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What is your name and your current occupation?
Chris Bailey, Animation Director.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Hah..great question. I have asked that of colleagues in the past. I think the craziest job, or furthest job from animation was working in a steel warehouse for my dad the summer before attending Cal Arts. I loaded steel I-beams onto trucks, drove a huge forklift, learned to weld and use a cutting torch. I caught myself on fire twice! In the warehouse were rows of 20′ and 40′ I-beams stacked to the ceiling. We’d leap from stack to stack looking for the right ones to fill orders and they’d sometimes rock back and forth threatening to fall. I felt like Daredevil.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve been pretty lucky and worked on some great projects. It’s hard to pick, but if I were to list a few highlights, I would start with the Marvel Productions Logo. It featured a chrome Spider-Man doing a flip and landing on the big MP. I was at the beginning of my career and thrilled to animate Spider-Man, even if it was only for one little shot. Next up is The Little Mermaid. It was a great film and broke animation out of the animated film ghetto and into a mainstream audience. I was a little fish swimming in a big pond and trying to learn as much as I could… Runaway Brain with Mickey Mouse for letting me play with the corporate icon and the resulting Oscar nod, Disney’s Mighty Joe Young for it’s groundbreaking CG animation, X-Men II because it’s such a great movie I’m a huge Marvel Comics fan, Kim Possible because it was as much fun to make as it was to watch and finally, the Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem 3D Ride because the minions are so damned funny and I love theme park rides. Â The Pepfar (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) Shorts for WB were interesting too. The shorts were done to advertise an educational action videogame for Kenya’s youth centers. I got to travel to Washington and pitch the boards to the State Department. Unlike in Hollywood where the costume of a director is shorts and t-shirt, I was pitching cartoon storyboards in a formal conference room wearing a suit! Ha! Â The Judy short in particular was a way to experiment with Kim Possible style animation and design in 3D. It was boarded by one of my favorite Kim board artists and Batman comics artist, Dave Bullock.
http://www.animationinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Judy-v2-112508.mov
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I grew up in Portland Oregon and went to Reynolds High School. I always liked comic books and wanted to draw them since I was 10 years old. Later in High School, I read an article in The Comics Journal that mentioned Continue reading
