Tag Archives: Final Cut Pro

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Paul Griffin

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi, I’m Paul Griffin and I’m currently an animation director. When I was seven, I was planning on being a firefighting astronaut who flew jets on the weekends, but animation director is pretty close. There is an element of firefighting some days, I get to fly spaceships and puppeteer aliens to pilot them, but weekends I mostly just kick back around the house.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to work for this couple, one summer in Toronto, who ran a ceramics business out of their basement. They had a tortoise who would eat the leaves of the large marijuana plant growing in the back yard, then he would crash into the fence over and over as he stumbled around. That was entertaining. I guess the turtle was happy for the most part.  I also painted structural I-beams for a summer and had one job where we were working next to the Welland Canal and could look down the smoke stacks of ships as they were passing several hundred feet below us on the water. That’s how I developed my Kung Fu Grip©. Man, the crazy, dangerous stuff you’ll do for $9/hour…
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
That’s a tough one. My favorite project is usually the one I’m currently working on, but have to say some of the memorable ones have been, The Fly, Magnolia, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, King Kong, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, four Superbowl commercials and the cinematics for Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (VG). Working with the gang at Dr D Studios in Sydney on Happy Feet Two last year was really a lot of fun.

How did you become interested in animation?
Growing up in Ontario Canada, before the advent of cable TV, the town we lived in had one single broadcast TV channel from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Every Saturday at 5 p.m. my family would gather around the TV and we’d watch the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour and it was Continue reading

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MARK BROOKS

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What is your name and your current occupation?
MARK BROOKS. WRITER/DIRECTOR/MUSICIAN
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
CAB DRIVER, ROADIE, PLAYING IN BANDS
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
METALOCALYPSE, LIL’ PIMP
How did you become interested in animation?
I WAS ALWAYS INTERESTED IN IT FROM THE MINUTE I SAW Continue reading
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Jennifer Ruiz

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
Jennifer Ruiz – Freelance Filmmaker/Photographer/Stop motion Animator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? After graduating collage I had to work several summer jobs to save up for my move to California.  One job was a Digital Media Summer Camp.  I had to teach kids ages 7-12 how to write, shoot, and edit (on final cut) a movie.  Some children were so young they didn’t even understand what editing was!  Not just imagine explained final cut to a 7 year old.  I get a headache just thinking about it. What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?  I through a fake wedding for Polaroid in a backyard a few years ago.  They never ended up using it, but we spent months setting it up and it was a blast to make.  The day of the “wedding” people who wanted to be in the wedding party all were randomly assigned secret roles that only they knew (groom, father of the bride, drunk ex, bride, etc).   The rest of our friends were wedding guests who sat back and watched as someone was proposed to and “married.”  It was full of improvised speeches, vows, a live band, dancing, a bouncy castle, a photo booth, flame throwing, guitar smashing, you know…the usual.
How did you become interested in animation? 
A friend in high school did a simple stop motion with toys for a class project.  I was so impressed how Continue reading
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Martin Cendreda

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What is your name and your current occupation?

Martin Cendreda. Unemployed. Drawing some comics that I’ve neglected for a long time.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Nothing crazy, most of them have been boring. As a teen, I worked at the Vogue theater in Hollywood, and later I found out it was haunted. Sadly, I didn’t experience anything paranormal.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My first job out of animation school was the first season of South Park. The following year I worked on the movie.  I also worked on my friend Amy’s show, “Making Fiends” at Nickelodeon. Sadly, it got relegated to Nicktoons and never aired properly on Nickelodeon proper.
How did you become interested in animation?
Like most kids, Continue reading

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Dan Shefelman

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Dan Shefelman, Cartoonist, Director, Head of Story, Writer.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Hanging 200 feet on the side of a building painting a trompe l’oeil mural on Park Avenue in NYC. The owner of the company was color blind but we were’nt supposed to know. So he would come to the site and tell us to add more red. We would do nothing and the next day he’d say it looked much better. The union guys on the site hated us because we were non-union. They would tip over our paint. Once I got stranded 200 feet up on the scaffold when the electrician shut off the power at quitting time. I had to swing like Spiderman on my safety line over to a fire escape and climb down. I finally quit the next day when I realized I was risking my life for “art”.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Teaching storyboarding at NYU. It’s so great to see new talent develop. I did a flash political web cartoon during the 2008 election on CNN.com. Wrote, designed and animated it. I love the collaboration of big productions but it’s always very satisfying to do everything on your own.  I have always been proud of working on the story team at Blue Sky on Ice Age. It was the first feature for Blue Sky and it was great to be there in the beginning as we all flailed our way to discover how to get these monsters done. I am particularly proud of the cave painting sequence I storyboarded which dealt with difficult issues of loss and forgiveness in a family movie without terrifying the kids in the audience. The big challenge was to Continue reading

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Elroy Simmons

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Elroy Simmons and I’m a 2D Traditional Animator (and sometime Director/Designer). I’m also a part-time tutor on the Access to Motion Graphics course for adults at Tower Hamlets College, East London

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

 I’m not sure about crazy jobs, so much. When I was on my degree, I worked as a caricaturist – at local markets and for a company that organized swanky, massive Office parties in London. I’ve sold drawings (with varying success) since I was 12 (to schoolmates), but the first time I set up a ‘pitch’ and drew absolute strangers was, as I said, while I was ‘studying’ Animation at degree level.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
 I’ve been relatively lucky – so far, in so much as a lot of the stuff I’m able to derive the most pride from, is work I’ve designed and directed – as well as animated; so though the budget may be small, the amount learned is broad and the fulfillment felt is massive (“A Haven In a Brick Jungle”, “No Search/No Entry”). I think the best time I’ve had professionally was working on a cartoon short called “George et Alfred”; it was a ‘souped up’ spin off from a series shown on TF1 called “Ca Cartoon”, and it was broadcast that Christmas. The Director – Mark Woods, wanted two Supervising Animators – and asked me if I wanted the role, and to know who I’d suggest as the other Supervising Animator. I suggested a friend/colleague – Rob Newman. The studio that made the series (and presumably still do) wanted British Animators to work on the cartoon (their thinking was that British and American cartoon animation had ‘compatibility’, and more importantly that British Animators work longer – and for less money. So, for about three months we worked on the short with a crew of French Animators, in Paris, being put up in a Hotel about five minutes from the studio, and the studio even paid for weekly Eurostar travel back to London. Believe me, this level of care is stuff of myth in London. We had a party for all of the crew – even the Producers – at the end of the job. I’ve worked as hard since, but I’m not sure I’ve laughed so much – and I’ve not had reason to be as competent at speaking French since, either.

How did you become interested in animation?
 I remember seeing the workmen building the circus tents in”Dumbo” on what must have been “Disney Time” (a show that would pop up on the BBC) when I was very young. I was confused by how they seemed real, but were like moving sweets; I think I was ‘hooked’ then. I’d enjoyed drawing from very young, about 3 years old, but the time I was six, I’d said ‘out loud’ “I want to be an Animator”. My teachers at Primary School  (Mrs Sheffield at the time, then Mr Fairhall and later Mr Bandey) were all very aware and very encouraging (I was a bit of a ‘swat’, generally – so it never really interrupted my school progress), so I drew relatively often, regularly pestering my Mum for ‘Drawing Books’ to keep me entertained at home – and then by the time I was eight years old, I’d got into ‘flickbooks’ (Mum was a nurse, so there were thick Medical books that she didn’t mind me drawings on the corners of) – and it just went on from there, really. I remember thinking I could Continue reading