Tag Archives: Development

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Seth Kearsley

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What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
I’ve mostly been a Director in my career.  I was lucky enough to start Directing really young.  I was 23 when I got my first job as Producer/Director of Mummies Alive.  I’ve been fortunate enough to remain as a Director pretty steadily since then.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I mostly worked in construction with my Dad but I did work as the assistant to the ice cream maker at Swenson’s when I was 13.  That was an awesome job and I ate a lot of cheap ice cream.  Still, to this day, I make some pretty good ice cream.  I delivered pizzas for Domino’s for a while in college and worked the graveyard shift at a toy factory.

How did you become interested in animation?
In 9th grade, I was in an art class and the first assignment was just to do Continue reading

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Eddy Houchins

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What is your name?
Eddy Houchins

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite project of all was the 2nd season CBS “Timon and Pumbaa” series that I directed for Disney Television Animation back in the mid-90’s.  At that time Judy Price still helmed CBS’s children’s programming division, and she called me in at the start of the season to “meet the new director.”
I got the word straight from her mouth tho take that show to the absolute limit, to the line of cartoon violence, innuendo, bad taste, potty humor, and sarcasm.
She said if I stepped over that line, however, she’d come down on me like a ton of bricks, but I’d better lean as far as I could over it because she was competing with a lot of
pretty “out there” stuff in those days from the competition.  Well, I knew what she wanted, I knew what Disney would accept, and I set about making those cartoons with an
energy and relish I had never felt before.  I remember calling a meeting of the entire crew after that meeting and telling them what she had ordered.  As far as we were concerned,
we now had carte-blanche from our client to make the absolute funniest, whacked-out cartoons we  could make.  I remember telling everyone, “Enjoy this, we will most likely never pass this way again.”  Prophetic words, because never again did I have the control or “hands-off” attitude from the Disney (or any other) execs and the network when creating or working on a show.
The closest thing was at Continue reading

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Ed Olson

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What is your name and your current occupation?

Ed Olson – concept development/character designer animator:  http://designloftstudio.com/index.html

edolson@designloftstudio.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/designloftstudio?feature=watch

http://www.linkedin.com/in/edolson

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0975075/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?

While going to college I worked construction during the summers.  Construction paid well so I could go to art school 9 months out of the year without having to work during my semesters.  After graduating, I spent several years teaching art, film and television, but didn’t think about animation as a possibility.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?

Rescuers Down Under (clean-up) Pinky and the Brain (storyboard) 101 Dalmatians 1996 live-action release (storysketch)

How did you become interested in animation?

I was teaching live-action and television production at California Lutheran University and faced the financial challenges that comes with the under-financed nature of education.  I had a friend who worked as an assistant at Disney.  He told me about the program there and the test you had to take to get started. I sat for a few months straight practicing in-betweening, took the test at Disney and started there on Rescuers Down Under.   The hardest part was learning to sit for 8 hours straight a day.

(I earlier had a B.A. in art but got interested in filmmaking at the end of my B.A., so went for a Masters in Film and Television production at the University of Iowa.  I made documentaries for PBS in North Carolina and Iowa and taught live-action film for years, but never utilized my art training up until the point I started at Disney.)

While at CLU,  I decided to utilize the drawing skills and subjected myself to a grueling self-training, re-introducing myself to my drawing skills which had been developed in art school.  I passed a drawing test and Disney and my new career was launched.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?

I am from Minnesota, but moved to California to attend The American Film Institute as a Producer Fellow, which was still part of my live-action film work.

What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?

Unless there is a tight deadline, I spend about 3 hours a day doing the “business side” of The Design Loft.  This includes emails, marketing, bidding on jobs online, networking and looking for opportunities.  Then I take a break, go for a walk, and come back and start the most highly creative part of what I do, drawing.  A lot of my work is hand-drawn, even when it comes to Flash animation, and then it is scanned into the computer for painting and line clean up. This usually lasts about three hours, then I go into the computer mode, which requires less creativity… this also lasting about four hours.  Soon a regular basis I am working around 10 hours a day.

What part of your job do you like best? Why?

The drawing.  It is the time when I feel that the creative abilities are used to their best.

What part of your job do you like least? Why?

The marketing.  It is somewhat tedious, but has to be done.

What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?

The finacial instability.  Clients pay in sporadic ways, and projects are always variable.

What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis?

Windows PC, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator.

In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?

