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Colin Stimpson

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Colin Stimpson. Visual development artist on Despicable Me 2.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
While I was at school I would get up at 6.00am to clean the local supermarket. I did it with a group of school mates so it was actually fun! The others would steal Cadbury’s Creme Eggs to eat for breakfast, but I have to say I never did!

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I have recently had a children’s book published by Templar called “Jack and the Baked Beanstalk”. It’s the first story that I have written as well as illustrated. It’s due to released in the US in July.  As for my favorite movies, I thoroughly enjoyed working on “The Emperor’s New Groove” during my time at Disney. The highlight was an amazing research trip to Peru. Recently I worked as a visual development artist on “The Lorax”. I am big Dr Seuss fan so it was a great opportunity to spend time studying his shapes and caricature.

How did you become interested in animation?
I have always loved the classic Disney films. As a small boy I went to see 101 Dalmations and have been hooked ever since. I remember Continue reading

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Trever Stewart

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Trever Stewart, Associate Producer / Special Projects.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Choreographer for a high school dance team.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I cut my teeth in live-action story development inBeverly Hillsright out of college which allowed me to participate on many large-scale films, but I can’t site them as my own because I carried a low station early in my career. From the live-action side I’d have to say ‘Wedding Crashers’ was one hell of a fun experience and working with New Line Cinema was a great blessing because they were effectively our ‘bosses’, but were never bossy. I think that had a lot to do with the creative success of the film. It was also a wonderful opportunity to work with ‘Married With Children’ writers Steve Faber and Bob Fisher. To this day, I hold my development experience with them as a bench mark for healthy business relationships between writers and producers.  On the animation side, working on the film ‘Coraline’ was a life-changing experience. The entire business model and development process between live-action and animation is absurdly different, so much so, it took me the entire course of Coraline’s production schedule to realize I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing in animation. Thankfully I was surrounded by patient, warm-hearted folks at Laika and I eventually understood the advantage of animation’s particular anatomy. Beside the film being utterly gorgeous and me having the opportunity to work with Henry Selick, I feel proud to site ‘Coraline’ because – forgive me for sounding childish – I never fully realized that being brave isn’t about not having fear, it’s about overcoming your fears. I’m cheesy, I know.

 
How did you become interested in animation?
Ever since I can remember, my twin brother and I had a video camera in our hands and would make two things: silly live-action skits and stop-motion G.I. Joe animations. When I think back, it was one of the strongest memories from my childhood. I can remember my brother tattling to my mom because Continue reading

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Donovan Cook

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Director of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Walt Disney TV Animation

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was Shamu at Sea World, (the guy in the costume)

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
2 Stupid Dogs, Nightmare Ned,Mickey Donald Goofy The Three Musketeers.

How did you become interested in animation?
Always drew cartoons and comics as a young kid. In high school my mother ordered the
Continue reading

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John Mahoney

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is John Mahoney and I am an independent film maker, college professor at Cal Arts and USC and a freelance Concept Designer/sculptor.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked as a bicycle messenger in New York City for one day, in which I got hit by two cars and I ran over two people with my bike!

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I really enjoyed working on Treasure Planet for Disney, I did concept art and concept sculpture. All together I worked on ten disney films. I also did a short film that won “Hottest Animation in Brazil” you won’t find that one anywhere, it has been banned from the Internet!!!

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I really liked the film American Pop when I was in high school… then much later in my senior year of Continue reading

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Myke Chilian

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Myke Chilian, currently lead designer on an adult swim pilot called “Rick and Morty”.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Back in 2005 i was working as a receptionist in a law firm. Does that count as crazy? Other than that, mostly worked at places like Blockbuster Video and Borders Books. Both of which are out of business now, i think.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m really proud to have been involved in VH1’s “Acceptable.TV”. An awesome, yet short lived sketch show where i was able to work with most of my closest Channel 101 friends. Not many people saw it, but occasionally someone will reference “Mr. Sprinkles” or “Operation: Kitten Calendar”. I’m sure all the sketches are online somewhere if anyone cares to google it. Definitely worth watching.
How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always drawn my whole life. And i also loved making short films with my friends. So naturally, Continue reading

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Daniel Spencer

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Daniel Spencer ,  I am Producer in Giant Creative and Chair of Pegbar.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
During college I worked a lot of hours in a late night petrol station as well as Magner’s photolab. They were busy places to work, but were rich in inspration from the eclectic mix of customers. The petrol station employed loads of art students, 3 of which were animators, so we were constantly taking turns in sketching customers and creating backstories for them. We also transformed the garage into an open air disco & an adventure course, in the early hours of the morning. Fun times.  Previous to that, I worked in a scuba dive centre, as well as a lot of kitchens, prepping food & scrubbing pots.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve had many animation and design projects that I have hit milestone’s in my career. However, starting up Pegbar with a few of my college mates, is one project I’m quite proud of. After college, we were finding it hard to communicate or get an ‘in’ with industry. There were 52 film events in Ireland at the time, but few had serious animated content. We were networking as much as possible but could not find the right people to critique our work in order to improve and get jobs. So we created our own animation networking event, and put our generation of animator’s portfolios on showcase, to which industry came to check out this well marketed, mysterious animation event. The event has been growing ever since, and has hosted many talks from a number of prestigious animators.
How did you become interested in animation?
I was always interested in animation, comics, anything related to visual storytelling. I used to draw all the time when I was a kid and for all of the usual reasons. The turning point was when Continue reading