why that was the last time I saw him. The last lesson, one of the prisoners wanted to give me a goodbye party and dropped a bag of marijuana on the table and started to distribute joints to his buddies. That was weird, but what could I do, they were already in prison…

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I worked on a show called ‘Staines down drains’ in New Zealand. The show was really funny. I worked on numerous projects after that as an animator and designer. Please check out check out my blog to see what I’ve been up to.

How did you become interested in animation?
I have been drawing like mad when I was a kid. I drew my own comics. They were mainly about people getting killed in different ways.I remember making drawings on top of each other. After a couple of minutes Continue reading
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Raul Aguirre Jr.

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What is your name?
Raul Aguirre Jr.

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
Animator, Storyboard Artist and Director.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked as a bouncer at a few night clubs around L.A.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite project is my animated short Hero Heights that I made at Nickelodeon and Frederator a couple of years ago for The Random Cartoons Show.

How did you become interested in animation?
When I was six years old I fell in love with drawing and decided I was going to be an artist. Then one Sunday night in 1981 when I was nine, I watched Continue reading

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Tom Minton

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Tom Minton, writer and consulting producer on “The Adventures of Taxi Dog”, an independent live action/puppet/cg project based on a beloved children’s book.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Administering and grading tests for the University Civil Service System of Illinois while in college. The sole wholly clerical job I ever had to do and the most surreal. It made me realize that I had to go for a career in animation because it had to be saner, and it was.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“Mighty Mouse, the New Adventures”, “Tiny Toon Adventures”, “Animaniacs”, “Pinky and the Brain”, and, of course, “Rubik, the Amazing Cube Meets Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, a 1983 classic that the public sadly never saw!

How did you become interested in animation?
I was lucky enough to grow up watching not only Max Fleischer’s Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons on television but to watch tons of Warner Bros and Paramount cartoons in 35mm at my hometown movie theatre, every Saturday afternoon. I’m talking about Continue reading

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Luis E. Saavedra

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Luis E. Saavedra and I work as a Director of Altairfilms ,Co – Founder of Antares Render related to Offshoring
services and Cinema from Chile exporting Chilean films to festivals and independent markets.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Excellent question! First at school I really enjoyed drawing and me and some friends had a comic book magazine, well just a bunch of fotocopies put together ! After that, I studied Industrial design and for a while I designed and built desks for offices. I did many of them and it was a very physical job, I spent many hours at night in empty buildings finishing those offices. After that, I worked in the printing bussiness as a Graphic Designer in the pre-press process, which is very interesting regarding the color creation for Offset prints. I learned a lot from these both experiences and I related them to animation years later.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Through the years I have been involved in great projects, both animation and film but the one I always remember is the first one;
“Discovery”, because that was my first comission. In 2001 I was granted by a Government contest with US 6000 to develop a 10 min piece of animation in 6 month. I had never worked in animation before and I had to work very hard to finish it. I even had troubles with my then girlfriend because I was spendig a great amount of time working day and night, she finally broke up with me! But the experience was great, drawing though the night and with no worries about anything, just enjoying the oportunity

How did you become interested in animation?
My grandfather introduced me into the comicbook universe when I was little, classic stuff like Alex Raymond with “Flash Gordon”, “The Spirit” of Will Eisner and Jean Giraud mostly known as Moebius. I also remember a lot of cartoons, Chuck Jones and the Bugs Bunny world. I also remember watching the “Star wars Holiday Special” and the great animation that Nelvana produced for that show,  but the main interest came when I Continue reading