Ken Turner


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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Ken Turner and I’m a filmmaker/illustrator.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Can’t say anything prior was at all that crazy.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I think any of the films/books I’ve personally been able to make during school and after graduating and that I’ve put my own stamp on were always the projects I’m most proud of. I found personal film projects to be the most rewarding as I can hire all my talented friends and collaborate to make something that would otherwise not exist.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Mississauga, Ontario and currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember and was Continue reading

Betsy Baytos

 

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Betsy Baytos…..Illustrator/Animation Choreographer/Filmmaker & Eccentric Dance Historian.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Performed & created the ‘Betsy Bird’ & puppeteered on the Muppet Show…..trained over 250 clowns in a ‘character movement’ workshop for Ringling Bros. ‘Clown College Alumni’…..toured the country in a vaudeville/burlesque show ‘Baggy Pants & Co’ as the featured eccentric dance act.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Working as a Disney animator since 1976, then coming full circle as ‘animation choreographer’ for Disney’s ‘Princess and the Frog’…..Consulting for Cirque Du Soleil…..performing eccentric dance as the ‘Betsy Bird’ on the Muppet Show and performing physical comedy in the Broadway run of ‘Stardust’ in a featured eccentric dance act as ‘Maurice’, but most importantly, bringing this film, which I have researched & worked on for the past 20 years, ‘FUNNY FEET: The Art of Eccentric Dance’, to fruition for the next generation.
How did you become interested in animation?
I have always drawn and danced since I can remember. I discovered eccentric dance while working as an animator at Disney, then discovered Continue reading

Jacques Muller

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Jacques Muller. I am presently senior lecturer (Classical animation) at the School of Interactive Digital Media of Nanyang Polytechnic of Singapore.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Waiter for half a day in a Paris restaurant, with no prior experience (I spilled the drinks over 5 customers when I couldn’t keep my tray balanced)

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Space Jam, Rescuers Down Under, Star Wars, the Illusionist.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I am from the Angouleme region in South West of France, one hour north of Bordeaux. I started at Continue reading

Pablo Navarro

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Pablo Navarro; I’m an Animation Director and Senior Character Animator.  Right now I’m animating for the movie titled “The Congress”, the next project from Ari Foldman, director of Waltz with Bashir.  Besides that I teach animation as a part time job, and I do tutoring to students here in Barcelona and other cities of Spain.  Also I give lectures and conferences about animation and acting around the globe.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well, I work since I’m 8 years old, I used to work on orange and watermelon plantations helping loading the trucks, after that I was a waiter for many years in the family restaurant……although I am a formerly electro-mechanic technician, I never worked as such, I jump into animation right after finishing my studies.I wasn’t fond of those other activities to continue with them 😉  Don’t know if they’re crazy enough jobs…..but surely they don’t have anything to do with animation.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
The project I am most proud it is a movie called Nocturna. That is my favorite project so far.  I really enjoy working with the same Directors of that movie (Adria Garcia and Victor Maldonado plus Alfredo Torres), they create a studio called Headless and I collaborate with them often for new projects and development.

How did you become interested in animation?
Well, I think that all my life I was interested in animation, but when you’re a kid it is difficult to find out, or to put it into words like say “I want to be an animator!!”  My mother found out that the only way to keep me quiet and not doing too much trouble around the house was giving me a paper and a pencil and I could Continue reading

Jason Fittipaldi

http://vimeo.com/100823735

What is your name and your current occupation?
Jason Fittipaldi – Animator

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Putting letters on those signs that fly behind planes. You would have to construct the sign banners (kind of like putting letters on a movie theater marquee) in this hot, buggy field. Then, you would set it up on this goal post construct with a tight rope across the top. The plane would fly low with a big hook hanging from the bottom and (most times) snag the tight rope at the top and take off with the new sign. You would have to break down the one it just dropped and set up another for the next round. We had an ongoing wager with the company next to us in this makeshift airfield that any signs that went up backwards, upside down, or wrong and you had to buy the other team a case of beer.  Right before going into animation full time, I wore every hat possible at a small construction company that sold prefabricated buildings worldwide. Everything from Marketing and Sales to IT and Conceptual AutoCad project drawings.  What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?  I really enjoyed the creature work we did on Underworld: Awakening. We got to work very closely with the directors on that project and had a lot of creative freedom for some of the sequences (which is not always the case).  Thor was one of my first professional projects, so that definitely sits pretty high on the memories list as well. Animating some of the Destroyer shots on that show was a blast.  Right after that, we moved onto X-Men: First Class, but we didn’t get to do any character or creature work on it (other than digital doubles for vfx). We did animate a lot of the super power fx for Havok, Banshee, and  Darwin. X-Men was one of my favorite comics growing up so the younger version of myself was hitting me with all kinds of high-fives from the past.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I grew up mostly in Southern New Jersey and have spent a lot of time in Florida as well. When I was younger (about ages 4-5), my grandmother had a couple of flipbooks of things like ballroom dancers that I found. They were incredibly fascinating to me and I started to make my own flipbooks on sticky note pads. Every single one of Continue reading

Todd Hampson

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
Todd Hampson, Founder/CAO of Timbuktoons, LLC, a 2D animation and IP/concept development company.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I grilled and/or burnt many steaks at a cafeteria style steakhouse in the 11th grade and delivered food to (and occasionally had food thrown at me by) elderly patients at a hospital during my first year of college. Good times.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Character Design room murals for 3 episodes of Extreme Makeover Home Edition (2 episodes will run the week of Christmas).Visual development and animation production on 9 DVD’s for Phil Vischer’s (Creator of Veggie Tales) latest DVD series “What’s In the Bible?”.  Action Comic Illustrations and Animation for a National Archives traveling exhibit.  Animated commercial spot for Myth Busters.  Production of Addy and Telly Award winning animated commercial series for an automotive company.

How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always loved film, animation, story, etc. I saw Jungle Book and Pinocchio as a kid and it blew me away. I never realized I could be an animator, but loved character design and film. If anyone has Continue reading