This slideshow requires JavaScript.
What is your name and your current occupation?Â
My name is Jesse Soto. Currently, I’m a Freelance Storyboard Artist/Animator. I was fortunate enough to intern for Disney Consumer Products as a Artist/Animation Intern for their Blue Sky Think Tank a few months ago.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
This isn’t crazy, but I taught a 9-year-old how to animate her first film for a School District Competition. The girl, Ariana, had a piece where a young girl uses friendship to clean the beaches, one helping hand at a time. I felt like a school teacher because her and her best friend were the voice talents and I had to do parent/teacher conferences to make sure she did her animation work. She had to go through a little crunch time for not doing her homework, and fell asleep during the final composite 10 P.M. the night before. She won 1st place and gained a bit of confidence for kicking butt.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I was very proud to be working on a secret development project during my time at Disney. Our group, the Blue Sky Think Tank was comprised of 7 talented individuals with their own points of view and completely different backgrounds (Artist/Animator/Social Media/Writer/Filmmaker/Marketing) and locking them in a room for 6 months. Our project involved a lot of awesome ideas coming from Anime, Old School Disney, LA Culture/Counterculture, and our favorite TV shows which we learned a great deal from. Over the course of a few months, we saw a simple concept grow into flushed out characters, a strong and meaningful story-line, and great artwork/animation. The creative impact made would not be possible without the guidance of the excellent and talented storytellers/artists that reside within Disney.  Another favorite was the Black Dynamite Pilot that was featured on Adult Swim. On my first day interning at Titmouse, I was thrown into clean-up animation and color along with a few other interns. The studio was in the final push to completion. Every animator was working tirelessly, often through the weekends. Great fun came in each scene where it had either some neck-breaking karate chop or possessed puppets whipping out their machine guns and Desert Eagles. Dailies had a lot of funny shots and high level of violence that was being animated. Also, artists were open about sharing what they know, and tag-teamed the production work very well. The end result made everyone very proud of their work.
How did you become interested in animation?
As a youngin’, I grew up always interested in art and sketching cartoon characters. In middle school, I found out that my favorite TV shows, movies, and video games were Continue reading
