Tag Archives: John Lasseter

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Betsy Baytos

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Betsy Baytos…..Illustrator/Animation Choreographer/Filmmaker & Eccentric Dance Historian.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Performed & created the ‘Betsy Bird’ & puppeteered on the Muppet Show…..trained over 250 clowns in a ‘character movement’ workshop for Ringling Bros. ‘Clown College Alumni’…..toured the country in a vaudeville/burlesque show ‘Baggy Pants & Co’ as the featured eccentric dance act.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Working as a Disney animator since 1976, then coming full circle as ‘animation choreographer’ for Disney’s ‘Princess and the Frog’…..Consulting for Cirque Du Soleil…..performing eccentric dance as the ‘Betsy Bird’ on the Muppet Show and performing physical comedy in the Broadway run of ‘Stardust’ in a featured eccentric dance act as ‘Maurice’, but most importantly, bringing this film, which I have researched & worked on for the past 20 years, ‘FUNNY FEET: The Art of Eccentric Dance’, to fruition for the next generation.
How did you become interested in animation?
I have always drawn and danced since I can remember. I discovered eccentric dance while working as an animator at Disney, then discovered Continue reading

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Bryan Ballinger

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Associate Professor of Digital Media Arts,  Freelance Illustrator, and Collector of Absurd Non-Perishable Food Items.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Shoveling out chicken coops was probably the craziest.  Between kamikaze roosters and all the airborne particulate matter, it wasn’t the most effervescent experience…
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
One of my favorite projects was doing the artwork the popsicle stick theater segments for some episodes of the VeggieTales Animated series , Another project was doing the art work for an animated TV spot for the National Associate of Broadcasters.   I also did some illustration work for a Finnish Blues Band called The Milk Cows.

How did you become interested in animation?
When I was a kid my dad used to show me the old original Popeye cartoons, which he himself loved. So that’s probably when my interest started. What really  blew my socks off though is when Continue reading

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Friedl Jooste

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Friedl Jooste and I am currently a lead animator at Sunrise Productions.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a cashier at a toy shop for a day and then did data capturing for a power company, not the most fun I have ever had.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?I’ve worked on a couple films, especially the ones I got to work on in Canada was a great experience, but the projects I’m most proud of are the smaller ones where I got to have more of a creative roll, for instance Hooked, a short film I wrote and directed for Character Matters animation studios.  I’m also very proud to be animating on the third season of Jungle beat for Sunrise Productions. It is the first Jungle Beat season to be fully created in South Africa and they have managed to put together a very talented group of people. I cant wait for season three to be released it is looking beautiful and the stories are great!

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I am from Cape Town South Africa. I have wanted to be in the animation industry since I was about 10, Continue reading

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Justin Putney

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Justin Putney. I’m a Creative Technology Manager at Pearson and co-founder of Ajar Productions. I started as an animator, and gradually learned more and more programming in Flash. Then I started automating tasks in Flash, and I now spend much of my time building tools for animators and designers.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
In college, I had part-time jobs painting houses and doing data entry at a hospital. After college, I started animating in my free time and was lucky enough to break into graphic design pretty quickly as a day job (which overlapped with animation fairly well).

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I really enjoyed building Facinator for Titmouse. Facinator allows Titmouse artists to rotate 2-D character heads as if they were 3-D and updates them on the stage. I also had a chance to build a production tool for The Venture Bros. (also with Titmouse), which was especially awesome because my wife and I have been fans of the show for years. It’s really neat to see what Titmouse is doing with those tools. I also love seeing what people have animated using SmartMouth, our automatic lipsyncing tool, as well as other extensions that I’ve developed.

How did you become interested in animation?
I drew constantly when I was younger. I finished college with a really broad Liberal Arts degree and didn’t really know what to do with myself. My wife suggested that Continue reading

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Todd Hampson

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
Todd Hampson, Founder/CAO of Timbuktoons, LLC, a 2D animation and IP/concept development company.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I grilled and/or burnt many steaks at a cafeteria style steakhouse in the 11th grade and delivered food to (and occasionally had food thrown at me by) elderly patients at a hospital during my first year of college. Good times.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Character Design room murals for 3 episodes of Extreme Makeover Home Edition (2 episodes will run the week of Christmas).Visual development and animation production on 9 DVD’s for Phil Vischer’s (Creator of Veggie Tales) latest DVD series “What’s In the Bible?”.  Action Comic Illustrations and Animation for a National Archives traveling exhibit.  Animated commercial spot for Myth Busters.  Production of Addy and Telly Award winning animated commercial series for an automotive company.

How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always loved film, animation, story, etc. I saw Jungle Book and Pinocchio as a kid and it blew me away. I never realized I could be an animator, but loved character design and film. If anyone has Continue reading

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Robb Pratt

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What is your name and your current occupation?
I’m Robb Pratt, story artist.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
For years I made stained glass windows in a little mom and pop shop in Studio City. There were actually some cool moments on that job. I got to meet Julian Lennon when I was installing some windows in his house! I’m a HUGE Beatles fan, so that was something that I’ll never forget! I also got to work for Erik Estrada, and Steven Adler, the drummer for Guns N Roses and future reality show star! What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? I was very fortunate to be an animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation on every traditionally animated film AFTER “The Lion King”! I got to work directly with Bruce Smith, animating Kerchak in “Tarzan”, and John Pomeroy, animating to Michael J. Fox’s voice for “Atlantis”. After traditional animation faded out out Disney, I was able to work for Eric Goldberg on “Looney Tunes: Back In Action”. I actually got to animate Bugs Bunny saying his iconic “What’s up, doc?” line!

How did you become interested in animation?
Funny… speaking of Bugs Bunny, it was the Warner Bros. shorts that made me want to be an animator! I love the artform of shorts: get in, get a few laughs, then get out before you’ve warn out your welcome! I also was WAY into the Fliescher Popeye shorts. I just recently rediscovered them with Continue reading