Tag Archives: Bill Plympton

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Daran Carlin-Weber

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Daran Carlin-Weber, and I’m currently a freelance Flash animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked at a KFC/Taco Bell (yes they are out there) right around when that freaky Doubledown sandwich came out. That sandwich made me fear for humanity and anyone bold or fool-hearty enough to order it. Oh, I also worked as a cashier/cook a Sheetz gas station up until recently. Not crazy, but they truly have some of the best food you could possibly get at a gas station.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I haven’t gotten to be involved with too many projects yet. But I did get to work on a Halo motion comic when I interned at MoreFrames Animation, which was pretty cool. My favorite project I’ve done myself would probably my current project “Summer Rec” since it’s coming closer to what I’ve envisioned than any other project I’ve ever worked on.
How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve been interested in animation as long as I can remember. I used to watch so many cartoons when I was little. Well, I still do so I guess not much has changed, same shows too. I used to draw comics and I tried to Continue reading

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Steven Sievers

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What is your name and your current occupation?
I’m the co-creator, writer, producer, animator, & voice of Daniel the Turtle for the award winning animated series Supa Pirate Booty Hunt. Currently we are working for the charity Music Saves Lives for their national animated PSA campaign to encourage young adults & teenagers to donate blood. Each PSA takes Supa Pirate Booty Hunt characters, Cpt Zack Stevers & Daniel the Turtle paired up with music celebrities such as Nat & Sean from the band 3OH!3 and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. For more info visit http://www.supapiratebootyhunt.com

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked for a special affects company and out of no where I was in charge of the vomit rig on this movie set. It was crazy!

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I used to co-owner a clothing line called Level 27 Clothing that was sold in Hot Topic and I also worked with Disney about having our new line launch at Disney’s Vault 28 store at Downtown Disney. It was a lot of work and I was very proud of it.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always been into animation my whole life. Love watching the Disney classics as a kid and Saturday Morning cartoons. Overall it was my passionate love for Continue reading

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Matt Novak

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Matt Novak. Children’s Book Author and Illustrator. (Occasional animator)

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Can’t really say I’ve had any “crazy” jobs. In high school and college I was a puppeteer and an actor. Our puppet troupe was called “Pegasus Players” and we performed at amusement parks, birthday parties, flea markets, farmers markets and anywhere else that would pay us a few bucks to make kids laugh. Also, acted on stage and in a nationally syndicated radio show called “Willow Crossing.” I played the part of a freckle faced kid named Billy, which was very convenient since I was a freckle faced kid at the time.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I think my favorite animation project to have been a part of would hands down have to be “Beauty and the Beast.” To be part of the team that created the first animated film to ever be nominated for “Best Picture” That’s pretty cool. Of course, I’m proud of ALL the books I’ve created as well.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I grew up in the small coal mining town of Sheppton, Pennsylvania. (Population at the time, about 700) I was always interested in animation. Even before kindergarten. It was the closest thing to magic that existed in my world. As I grew up I watched a lot of cartoons and devoured any books about Walt Disney and the animation process. Tried making some Continue reading

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Chris Cookson

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What is your name and your current occupation?
I’m Chris Cookson and I am currently a freelance animator, I work in Flash mostly but sometimes I get some AfterEffects and Photoshop work.  I’ve been lucky enough where everything I’ve done before animation has been some kind of visual based work. The first job I did out of high school was making animated assets for the LED sign demo room at Trans-Lux (yes, that Trans-Lux of the 1959 Felix the Cat cartoon). It was a uniquely fun experience, they had this old LaserDisc system that would trigger all kinds of signs to light up in cue to music and audio, the audio was very much a product of the ’80s but they wanted me to modernize the visuals and make some colorful stuff for their new centerpiece display.  Apart from that, I’ve done a good amount of web design work in my formative years. One of my clients was a Cuban percussionist who was really into anime and kung-fu movies. He even offered to pay me for making his site with a samurai sword, which to 15-year-old me, was the coolest thing ever. Though, if I were to ever come home with a samurai sword, my parents would probably kill me, likely with that very same samurai sword.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
In terms of cool projects, a psychedelic TV ad for Linda McCartney’s line of frozen vegan foods has been really satisfying. What I loved was the ad had a different style than the usual aesthetic I get but had a lot of understated weirdness and quite a few distinct shots to work on. I got to meet Paul McCartney’s son-in-law and Rick Astley’s wife while on the project too which made me geek out pretty hard. A couple of months after I finished work on the spot, I started to see posts about it show up on sites like Motionographer, The Huffington Post and was linked by a lot of the sites I follow on Twitter, which made me feel real warm and fuzzy on the inside.  I’m also really proud of a lot of the smaller commercial projects I have worked on at Shoulderhill Creative. For those, it’s great to work with a couple of my classmates from art school and since it’s not a part of a giant team, I feel a lot more creative ownership over what I’m making. It’s absolutely wonderful to have a chance to work more within my own style and have more room to experiment with the colors and see what kind of little visual jokes I can put in to the advertisement.  Other projects like William Caballero’s documentary short film “How You Doin’ Boy? Voicemails from Gran’pa” were really great to be a part of. For that, he wanted me to make a squiggly text treatment based off of his grandfather’s handwriting to go up on screen in sync with actual answering machine messages left from his grandfather. Having the freedom to design the word treatment, as well as play around with text sizes was really fulfilling, the tone of some of the messages allowed me to really go crazy in some spots too, pushing the graphic element of it, trying to get it to match his grandfather’s own personal tone.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Stamford, CT and I’ve always wanted to either be a cartoonist or animator for pretty much my entire life. I taught myself how to use Flash when I was 12-years-old and would constantly look for an excuse to use it any chance I had, whether it be for making buttons or logos on the aforementioned web design projects I got or making short films whenever the opportunity arose. After making more and more stuff, over the years, my skills started to Continue reading

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Eric T. Elder

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Eric T. Elder and I am an Animation and Video Game Producer in Los Angeles.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I had a couple of cool service jobs before getting into animation full time. I was the “King of Room Service” at the Hotel Atop the Bellvue one of the oldest hotels in the country and got to see some interesting celebrities Winona Ryder, Sherman Hemsley, The Edge from U2.  Then I was a singing waiter on the Spirit of Philadelphia and my solo song was “The Rainbow Connection” from the muppet movie. I also had a retail job at a Warner Brothers studio store selling prints and cells of classic Looney Tunes.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I am definitely proud to be part of the team that created King of the Hill. My favorite sequence was one of my last where I made Peggy a rapper. Also I’m really proud of the Game Wizards program I created at the Art Institute in Santa Monica where I trained many successful people to work in Video Games.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m originally from Philadelphia where there were at the time just one small animation studio called the Production House. I worked on a project there which was an infomercial for baby formula. That was the first Continue reading

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Mr. Media interviews Oscar-nominated and Palm d’Or winning animator Bill Plympton

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Stitcher has an interesting audio interview up with two time Academy Award nominee Bill Plympton. You can listen to the interview here.

From the site:

Today’s Guest: Oscar-nominated and Palm d’Or winning animator Bill Plympton, whose seventh feature film is Cheatin.  BILL PLYMPTON podcast excerpt: “Hollywood doesn’t believe there is an audience for adult-oriented animation, which I think is all wrong. You go to Europe or Japan and there are huge audiences for films that speak about adult ideas and adult situations. But for too long, we’ve been dominated by Disney — and especially Pixar now — with their computer animation and their fairytales. The distributors are afraid to handle anything else. Ralph Bakshi opened the door a little bit back in the early 1`970s and it was immediately shut after he stopped doing it. I’m trying to open the door again with ‘Cheatin.’