Tag Archives: Adobe After Effects

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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

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Christina Capozzi-Riley

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Christina Capozzi-Riley Animator/Illustrator/Compositor & Small Business Owner (PetKaboodle, Inc.)

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
 Not sure about crazy. I only held two jobs prior to becoming an animation professional. I started working when I was 14 at a restaurant called The Wander Inn. I was a preparation chef in the kitchen. I prepared salads, desserts, appetizers and helped the waitresses get what they needed in the kitchen for their tables. I was one of the few who had a job working every weekend throughout high-school. I worked there for about 5 years and then began working at PETCO as a grooming assistant. (Bathing, brushing, grooming dogs & cats…the works). Not so much a crazy job..but some of the furry clients as well as their owners can be a bit on the crazy side sometimes. I worked there for another 5 years until I graduated SVA in 2005 and was offered a job at Asterisk Animation, LLC in Manhattan. Then in 2007 my husband and I incorporated PetKaboodle, Inc. and I now own an operate the retail business aside from any animation jobs.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
 There have been too many to count! Some that stand out to me are a bunch of short segments I did in collaboration with illustrator Steve Brodner called “Naked Campaign” which was lots of fun! It was a challenge to complete each segment in a matter of days in order to air on time. I’ve worked many times with the lovely Gail Levine on a number of documentaries including one on Jeff Bridges and another on Cab Calloway. I enjoyed the many documentaries we did for PBS and National Geographic, as well as the children’s language series Little Pim. I also enjoyed working with off-site animator Doug Compton. I frequently in-betweened his work and have learned so much in doing so. One of the more recent pieces was a documentary on Carol Channing where her intricate dress sure was a tedious challenge to animate and in-between!

How did you become interested in animation?
 Ever since I was two years old I would draw, draw, draw! Some of my very first drawings are of Continue reading

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Ashraf Ghori

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Ashraf Ghori. I am an artist and animation director. I also run my own digital design agency Xpanse CGI in Dubai UAE as its CEO.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was an artist at Six Flags Astroworld in Houston doing caricatures, I also worked for a year as a laser show animator doing some outrageous events in the UAE.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I am proud of my comic books and fantasy art that I made in Houston, and of my first short film ‘Xero Error’ which also happened to be the first CGI Sci-fi Film produced in the UAE.

I love the projects I get to do while traveling to different countries. I did a TV commercial for Lux Progress in Cape Town, where I had to create a blob of green liquid shooting through dirty plates and cleaning them in its wake. I could’ve easily done this back home in Dubai, but the client preferred to take the whole team there, No complaints from me!

I was the art director for Malal which was also the first Indo-Emirati film. We got to shoot this in a picturesque green hill station in Kerala, India. It was a wondrous week of very satisfying work while dodging blood sucking leeches from the forest!

How did you become interested in animation?
Prior to ’94 I was only into comic book & fantasy art. Then games like Continue reading

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Michael Leo Ramirez

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Michael Leo Ramirez (aka MRAM) , Concept Artist / VFX Artist

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Process Server (Served Subpoenas) Probably would have had my a** handed to me a couple of times if I didn’t look intimidating.  =)

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Junior Designer on the “Fountains Of Bellagio” and “Mirage Volcano” casino projects for Steve Wynn in Las Vegas

How did you become interested in animation?
Saw Speed Racer for the first time in Continue reading

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David Trexler

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What is your name and your current occupation?
David Trexler. I’m the Supervising Producer at Soup2Nuts Animation.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve had a good amount of jobs – installing custom kitchens, waiter (for 3 days), summer rec counselor and above ground pool installer, to name a few – but the crazier one would have to be drilling bowling balls for a sporting good store in Philadelphia. Maybe “odd” is more appropriate than “crazier”, but that’s the one that sticks out. The job where you think – what the hell am I doing? I was attending art school at the time and the hours were flexible. I got paid per ball. I also got to etch in peoples initials.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m proud of many of the projects I have worked on, all for different reasons. Daria at MTV Animation was a blast to work on. That’s where I learned the business. The show was more of an underground hit with a cult following  (as opposed to their huge hit Beavis and Butthead, the series it was spun off of). Fans have been requesting to have a DVD set released since it went of the air and it finally was late last year. We had an amazingly talented team on that show and I still keep in touch with many of them.

How did you become interested in animation?
My dad was an art teacher so as a kid I was always drawing. I would work from his lesson plans to learn shading, color wheels, etc… On top of that Continue reading

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Gavrilo Gnatovich

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Gavrilo Gnatovich (Gav, Big Gav) Head Honcho Grande, Horrendous Fiasco Cartoons

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Worked for the family sewer and water construction business, and late seventies disco bartender

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
The projects where I had the most lip-smacking, paddywhackin’ creative freedom. My first independent film, Lazar and the Longhair and Doubledome pilots I produced for the Cartoon Network. Had they listened to their own focus groups, it would have been a show. Ack, excuse me, choking on sour grapes:)

How did you become interested in animation?
Drinking in a Chicago Bar with Richard Williams on several occasions. I was working for a photography studio in Chicago (Jim Braddy Photography) and his sales rep, Tom Parker was also Richard’s rep in Chicago. When Richard would come in for Pre-Pro meetings, we would go out drinking and he would talk animation, (what a surprise). I figured Continue reading