Tag Archives: HBO

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Carol Wyatt

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What is your name?

Carol Wyatt.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I am very proud to have been a part of the first 4 years of The Simpsons TV series. I started out as a background cleanup artist working with Nancy Kruse and ended up doing background design & layout, assistant animation on the Butterfinger commercials, and color supervisor for 3 of the 4 years. It was a real learning experience working with Wes Archer, David Silverman, Brad Bird, Rich Moore, and many, many incredible animators! Klasky/Csupo was a crazy and fun place to be in the late 80s.  Another project I am very proud of is Nightmare Ned for Disney. It was an incredible opportunity to design and paint in a very unique and fun style. I worked  with immensely talented artists like Conrad Vernon, Mike Mitchell, Vince Waller, Mike Bell, Paul Tibbitt, Howy Parkins, Alan Smart, Miles Thompson, and Sue Mondt. We were definitely the Disney underdogs. I am very proud to have been a part of Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network and, most recently, The Ricky Gervais Show for HBO.  Most projects I have worked on I am very proud of and the people I have met are the BEST!

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I loved cartoons growing up and was a huge fan of Bugs Bunny and Pink Panther cartoons, plus the little cartoons on Sesame Street. Cartoons were only on on Saturday mornings when I was a kid, so it was a really big deal when a new show like Scooby Doo aired. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Continue reading

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Elliot Blake

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Elliot Blake, and I’m an animation producer and sometimes writer. I just wrapped up a lengthy gig with the fine people at Six Point Harness.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve kind of been lucky in that I haven’t had to do a lot of crazy jobs before getting into the animation business.  Certainly the most unusual job I had was helping to wrangle pigs one day when I was a p.a. on a low budget family feature called “Gordy.” And when I was in high school, I worked at a Cinnabon for two or three weeks. To this day, I can’t eat those things.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well, I got to work on the original run of Futurama, all 72 episodes, as the design coordinator; that was fun, and I’m definitely proud to have been a part of it.  Working on that series was really the foundation for my animation production education, and it was great to get to see it all come together, from the initial design phase, all the way through to the final original episode.  I think my favorite projects were two I produced: Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider and Re\Visioned: Activision, both of which were web series
for GameTap, which was originally owned by Turner Broadcasting.  I won an Emmy for the Tomb Raider series back in 2008, which was a thrill, and also got to voice-direct Minnie Driver, who played Lara Croft. For a web series, the Tomb Raider project was obscenely well-funded, but unfortunately, not as widely-seen as we would have liked.  A few episodes are up on my website now , but at the time, the management thought putting the videos on YouTube would mean no one would come to watch them on GameTap.  The videogame company that publishes the Tomb Raider games recently put the episodes on YouTube, so now Continue reading

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John Kafka

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What is your name and your current occupation?
John Kafka; Supervising Director, Action Dad TV Series at Toonzone Studios

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked on a seed corn farm in Wisconsin, which grew different varieties of corn for various locations around the world. The soil was engineered to match the soil of parts of Africa, South America, Russia…lots of places. I detasselled ears of corn, which involved cutting off cornsilks one at a time off thousands of cornstalks…blisteringly hot, lots of bugs, and cornstalk leaves are sharp-edged enough to be used as weapons. I also stood in the bottom of a grain silo as a conveyor belt fed thousands of pounds of corn kernels through a hole in the top, which poured down onto me. I directed the torrent with a big double-handled metal disc held over my head which I kept turning so that the entire silo was filled levelly. The trick was to step up onto the gradually rising pile of corn until the silo was full. Every ten minutes or so, somebody would look down into the silo to make sure I hadn’t been buried alive or choked on the dust. Hot, no air, the noise was deafening as the corn fell 44 feet at first… Worst. Job. EVER. Staying up all night animating is an absolute piece of cake by comparison.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I directed some of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, animated lots of pretty good commercials, animated on the Smurfs, produced music videos, directed a Disney Direct To DVD that did pretty well, co-directed a CG feature film out of Continue reading

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Jeff Starling

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jeff Starling and I am a commercial artist.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Before gettting into the crazy buisness of animation I was involved in advertising where the art director has not done there job unless they have made some change,causting me more time and effort, to my work as an illustrator. A lot of those art directors new nothing about drawing but could sure critisize one. My foray into the world of animation came after leaving Sierra games to go to DIC (animation bootcamp), where I was introduced to a whole host of artists and animation directors.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
After a brief while at DIC it was my luck to land a job as a background designer at Warner Bros. working on Batman The Animated Series. Over the years I have worked with one of the shows producers Eric Radomski. He hired me early on at HBO or Boo animation where we did Spawn and with Ralph Bakshi, Spicy City. I and another employee won Continue reading

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Debbie Bonzon

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Debbie Bonzon and I am currently working as a free-lance timer, storyboard artist, illustrator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve worked as a bread deliverer to stores and restaurants, landscaper, farmer, drywaller, caterer, bicycle and running gear salesperson, advertising sales, and as an illustrator for demonstrative evidence in the courtroom.What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Most recently I am very proud to have worked as a timer on the “Curious George”  tv series, 2nd movie and Christmas Special.  Also, the Rugrat feature movies were a blast.  At Warner Bros.  I really enjoyed storyboarding on “Pinky and the Brain” and timing on “Freakazoid”.    At Nickelodeon, I really liked timing on “Cat Scratch” and directing on “Oswald”.   Also, storyboarding on the “Tick” was a kick!  As an animator, many years ago, I really enjoyed working on the first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series in Dublin. 

http://www.animationinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Debbie-reel.mov

How did you become interested in animation?
In high school, I wanted to work at Disney.  I loved animation, mostly the Warner Bros. shorts!
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Albuquerque NM and grew up in Los Alamos, NM (the atomic city).   After attending a few different universities trying to find a major that could land me a “real job” and I realized, like it or not, that I was an art enthusiast, I completed my BFA at the University of NM.  I had looked at the brochures from Cal-Arts, but, was intimidated by the photographs of other students, who were way cooler than I ever was or wanted to be, I began to look for something here in Albuquerque after I graduated.  There was a small studio that produced commercials for clients around the world and after 2 weeks of graduating, I put on my best outfit and “stopped by” to see if they needed any help.    When I entered the front office, I noticed they didn’t have a receptionist and thought I could do that.  As I waited for someone to come to the front, the owner of the company passed by, stopped, and asked if he could help me.  I told him I had just graduated and would love to work for them doing whatever they needed.    He said I could work in the paint dept. (cell painting!)  They paid minimum wage, at that time $3.35/hour!  I didn’t care, I actually felt I Continue reading