Category Archives: Artists Interviews

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Mike Inman, Background Painter, adjunct instructor: Digital Painting/Visual Development

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
White-water raft guide, paratrooper 82nd Airborne Division

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Young Justice, Avatar, Scooby, Dreamworks Feature Animation’s Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron. Curious George movie at Universal Studios, Angry Birds, Angry Beavers, SpongeBob, Spectacular Spider-Man. I have also I’ve illustrated many Disney, Marvel and Pixar storybooks.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I grew up immersed in great art as the son of a well known Atlanta based illustrator. At age 13 I began classical art training at Atlanta College of Art. After a stint as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army it was on to Sarasota to study illustration at Ringling College of Art & Design. While attending RCAD I was encouraged by Frank Gladstone & Jack Lew, both recruiters from Walt Disney Feature Animation at the time, to pursue a career in animation. I saw the days of staff illustrators at ad agencies were waning, so I threw in with the animation studios

What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
I try to get to the studio early each day when things are quiet. For visual development in the very early stages I focus on the script and do preliminary full color illustrations as presentation art so there is something to bounce around as we zero in on the stylistic look of the production and flesh-out the important environments in digital paintings. When I am working on color scripts I convey the psychology of the story sequence through the effective use of lighting and color indications, many times these color scripts will be referred to later on as we create key bg paintings. If I am working in the capacity of art director or bg dept head I will review each bg painter’s work from the previous day and maintain continuity. I will mark up any retake notes for individuals to address. A typical day painting bg’s consists of first studying the storyboards and/or animatics, all existing artwork, associated approved backgrounds that may already be in our inventory so that we maintain a seamless visual narrative. Many times I’ll take the associated storyboard panel and superimpose it onto a layer above my bg painting so my scene reads most effectively.

What part of your job do you like best? Why?
I like sharing ideas with many brilliant and creative artist’s as a team. Together we tell a story in the most imaginative way possible. When it all clicks and you see it all come together, it is magical. A great feeling.

What part of your job do you like least? Why?
Insane deadlines. it is a business. Maybe someone has compressed production time so tight to meet a low budget that you simply can’t illustrate the scenes as much as you like. You have to decide what is most important to pushing the story forward and focus on that aspect of what you are doing and keep sprinting. Episodic schedules can be pretty fast, feature films usually allow for a little more ramp-up and development time. When the profit margin on the production is so thin that there is zero time for ramp-up or visual development it can be challenging to maintain the very highest production value. If there is a super low budget it’s necessary to simplify things. Finding that balance between insane deadlines and great art can be a challenge.

What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis, how has technology changed in the last few years in your field and how has that impacted you in your job?
Photoshop: Transitioning to Cintiq’s from the tablets has been a significant improvement

What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
The friends you bond with daily and get close with, and then you all scatter, then you start another production, develop strong bonds and these people are your family for the run of the production, it runs it’s course and then we are all scattered…… the tent goes up, and eventually the tent goes down. Happens on every production. You need about 50 lucky breaks to make a career out of this.

If you could change the way the business works and is run how would you do it?
Drastically minimize unnecessary meetings with “clipboard people”!

In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
Yes, lot’s of them. Scooby inventor Iwao Takemoto was the most approachable for me, you could just go into his office, sit down and shoot the shit with him like regular people. Chuck Jones, Roy Disney Jr, Bill Hanna & Joe Barberra. I was just mentioning to one of my students today that if you were in it for personal recognition then animation may not be the ideal career decision. I have also worked alongside some greats that are still knocking it out each week. I also had the good fortune to ravel to Jerusalem to work on an animated film, a very memorable experience.

Describe a tough situation you had in life.
“Its was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one’s development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one’s ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has a new standard by which to judge oneself.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

Any side projects you’re working on that you’d like to share details of?
I have a significant project coming up but can’t divulge any details just yet.

Any unusual talents or hobbies like tying a cherry stem with your tongue or metallurgy?
I don’t consider being a white-water river guide unusual, although most of my animation colleagues might

Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?
Great draftsmanship and a mastery of drawing is the foundational skill of anyone who draws and/or paints for a living. Don’t take the easy way out on your drawing skills, go draw, go paint, keep growing.

