What is your name and your current occupation?
Paul Driessen / Animator of short personal films.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I was in the Dutch army (compulsory), counting its bolts, underwear and tanks / otherwise nothing much job-wise, trying to sell my cartoons with very little success.
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How did you become interested in animation?
I drew cartoons since my childhood / When I grew up I didn’t know much about animation, for Holland, where I spent my school years didn’t have an animation tradition / I’d seen the odd Disney film but that was about it / In 1964, when I was 24, I read Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?Â
I’m Neal Warner and I am currently directing a live stage show called Rock & Roll Rehabwhich features a live band playing in sync with animated music videos projected on a large screen above the stage. It’s been an ambition of mine since I was in Junior High School and saw the re-release of Walt Disney’s Fantasia. It recently finished a run at the Hayworth Theater on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? Before I went to work as an inbetweener at Hanna-Barbera during my summer vacation between graduating high school and starting college I was a published cartoonist in the “Free Press” and in “underground comix”. Ironically, the only job I ever had after creating the underground comic character Pizza Fella and starting full time in the Animation Industry was as a pizza delivery guy while attending San Diego State.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? I wrote and directed the John Lennon themed stage show, A Day In His Life, which was represented by the William Morris Agency and followed that with the Rock & Roll Rehabshow, both of which include a lot of animation as part of the multimedia projection. I published PaperCuts, The Illustrated Lyrics Magazine in the 80s which included a two song record insert and featured the songs’ lyrics in comic book form, I produced several animated music videos, one of which won the Gold Plaque in Music Video at the Chicago International Film Festival and was included in a screening of “The World’s Best Animated Music Videos” at the First Los Angeles Animation Celebration and I produced The Tooner’s Trip Disc enhanced CD and The Tooners’ Rocktasia CD (available on iTunes). Those are my favorite “pet” projects but I’m also proud of my work on The Heavy Metal Movie, Ducktails The Movie, the two Rugrats Movies, The Puff The Magic Dragon TV special and some of the many TV commercials and series I’ve worked on either as an animator, an assistant animator, a director or as a timing director for studios such as Disney TV, Klasky-Csupo, Marvel, Murakami-Wolf, Filmmation, Film Roman, Sony, Universal, Fred Wolf Films and many others.
How did you become interested in animation?Â
I was a cartoonist whose work was published in my junior high school newspaper, the cover of the yearbook and animated my first film, The Jogger, in the ninth grade. In high school I was the school’s staff “political” cartoonist as well as a paid contributor to professional underground comics and in college I was elected into Sigma Delta Chi, the Society Of Professional Journalists for my political cartoons in the CSUN campus paper. Although Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? My name is Alan Foreman and I’m a freelance animator and director working out of Brooklyn, NY.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I don’t know if I would label any of my previous jobs as crazy. I got into animation right after graduating from college. Before that it was mostly your run-of-the-mill highschool jobs… working at a movie theater, a children’s museum, basic manual labor jobs… things like that.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? There are a lot to choose from. Home Movies (Adult Swim) was a lot of fun. Directing Three Delivery (Nicktoons) was very challenging and satisfying. Recently I finished a music video for my band that is on the festival circuit that I’m very proud of. Doing that has gotten me excited about producing independent films again.
How did you become interested in animation? All I ever wanted to do all my life was draw. While a freshman at the Rhode Island School of Design I had Continue reading
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
What is your name and your current occupation?
Freelance animator currently working on a creature comfort esq animation for a zoo charity. What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
odeon cinema where I was head of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My final major project at Uni called the money tree, it turned out Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? My name is Mike Geiger and just finished up a pilot for a pre-school show called “Napkin Man” with a company called “Little Tugboat”.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? Not that it was really a “job”, but I was an amateur skateboarder for the majority of my teens.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? Wow, there are lots. I spent some wonderful time in Vancouver animating under Bob Jaques on the Ren and Stimpy show which definitely helped me develop as an animator and artist early on. We had a blast making episodes of a series called “Yamroll” up in Sudbury Ontario, and more recently, Ive had the pleasure of working with Chuck Gammage on a project that we are developing together. I feel Ive been really lucky to have worked with some unbelievable mentors. How did you become interested in animation?
I would actually attribute the majority of that to being involved with skateboarding. The skateboard culture is heavily rooted in art and graphics, so it seemed like Continue reading
