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March 17th, 2011 admin

Animation Insider’s goal is to focus on the blue collared worker of animation; the back bone of the industry. We want to focus on the real people in the trenches who make the award winning stuff we love.  Basically if your job is associated in some way with animated movement, we want to interview you! We think everybody has stories to tell from the trenches of animation!

If you’ve ever been in the Animation Industry, please feel free to send us an email and we will send you the questionnaire or if you prefer copy and paste the questions here and answer them yourself!

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Chuck Maiden

January 27th, 2012 Laura


What is your name and your current occupation?
Chuck Maiden—color designer on American Dad! at Fox Television Animation.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Crazy, huh? Well, I don’t know about crazy, but I’ve worked at a lamp factory, delivered Dreyer’s ice cream, worked at a 7-Eleven, delivered pizzas for a half of night, played in rock bands, colored comic books—I could go on, but you might fall asleep.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well, definitely, this one, American Dad! and also King of the Hill, which I worked on for 12 years.

How did you become interested in animation?
When I was a kid, I watched Popeye, The Flintstones, Bugs Bunny, as well as a lot of others. There was one old cartoon, where it showed an artist’s hand drawing the character, which then came to life. It made me realize

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Dan Shefelman

January 26th, 2012 Laura

What is your name and your current occupation?
Dan Shefelman, Cartoonist, Director, Head of Story, Writer.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Hanging 200 feet on the side of a building painting a trompe l’oeil mural on Park Avenue in NYC. The owner of the company was color blind but we were’nt supposed to know. So he would come to the site and tell us to add more red. We would do nothing and the next day he’d say it looked much better. The union guys on the site hated us because we were non-union. They would tip over our paint. Once I got stranded 200 feet up on the scaffold when the electrician shut off the power at quitting time. I had to swing like Spiderman on my safety line over to a fire escape and climb down. I finally quit the next day when I realized I was risking my life for “art”.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Teaching storyboarding at NYU. It’s so great to see new talent develop. I did a flash political web cartoon during the 2008 election on CNN.com. Wrote, designed and animated it. I love the collaboration of big productions but it’s always very satisfying to do everything on your own.  I have always been proud of working on the story team at Blue Sky on Ice Age. It was the first feature for Blue Sky and it was great to be there in the beginning as we all flailed our way to discover how to get these monsters done. I am particularly proud of the cave painting sequence I storyboarded which dealt with difficult issues of loss and forgiveness in a family movie without terrifying the kids in the audience. The big challenge was to

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Gordon Bressack

January 25th, 2012 Laura
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What is your name and your current occupation?
Gordon Bressack.  Writer.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
I was an actor with an underground theater group.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
Pinky & The Brain and Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys are my two favorite animated projects.

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How did you become interested in animation? 
 My then wife was a voice over actress and I figured hey,
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Dagan Moriarty

January 24th, 2012 Laura

What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Dagan Moriarty, and I am currently an Asst. Art Director at ‘Sesame Workshop’ in NYC.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked a few different jobs back in the day, before I graduated from HS and shipped off to Art School. My favorite was working in a skateshop, but that’s a gimme. There were definitely a few interesting and offbeat gigs peppered in there as well… I worked in a Bagel Store for 2 weeks for a really mean and cranky boss.  I accidentally burned an entire batch of bagels one morning, and I thought she was going to take my life right in front of the cream cheese case. She was so mad! That’s probably when I decided that a life in bagels wasn’t for me…Though I still find them delicious.  Back in High School, I had a friend who’s father was a Real Estate Agent. He sold a lot of foreclosed properties.  Often times he would need to completely gut the homes and clean them up before he could put them on the market… So he would pay us 100 dollars a piece to go into a house with a baseball bat or a table leg and just demolish the whole interior… It was amazing!  Cabinets, furniture, literally everything except for load-bearing walls. I still remember the roaches scattering as we wreaked havoc on everything in our path. Best summer job in history!  It was a great way to work out our teen angst while making some loot!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
The two things that jump right to the top of my head are ’The Mr. Men Show’ for my friends at Renegade Animation and the ‘Skunk-Fu’ animated series that we worked on for the mighty Cartoon Saloon over in Ireland. (Worked with the team over at Fat-Kat
Animation Studios on that one.) Both of those shows were a cut above in terms of quality and craftsmanship, and they were a lot of fun to be a part of. We’re also working on some really cool stuff right now over at Sesame that I am excited about… but I’ll keep those cards close to my chest for now.  :)

How did you become interested in animation? 
First, through my grandfather. He was a wonderful artist who really loved to draw, and he imparted that passion to me very early on. I have a vivid memory of sitting with him when

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Carol Wyatt

January 23rd, 2012 Laura

What is your name?
Carol Wyatt.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I am very proud to have been a part of the first 4 years of The Simpsons TV series. I started out as a background cleanup artist working with Nancy Kruse and ended up doing background design & layout, assistant animation on the Butterfinger commercials, and color supervisor for 3 of the 4 years. It was a real learning experience working with Wes Archer, David Silverman, Brad Bird, Rich Moore, and many, many incredible animators! Klasky/Csupo was a crazy and fun place to be in the late 80s.  Another project I am very proud of is Nightmare Ned for Disney. It was an incredible opportunity to design and paint in a very unique and fun style. I worked  with immensely talented artists like Conrad Vernon, Mike Mitchell, Vince Waller, Mike Bell, Paul Tibbitt, Howy Parkins, Alan Smart, Miles Thompson, and Sue Mondt. We were definitely the Disney underdogs. I am very proud to have been a part of Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network and, most recently, The Ricky Gervais Show for HBO.  Most projects I have worked on I am very proud of and the people I have met are the BEST!

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I loved cartoons growing up and was a huge fan of Bugs Bunny and Pink Panther cartoons, plus the little cartoons on Sesame Street. