Category Archives: Artists Interviews

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Anne D. Bernstein

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Anne D. Bernstein, Animation Writer and Story Editor. I am also an illustrator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I had a lot of art jobs. My first job was changing prices on menus. This was before graphic design went digital. I actually had to cut out individual little prices, wax them, and put them on an acetate overlay and line up the dots. Computers made paste-up obsolete but I still miss the smell of rubber cement. I also designed novelty jewelry in a factory in Sunset Park where the main distraction was buying lottery tickets at lunch.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Definitely Daria.  It was a perfect match for my comedic sensibility. The people I worked with were talented and intelligent–especially Glenn Eichler. Also, I have a younger sister and our relationship was very much like the one between Daria and Quinn. And what a joy to be encouraged to be both funny and insightful–not to mention the fact that the show hadsubstance! I am also very proud of MTV Downtown. It was a very innovative unique show that did not get treated well at MTV and was cancelled way too quickly. At the time I did not realize that it was capturing New York City at a time right before a huge transition–the East Village was actually still funky, crummy and relatively affordable back then!

How did you become interested in animation?
Long story. I was a big comedy nerd, always memorizing Monty Python skits and going to comics conventions (to sit with the National Lampoon cartoonists–I didn’t care about superheros at all!) I was always interested in both visual arts and writing and could never actually Continue reading

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Lee Daniels

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Lee Daniels – Freelance Media Creative – Illustration/Animation/Editing/Graphic Design.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I havent’ had any particularly crazy jobs unless you count collecting shopping trollies for pocket money at Tescos as a 13 year old. I was a Digital Retouch Artist and Graphic Designer for 13 years before going freelance so slightly altering the appearance of subjects for amusement was not unheard of (with or without consent…)

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Producing my own animated shorts as solo projects is the most gratifying work I’ve done to date. I always wanted to be a cartoonist from a young age so, now, thanks to the extensive tools on Adobe off the shelf software and my years learning Photoshop and Illustrator on live projects, I basically have the knowledge and studio kit that I never thought attainable.
How did you become interested in animation?
That one’s easy… Continue reading

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Rachel Young

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Rachel Young and I am currently working as an animator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
My first job was a short stint as a summer camp/day care assistant and then as a clerk at a mall store, and then as a graphic designer for a while, which is not really something I would have chosen for myself.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I usually enjoy most projects I work on, but in particular, “The Ricky Gervais Show” “The Problem Solverz” and some smaller projects such as animation for the “Phineas and Ferb” stage show.  Mostly I’m pretty proud of the fact that I’ve gotten five 52 page comic books published in three years while doing all this at the same time.

How did you become interested in animation? 
Wasn’t hard, I grew up during the 90’s when there was a lot of really well animated cartoons on TV, not to mention Continue reading
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Arshad Mirza Baig

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Arshad Mirza Baig Freelance Animation Artist – Currently storyboarding

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I have been fortunate enough to have been involved with animation from an early age The first freelance job I obtained was at age 15, whilst still a schoolboy – I had to animate characters for a PC adventure game. I did however help out at my father’s pharmacy whilst going through college and then university…I gained a lot of information about medicines and health that I still draw on today and often advice my colleagues what they should take and when they should take it…something I really should stop doing as I am not a qualified pharmacist!

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Its funny because as a child growing up I dreamed of being a part of the Hollywood machine – of course the stuff they produced was amazing but after having being involved with a few of those higher end projects such as ‘Tale of Despereaux’ and ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ I personally found the work I done for the smaller lesser known projects far more rewarding. If  I had to choose one it would be the low budget feature film ‘Sokator 442’ (produced by Galleon entertainment and Zoo films). I was given the choice to work on Tim Burton’s ‘Frankenweenie’ as a story artist or head the story and art department of this smaller project and I even surprise my self when I think back to how I didn’t hesitate when I chose Sokator 442. I had the creative freedom to rework the script direct the action sequences design all the central characters. Aid with animation and editing…even throw in a voice or two it was a dream job for me! Sadly the film only sold to Nickelodeon in Australia and New Zealand – but I have no regrets – it has certainly been the highlight of my career and I can look back on that project and really feel that my art made a difference to the outcome.
How did you become interested in animation?
As a child I was drawn to the Asterix and Tintin comics and still love them to this very day. I began writing my own comics at around  6 years old and then I think at age 7 I saw Disney’s Continue reading

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Cheyenne Curtis

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Cheyenne Curtis and im currently working for Disney Television Animation.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
In Montreal i once worked at this really shady linen store that had no bathrooms. Since i worked alone all day, i used to have to call friends to come over and watch the store for me while i ran to the bathroom! The good part of that story is working alone all day meant some nice sketching time when the store was empty.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve had so much fun doing character designs, rotations and special posing for the Disney TV pilot i’m working on. Daron Nefcy and Dave Wasson are so amazing to work with!

How did you become interested in animation?
Originally i had no idea that animation could be a career! I was in Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal and i remember feeling like i didn’t quite belong, even though everyone was interested in art. Luckily one of my friends suggested Sheridan Institute in Oakville, and i applied and got in! I had never done animation before, and i was in a class surrounded by these incredibly talented artists who had already made short films before! I really felt Continue reading

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Tony Craig

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What is your name?
Tony Craig
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“The animation project I’m most proud of is the DVD video Bobs Gannaway, Jess Winfield and I did to wrap up the Lilo and Stitch tv series.  I know that it is relatively unknown, and I won’t get into the reasons for why I think the release of it was handled inappropriately, but the name of it is “”Leroy and Stitch””.  The reason I am proudest of it has to do with how it all turned out.  Usually, as a director, you have in your head what you think it should look like, and then when your show comes back from being animated overseas, it is not even close.  Then you get used to what you do have, and start molding it into the final show.  This project was the closest to what I had in my head.  I know that it is not feature quality, but when you consider the time and the budget we were given to do it (1/4 the time the Disneytoons folks got for Stitch has a glitch, and probably 1/8 or less of what they spent), well, I’m proud of what we pulled off.
The storyline is good too.  Bobs and Jess did a great job with the script and the transitions of emotion from scene to scene, action sequence to quiet sequence, musical parts, score…all of it came together.
House of Mouse was another fun one, because we were able to utilize any character from the history of Disney animation.  We were pulling the most obscure characters from old Silly Symphony cartoons and sticking them in the show, just for fun.
A personal project that I enjoyed doing was photographing old country and general stores across the state of North Carolina and compiling them into a book, “”Country Stores in North Carolina”.
How did you become interested in animation?
“I remember an evening at my grandparents’ house with my parents. I was still in a high chair, and I know this memory wasn’t based on photos or anything like that.  We went to see Disney’s “Pinocchio” that evening.  I fell asleep through most of it, but what I saw must have made an impression, or clicked in at that developmental stage of my infant mind. There was a copy of Christopher Finch’s book, “The Art of Walt Disney” in the reference section of our library.  Every family trip to the library, I would be at the end of that row, poring over the artwork.  I worked in the yard, saved my nickels, dimes, and quarters, until I had the $35 to buy my very own copy of that book, and I copied the pictures out of it regularly.