Jorden Oliwa

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Jorden Oliwa Aka Johnny Gonzo, Freelance animator/Illustrator/comic artist.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Building scaffolds in the ashtrays of coal power plants. Managing a kitchen, cooking fulltime.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Massive Swerve/ Ren and Stimpy APC/ Mucha Lucha/ Motorcity/ Roy/ Angry Beavers/ Mission Hill.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I was into comic books first and a teacher recommended that Continue reading

Mike Carlo


What is your name and your current occupation?
Mike Carlo and I’m an Animation Director/ Director at Titmouse Inc.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
 I was an usher at a movie theater when I was in high school, and was subjected to wearing a really dorky uniform. I was also a Continue reading

Jeff Liu


What is your name and your current occupation? 

My name’s Jeff Liu and I’m an animator at JibJab Media Inc.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I actually started pursuing animation in high school so I haven’t had many jobs before I got into it. I used to teach private Karate lessons for younger kids at the dojo I went to haha.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I really enjoyed working on the opening for the 2011 CalArts Producers’ Show. I came up with the idea to have everyone (who was interested) animate something coming out of a box. We then put everyone’s animation together and it turned out to be really cool! It was also a cool representation of the wide range of styles among the students.

How did you become interested in animation? 
I remember seeing Flash at my friend’s house one time when I was in middle school. I thought Continue reading

Pat Giles

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Pat Giles, and I am a Creative Director and co-founder (with Manny Galan) of Pat-Man Studios in New York City. We have several big Agency/Advertising clients. We currently run the creative assignments for several General Mills kids brands like Lucky Charms, TRIX, GoGurt and Honey Nut Cheerios for Saatchi & Saatchi. We partner with animation houses like Calabash and Laika, and cartoon gods like Sergio Aragones and others to make commercials, video games, short films, etc. We are also working on several series projects with Classic Media that aren’t announced yet, and we are in production on a project called “Captain Cornelius Cartoon’s Cartoon Lagoon” that will be out by the end of the year, whether it kills us or not.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked in children’s clothing for many years (not wearing it to work, but designing it). I designed tons (literally) of licensed products for Disney, Lucasfilm, Marvel, DC and Warner Bros., among others. The oddest was the line of “Hunchback of Notre Dame” pajamas I designed. While I am not knocking the artistry behind that film, Quasimodo made for some very odd pajamas.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve been extraordinarily lucky to work on a lot of awesome projects. Back in the day, I started out as a designer on “Disney’s Doug,” art directed the Disney Channel series “Stanley,” was the Design Supervisor on MTV’s “Daria,” and worked on several other series in various capacities. I started a comic book company called “Monkeysuit Press” with Chris McCulloch (aka Jackson Publick), Mike Foran, Miguel Martinez-Joffre and Prentis Rollins. That was really fun and liberating. Several years ago everyone thought I left “animation,” but taking an ad agency assignment only got me deeper into it, since all of my assignments were for these beloved American brands with animated characters like Lucky, the Trix Rabbit, Buzz, and Sonny the Cuckoo Bird. The craft applied to these commercials is magnificent. I get to work with animators, directors, CG artists, painters, composers, orchestras, engineers, voice actors, and a lot of live action/animation combos with great directors, actors and cinematographers. It’s been a blast.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
“At Conception,” hahaha…I was just hard wired for animation and Continue reading

Robert Valley

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Robert Valley, currently I am working as character designer on the new Tron TV series.  I also publish my own books (Massive Swerve) and make independent short films.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I have had all sorts of wonderful jobs, washing dishes, planting trees, driving taxi, I was even a licensed  realtor in Calgary Alberta for a while.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Aeon Flux, with Peter Chung, and Gorillaz, Beatles Rock band with Pete Candeland. This last Tron project with  Charlie Bean was quite a good one too.

How did you become interested in animation?
Actually I always wanted to Continue reading

Andre Barnwell

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Andre Barnwell and I am working on an extraordinary show called Motor City for Titmouse as an offsite animator.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve never worked any crazy jobs, just boring. The job that was by far the most boring was scanning more than 1000 legal documents a day for 8 hour days with a 30 min lunch…I lasted about 4 months.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I animated on a series of commercials starring  personalities of Lebron James for commercial and development studio,Red Rover / House of Cool.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I became interested in animation ever since I watched Continue reading