Shaun Bryant

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Shaun Bryant and I am a character designer currently doing freelance work in Austin TX.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I had a gig as a sign holding Santa for a florist in upstate NY. Thankfully they had a warm greenhouse I could thaw out in.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
There have been a lot of fun projects, but the one that I think I am most proud of so far is creating a cast of fun characters for the Texas Dept. of Agriculture. They were used in television and print ads promoting healthy eating among school children.
How did you become interested in animation?
Comic books, Saturday morning cartoons, and Disney movies fueled my creativity as a kid and made me Continue reading

Katya Bowser

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Katya Bowser and I am currently a Freelance Artist focusing on Storyboards, Illustrations and Character Designs.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I haven’t had anything too crazy, but working retail at Hollister was interesting. There were some crazy managers who would do things like chase shoplifters out of the store with a broomstick. You encounter a lot of interesting people when working in retail.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Being a freelancer has given me the opportunity to work on a lot of different projects. I’m working with some friends on a short film called “Asylum”. Its been a fun process and I’ve learned a lot through it. I also had a great time while working temporarily at DisneyToons. I don’t know if my sequence will make it through to production, but it was extremely fun to work on! And my other favorite would be my first animatic I created and designed with Epipheo for Crowd Equity. It turned out really neat and I enjoyed working on it a lot.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born and raised in Jacksonville, FL. My dad got me interested in art and was the one who taught me how to draw when I was little. We watched movies and cartoons together all the time and I loved everything animation. One summer in high school Continue reading

Chris Oatley

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
Chris Oatley. I was a Visual Development Artist and Character Designer at DisneyToon Studios (most recently designing characters for Disney’s ‘Planes’ franchise) before I left to start The Oatley Academy Of Concept Art & Illustration. At The Oatley Academy, I teach Composition, Color Theory and Digital Painting. I also have a Character Design Workshop coming up soon.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
At age sixteen I submitted my illustration portfolio along with a standard application for employment at my neighborhood Kroger and was immediately hired as a cake decorator. They also wanted me to do the in-store illustrations – china markers on the windows and what have you.  I think I started out at $12 an hour. It was way more than any of my friends were making at Bob Evans or Dippin’ Dots or wherever. It was my first job and I was already getting paid (well) to draw….until the US Department Of Labor called two days later and shut me down.  An industrial meat slicer was located within a certain proximity of the cake decorating station and thus there existed the possibility of accidental lacerations. The liability waiver I had signed didn’t count, legally, because I was a minor.  I was immediately demoted to bag boy. I liked bagging groceries because I could chit chat

Continue reading

Bruno Chekerdimian Barreto

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Bruno Chekerdimian Barreto, I’m working at Mariana Caltabiano Criações .

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
During the high school I used to help my father on his work carrying furniture and other little services. He is a woodworker.  I don’t know why he asked me to help him if I was, and still I am, so thin and weak.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m very proud to have worked on the first season of “As aventuras de Gui e Estopa” (in english “The adventures of Gui and Estopa”). I had a great opportunity to do a lot of things on it. I wrote some episodes, did some storyboards, helped to develop the digital clean up, worked composing the scenes and other many things. On the second season I added to my “to do list” the digital paintings for that scenes where shows something very detailed or should use a different visual language. But my big challenge happened during the production of our first animated feature. I did all the 3D stereoscopic composition of all animated scenes and I did all the digital paintings of “Brasil Animado”, the first Brazillian movie in 3D (stereoscopic).

 

How did you become interested in animation?
My mom is a fine artist, she always inspired me to Continue reading

Sam Ellis

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
Sam Ellis, Creative Director at Never Say Die Studios LLC.  I also teach Animation, Story Art, and Concept Design to college students, 2 days a week at the Art Institute of Washington.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a supervisor at a quick service chicken restaurant, a Mormon missionary in Arizona, a house framer in historic Williamsburg, a pizza delivery driver, a burger cashier, I built curbs all over Virginia Beach, an off-ice hockey linesman, as well as quite a few more freelance art jobs.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well, the one project that really helped launch my career and that is going into its 5th season is Archer. I was Lead Designer on Archer Season one and left at the end to go work on personal projects, but we were wrapping up an episode of the short lived Xtacles on adult swim and Adam Reed was getting ready to pitch a new show around called Duchess, Neal Holman was too busy with his other duties so Matt Thompson passed off the majority of the work over to me and Chad Hurd. I was to draw Duchess (later to be known as Archer), his mother, and his father, while Chad drew Archer’s love interest, his foil, and his car.  After his pitch was successful and a pilot was green-lit, I got to do quite a bit more designing, Chad and I were pretty delighted to start making some changes to the designs when we got hold of them, there was some great stuff already done by Neal Holman and Eric Simms, but with Neal working on creating backgrounds before we found Trinity Animation and Eric taking some heavy animation duties, Chad and I were like kids in a candy shoppe. We had a blast on that first episode, it came together real fast and we came up with some interesting solutions.  Even though I left Archer I still love the crew and am tickled when I see some of the art I did show up all the time, also I get a kick out of seeing my son every time I see young Archer as he was the model for it, Although he has never seen or probably will see Archer.  Outside of Archer I have been able to work on Cory Edward’s Krogzilla with the fine folks at GreenShoe Animation, Jason Shwartz’s company–man totally forgot, working with those guys let me work with Disney and Marvel I am heck’a proud of that I also got to foray into gaming and got to do some designs for that Avengers ultimate alliance game–that was fun.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I currently live in Spotsylvania VA, and I grew up on the east coast, most of my life was spent in Virginia Beach, VA.  I always wanted to be an animator and a comic artist, I love telling stories and find that using pictures and being able to draw was another great skill set in being able to Continue reading