What is your name and your current occupation? My name is Luis Gadea. I’m currently a freelance animator/concept artist and I’m gonna start working as a Flash animator for TV series.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I only had one real job before starting in animation. I was a salesman in a call center for a telephone company from Argentina, then thankfully I was hired really young in an animation studio for commercials.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I really don’t have one specific favorite. I think I have learned from every project and each one has given me new skills for the next one. I do have to say that working on commercials was a great experience because each one was very different from the other.
How did you become interested in animation? At first I didn’t quite know about animation. Since I remember I’ve liked drawing. I remember as a kid I loved Disney, Warner, Hanna-Barbera, UPA and all the classics. I have a good friend older than me who started in Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? My name is Andre Barnwell and I am working on an extraordinary show called Motor City for Titmouse as an offsite animator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I’ve never worked any crazy jobs, just boring. The job that was by far the most boring was scanning more than 1000 legal documents a day for 8 hour days with a 30 min lunch…I lasted about 4 months.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? I animated on a series of commercials starring  personalities of Lebron James for commercial and development studio,Red Rover / House of Cool.
How did you become interested in animation? I became interested in animation ever since I watched Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? Kevin O’Neil and currently a freelance special effects animator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? Being a bank courier, picking up bank checks from all the big banks in downtown Chicago, for Jet Courier services in Chicago, back in the 80’s. I worked at Midway and O’Hare airports in the middle of the night, 1 am to 5 am. Also before that, I taught guitar for 6 years, and played in a few bands in Chicago. I was a full time musician before going back to art school at age 28. So I don’t know if they were exactly crazy, just jobs.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? One of my favs was Iron Giant at Warner Feature, and Hercules and Mulan at Disney Feature. Working at Disney TV on The Tigger Movie was also a lot of fun, and working with Jun Falkenstein was a great experience. I was glad I got to work at Disney if even for a short time. Brad Bird at WB, John Musker and Ron Clements at Disney. Great people if you ask me. Proud to be a part of those films. The caliber of artists at these places is just great. Actually the caliber of artists at most of the studios is great, it’s just too bad a lot of the stuff we saw in the studios is art that never makes it to the screen. Â I also worked at Warner’s Classics back in the 90’s as a character animator. We did a lot of commercials. I worked with Keith Baxter, Jeff Siergey, Spike Brandt & Tony Cervone. The place was fun and I got to draw Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. How could that not be great? Â More recently I had a lot of fun on the Priest animated prologue for Genndy Tartakovsy. I did most of the effects on that except a couple of shots. It was fun because it wasn’t your normal efx, there was a lot of blood and guts and I got to blow things up. I finally saw an unedited clip of the whole thing online. I guess for the movie, it was tamed down.
How did you become interested in animation? I guess just watching and growing up with the usual cartoons like everyone else. I leaned towards Warners. But I got into rather late, in my late 20’s. I was undecided in art school whether to pursue Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?
Dan Fraga. I’m the director of The Ricky Gervais Show.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? There have been a few. Comicbook artist, Storyboard artist, Set Designer, Visual Effects Supervisor, Second unit director. Burger King.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? One of my favorites was being part of the launch of Image comics in 1992. Designing the sets for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2008 was a hoot as you might imagine. I’m really proud of the work my crew and I did for The Ricky Gervais Show Season 3.
How did you become interested in animation? When I was a kid, my parents took us to this discount store. In it I found this Fisher Price Movie Viewer  and it came with a cartridge for Disney’s Lonesome Ghosts. I’d seen the cartoon before, but I never had the ability to step through it one frame at a time like you can now with a dvd player of quicktime clip. This was the late 70’s early 80’s, so for me to see that animation was 24 drawings making up a second of movement was like learning the secret to the greatest magic trick. Of course afterwards I made flipbooks and what-not. I eventually discovered comics and took detour from animation. After working as a storyboard artist in feature films, I started noticing the changes and compromises being made from board to final shot and it was kind of a bummer. When I started working on The Hard Times of RJ Berger for MTV, it was the first time that I got to see what I boarded translated near perfectly to final shot. It’s intoxicating. I felt that magical feeling that I once got as a kid with that toy. I love all things animation and made it my mission to learn all that I could about the different kinds that are out there and the histories behind the masterpieces we all love.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? I’m from North East Bay Area by San Francisco. I got into the animation business through working on The Hard Times of RJ Berger. I was storyboarding the show and providing on camera artwork for the main character who was an aspiring comicbook artist. The creators of the show asked if I could Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?Â
Carlos Ramos. I’m currently freelancing as a storyboard artist, character designer, writer. I just got done storyboarding on all the Madagascar trailers and ads and a bit on Dreamwork’s Rise of the Guardians. And as always pitching, pitching.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? Thankfully I only had one job before getting into animation. In high school through my freshman year at college I was a Show Controller at Universal Studios Hollywood. Basically crowd control and making all the park announcements. That place is a real dump and I can’t imagine why people would pay money to go there but it was a really fun job.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well, I haveto say the show I created at Nickelodeon: The X’s where I served as art director as well. The design theory was “No lines” so everything was colored shapes. AND it wasn’t in Flash. All hand drawn and animated by the amazing crew at Rough Draft, Korea. An extremely tough series we all bled on. I just recently rewatched a few episodes and it still holds-up.
How did you become interested in animation? My earliest memory was attending a screening of a pencil test of The Black Couldron at the Disney Burbank lot when I was a kid. I was forever changed by the experience and actually seeing the bungalows where the animation happened intrigued me for sure. I was obsessed with Mad Magazine growing-up and always assumed that’s where I’d work when I “grew up”. But after the original editor William Gaines died the magazine’s quality did too so I had to think of another plan. I was going to Fairfax High School in the magnet arts program and one Saturday took an animation class and the instructor said that Cal Arts was the only school for people seriously contemplating a life in cartoons. I took those words to heart and was determined to get in even after being rejected and having to re-apply the following year. Looking back it was funny because I never visited the campus before the day of registration. And it was just a short drive from my house. I just knew it’s what I wanted.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from L.A. born in Burbank. Attended Cal Arts and got a job at DIC as a development artist the summer of my freshman year. My plan was to graduate college with a BFA with 3 years of experience under my belt. It was a balsy plan that worked out. I did the full four years and worked the summers and freelanced for Disney Television and DIC. Looking back I got really lucky. DIC was the funnest job I’ve ever had and at Disney I was a character designer on Nightmare Ned – a show I doubt anyone remembers but had the most hardcore bad ass crew ever assembled. Seriously everyone on that show went on to Continue reading
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 and layouts 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 Continue reading
