Mark Lewis

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Mark Lewis. On my most recent gig, I did prop design, color and board revision. I’ve also done character cleanup and design.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked in one of the art departments at Lawrence Livermore Lab. People say artists are nuts, but there were stories about things some of the physicists had done… Also, I worked for a while in a sign shop that was headquartered in a storage facility. You were surrounded by corrugated metal, no real insulation, heating or cooling. So it would get freezing cold during the winter months, and into the 100’s inside during the summer months. Hard sometimes to make your hands (and your brain) work in those conditions.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Conan: Red Nails has to be one of the coolest projects I’ve worked on. We got to do some things I’d never seen done before in a western-produced animated film. I hope to see that released one day, finished at the same level of quality with which it started. And I was glad to get a chance to work on what turned out to be the last outing for the classic Warners Batman, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. There are lot of other projects I could mention, but that’s probably a good place to stop, before the list gets too long.

How did you become interested in animation?
I always liked it (grew up seeing Disney cartoons and the like, and had my Saturday morning favorites), but it was actually secondary to my interest in Continue reading

Michael Fry

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Michael Fry.  I write the comic strip Over the Hedge.  And I’m President of RingTales LLC.  RingTales animates print comics for all digital media.  We have the exclusive right to animate Dilbert, The New Yorker Animated Cartoons, Pearls Before Swine, Over the Hedge and many other comics.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was fortunate to become a full time cartoonist a couple years out of college.   Before that I bar-tended, did a lot of freelance work.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
The DreamWorks Animation version of Over the Hedge. Committed,  a prime time animated series of one of my other comics, produced by Nelvana.

How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always wanted to see my characters Continue reading

Juli Murphy

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Juli Murphy*, and I am a timer for “American Dad”, for Fox TV.*(For 14 years I also went by my married name, Juli Hashiguchi, or Juli Murphy Hashiguchi)

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was an assistant to the oldest practicing Magician in the Magician’s guild. I think he was in his upper 70’s, and he had been on the Johnny Carson show previously. I answered an ad when I was in college, and I fit the red sequined assistant’s leotard he had. It was a sad, depressing show. He couldn’t remember how to do all his tricks, and he caught the dove’s wings in the disappearing cage. I only lasted one show with him, because he was a really bad driver (going the wrong way down a freeway on-ramp) and he wouldn’t let me drive the Magic Van.
I also worked for Federal Express for 6 years. Besides loading boxes onto planes and trucks I also de-iced aircraft from a bucket extension on a gigantic truck, gave tours through the sorting facility, and radioed pilots in the aircraft. That was a great job, because one of the side benefits was free flights on cargo planes, exactly like Tom Hanks in the movie “Castaway”, luckily without the crashing part. I have ridden in the cockpit of 727’s and DC-10’s enough times to be sick of it.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I would have to say the best job I have had to date was at Cartoon Network on “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”. I was the Supervising Director for 5 years, and it was a really wonderful experience. I had the most challenging and Continue reading

Odair Martins, Junior

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Odair Martins Junior, I’m an animator at Loopix Entertainment.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
 I actually never worked at anything else beside animation, when I knew I wanted to work with it, I used all my free time after college to study, so I didn’t get a job.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
 My favorite project is my classic animation short film, and I’m still working on it.
How did you become interested in animation?
 I had 3D software classes, and I realized I like to animate things on the software. So Continue reading