What is your name and your current occupation?
John Kenn Mortensen,artist,writer,director.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked in a boat repair-shop when I was 14.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
not to sound like a dick, but my own projects has been the most interesting projects and the ones im most proud of
How did you become interested in animation?
from being a kid… Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?
Allen Mezquida Director/Writer/Animator
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I traveled the world as a jazz saxophonist. I got to play with Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Gerry Mulligan amd Brad Mehldau among many others.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Bonus material for the DVD release of Aladdin and Toy Story. A short of mine called “Man’s First Friend” aired on Nickelodeon.
How did you become interested in animation?
That’s like asking how did I Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Mike Blum and I am a director, producer, writer and owner of two boutique production companies, Pipsqueak Films and Blumayan Films. Pipsqueak Films works on animated content of all sorts and Blumayan Films produces live action features.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I waited tables while being a ski bum after college. I couldn’t ski more than 5 feet without falling at the start of the season but was cruising black diamonds by the end. Never did learn to wait tables all that well…And when I was in junior high and high school I worked at this crazy nut, candy, coffee store called The Head Nut. Come to think of it, slinging nuts and candy is a lot like turning the crank in production — head down and scoop away!
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite projects are the ones I’ve had the biggest hand in seeing through creatively. So, even though I worked on nearly a dozen features with world class artists and technical people while at Disney Feature Animation, none gave me the same satisfaction as working on my first shorts, Oil & Vinegar and The Zit.  And while a lot of my colleagues gave me funny looks when I told them I was leaving Disney to direct a series about a pair of talking testicles, The Adventures of Baxter & McGuire (for Comedy Central), got me nominated for an Emmy and took me to great festivals like Sundance and Annecy. And I worked with the amazing showrunners Michael Weithorn and Nick Bakay.  But my favorite project so far is the one I just completed, Samurai! Daycare. It’s a 10 part, Flash animated web series I did for the new YouTube channel, Shut Up! Cartoons. It’s the first property I sold that made it all the way to series and it was great fun to showrun my own creation.
How did you become interested in animation?
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’ll answer these 2 questions together…. I was a huge fan of Bugs Bunny growing up. I know, I know I have such unusual tastes. But I really never had any classic artistic skills and grew up so far removed from “the industry†in the Philadelphia ‘burbs, it never occurred to me in at least a conscious way that it could be a career. I did, however, Continue reading
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?Â
I worked in a coffee shop in my youth where I had to wear a promotional character outfit to distribute flyers around the shopping centre. The character had this huge nose and the local kids weren’t shy about telling me I looked like a giant nob. Back in high school when I thought I wanted to be an actor, I was part of a drug awareness performance troupe and one of our outings involved crashing a big Oktoberfest event. Needless to say we were thrown out.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?Â
I’ve recently completed an animated sci-fi web comedy called New Eden with Dutch animator, Freek van Haagen. That’s been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work but worth it. It was a bit of a trial by fire as it is my first foray into animation. Â Previous to that I worked in television production and on my own independent projects. I’m very proud of my award winning action-comedy short Domestic and very grateful that I got to work on the satirical news programme NEWStopia with legendary Australian comedian Shaun Micallef.
How did you become interested in animation?Â
I’ve always been a fan of cartoons and animation. Before CGI became commonplace, animation used to be the only place that you can really see Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Signe Baumane and I am an independent animator, which means I am a producer, writer, director, designer, animator and cleaning lady of my own films. (I am a woman, if my name doesn’t make that clear)
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Wait. I got the crazy jobs AFTER I chose animation as my life and profession. To be able to stay in business I did some dog walking, applied for strip dancing jobs (was accepted but didn’t have guts to actually show up for the job), had to give bath to a 87 year old man, masturbate in front of 76 year old man, clean a few bathrooms, paint walls in restaurants, and make 30 paper mache sculptures for a Famous Italian fashion designer.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
From my own work I like “Tiny Shoes”, “Birth”, “Teat Beat of Sex”.
How did you become interested in animation?
I got interested in animation only AFTER Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?
I’m the co-creator, writer, producer, animator, & voice of Daniel the Turtle for the award winning animated series Supa Pirate Booty Hunt. Currently we are working for the charity Music Saves Lives for their national animated PSA campaign to encourage young adults & teenagers to donate blood. Each PSA takes Supa Pirate Booty Hunt characters, Cpt Zack Stevers & Daniel the Turtle paired up with music celebrities such as Nat & Sean from the band 3OH!3 and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. For more info visit http://www.supapiratebootyhunt.com
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked for a special affects company and out of no where I was in charge of the vomit rig on this movie set. It was crazy!
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I used to co-owner a clothing line called Level 27 Clothing that was sold in Hot Topic and I also worked with Disney about having our new line launch at Disney’s Vault 28 store at Downtown Disney. It was a lot of work and I was very proud of it.
How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always been into animation my whole life. Love watching the Disney classics as a kid and Saturday Morning cartoons. Overall it was my passionate love for Continue reading