Was instrumental in shaping the end of 101 Dalmatians (1996) with Stephen Herek directing.
See my profile on IMBD   http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0975075/

 

Describe a tough situation you had in life.

Animation in general is tough, but very rewarding.  Concept development requires getting very involved with a client’s hopes and dreams, and then you ride the emotional roller coaster with them and they try to make their baby come to life in the marketplace.

 

Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?

If you are truly supposed to be doing this, you will be doing this.

 

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Rob Davies

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What is your name?

Rob Davies

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?

I don’t know that I’ve had a ‘primary’ job in animation to be honest. My longest stint is as one of the founders/owners of Atomic Cartoons in Vancouver. However, I’ve worn many hats in and out of Atomic.
I started as a traditional animation layout artist. Anyone who’s been around for awhile (pre-digital) knows what that is…
Other titles include character designer, art director, storyboard artist, storyboard supervisor, director, producer, series creator, and presently VP of Development at Atomic Cartoons.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?

Before I broke into the ‘toon biz, I worked as a sign painter, dishwasher (lasted one night), construction laborer, duty-free store clerk, T-Shirt designer, political cartoonist, silk screen printer, art supplies store clerk, even worked the camera counter at Kmart…
Can’t say there was anything that was particularly ‘crazy’ (like juggling flaming chain saws at kids’ parties) although the duty-free store at the BC-Washington State boarder was strange. It required I run down the highway to just past the nearest exit to the boarder crossing and then hand customers their shopping bags. This was to prevent Canadians from loading up on smokes and rye whiskey at the duty-free and then hanging a quick right just before customs. I ran in all sorts of weather. It is Canada after all. Eventually they just closed off the street. Easier.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?

I’m grateful to have been a part of anything, to be honest. But I’m most proud of Beetlejuice the Animated Series, Asterix Conquers America, Eek The Cat, Pinky and The Brain, The Zeta Project, Captain Flamingo, and Atomic Betty.

How did you become interested in animation?

It was pretty obvious, especially in math class, that I was destined to do something with a Continue reading

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David Fremont

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What is your name?

David Fremont

How did you become interested in animation?
Watching Saturday morning cartoons

and after school cartoons. bugs bunny, bullwinkle, underdog, super chicken, johnny quest, sid and marty kroft, monty python. i thought “someone drew that stuff” so I tried to
draw a cartoon character, i think it was Lyle Lion with overlapping cartoon eyes. yellow submarine was a big influence as far as being inspired to draw weirder, abstract stuff.  and sunday comics, Cathy, Fred Basset. No actually I loved Tumbleweeds, Peanuts, figments, the Wizard of Id. I was always drawing comics and trying to create my own comic strip. Then I got into MAD, National Lampoon comics and RAW, Gary Panter had that scraggly punk look that changed my outlook on trying to draw perfect perspective cartoons. I started drawing comics without sketching them out, just pen and ink improv stuff, totally fun and scrappy. That’s how Glue started, a comic that turned into an online animated series for Wildbrain.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from a northern Cal. town called Fremont. How convenient, right?  I moved to San Francisco and worked in an art supply store. The people that worked at Colossal Pictures would buy supplies there and I’d always bug them about working there. So finally I got hired in the Ink and Paint dept, painting animation cels for things like cereal commercials and MTV’s Liquid TV with a bunch of like-minded Continue reading

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Atul N. Rao

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What is your name?
Atul N. Rao

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“I have been lucky to be part of many great projects.  Some of them never got past a pilot, but the experience of breaking new ground was worth it as experiences go.  The pilot projects include:   The Cartoon Network Pilot, “”Swaroop”” is certainly top of my list, where I met my long time friend and collaborator, Mike Milo.  “”Roy Rogers:  Rodeoheads”” was a hilarious pilot in which we worked with great voice actors (including Mark Hamil) and the director, Guy Vasilovich.  “”The Maharaja Cowboy”” which was done partly in Austin Texas and in Trivandrum India.  Recently I wrote a pilot for MARVEL called “”The Defenders”” which may be one of the best TV scripts I’ve ever written.

How did you become interested in animation?
Always loved it.  Started making my own stop motion films on Super 8 in the sixth grade.  I was obsessed with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Droopy and a bunch of others all through University while I studied psychology.  To me animation is the true frontier of human imagination, humor and art.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
Born in Detroit, raised in Canada, moved to L.A., then lived in India, Continue reading