New Motion Editor:

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Larry Rains, I’m a Fulltime Freelance Animator, Illustrator, and Storyboard Artist. I currently own and operate a small Animation shop in central Arkansas called Big Kahuna Media.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I used to do Chemical and X-Ray analysis for a Japanese tire cord manufacturer. One cool thing that came out of it is that I learned to speak a little Japanese. I also worked as a graphic artist designing skate board decks.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I guess if I had to pick a project it would be some of the storyboard work I did on the Le Bonheur Children’s hospital spots in Memphis, Tennessee. Every time I watch them I can’t help but smile a little. I am proud to be a part of something that is for a good cause, and it was cool to work with the actor Morgan Freeman.

How did you become interested in animation? I’ve always loved animation, but didn’t really embrace it until later in life. I started off with collecting and drawing comics growing up and I even self published a few comics when I got older that were distributed by Diamond Comics worldwide. It wasn’t until I attended a Dragon Con convention in Atlanta, Georgia one year and met an editor from Dark Horse Comics that I decided to change course in careers. I had some simple looping Flash animation on a monitor at my booth advertising one of my new comic books and it caught his eye. He told me he was impressed with my work and asked me if I had ever thought about a career in Animation.  Animation? : )

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I originally grew up in Kokomo, Indiana, but after High School I moved to central Arkansas and attended college at the University of Central Arkansas for Art. After about a year of college I decided to drop out and do some freelance motion graphics work for a few local TV spots. After a couple of months of doing that I put together a demo reel and sent it out to a few studios. I got an offer to work on some animated movies at a place called Wacky World Studios in Tampa, Florida. At Wacky World I worked on a children’s 3D animated video series called The Bug Rangers for 20^th Century Fox. After a few years of doing that I took a job back in Little Rock, Arkansas at a place called Dempsey Film Group. At Dempsey Film Group I worked on a ton of national commercials for clients likeChloraseptic, Cigna / Nations Health, IDT Telecom, Subway, Ranger Boats, Sun Com, Terminx, E-Diets, and J.G. Wentworth to name a few. At the end of summer in 2006 I got an email from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers asking me about doing some freelance animation work for them. I accepted and ended up handling all the animation for the opening game kick off for that season. A few months after that I decided to start Big Kahuna Media and eventually went to work for myself fulltime.

What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
Since I own and operate my own business, I have to wear many different hats. I usually start my day off early in the morning for about an hour answering emails and putting bids out for future projects. After that I fire up the Wacom Cintiq and get down to business. What part of your job do you like best?Why? Drawing and Animating!  Not everybody gets to sit around all day and draw and make cartoons. I feel very blessed that I’m able to make a living doing what I love to do.

What part of your job do you like least?Why?
Having an animation project dropped on my lap at the last minute. “Can you get this done by Friday?”  Why? – I hate rush jobs. Not being given a reasonable timeframe to complete an animated project is never a good thing.

What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
The Animation industry at times can be Feast and Famine. Being a guy with a family it can be very challenging and even a juggling act at times. Once a production or project is done, you’re looking for the next door to swing open sometimes. Luckily for me I’ve been able to roll my talents into different areas of business like cartoon illustration and storyboarding. I stay very busy, I think because of it.

What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis?
I mainly use Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, ToonBoom Animate Pro and Anime Studio Pro. I don’t think I ever go a day without opening one of those programs up.

In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
I’ve had a great run over the last 10 yrs and have gotten the opportunity to work alongside a lot of very talented people. It would be hard for me to just mention or single out just a few. All I can say is it’s an awesome feeling to be sitting in the theater after watching a cool animated movie like “How To Train A Dragon” or “Rio” and look over to my family when the credits roll and say “Hey, I worked with that guy or gal!”

Describe a tough situation you had in life.
Making the decision to walk out of a good fulltime animation job at a studio and then go to work for myself. Even though it was tough decision to make at the time it’s ended up being one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my life.

Any side projects or you’re working on or hobbies you’d like to share details of?
I’ve been tossing around the idea with my wife about self publishing a few new comics or maybe doing an online comic for fun. We used to have a great time getting out and hitting the comic cons together. She’s a very talented writer and artist also. Who knows! ; )

Any unusual talents or hobbies like tying a cherry stem with your tongue or metallurgy?
I’ve got a rare collection of Tiki memorabilia. I picked up a Tiki lava lamp in a surf shop in Clearwater Beach, Florida and I’ve been hooked on buying them since.

Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business? Don’t buy into the propaganda that a place like Pixar or Disney are the best places to work in the field, they have a huge rotating door and chew and spit people out on a monthly basis. Think outside the box and keep many tools in your toolbox. I’ve never owned one piece of software that can do it all. http://www.larryrains.com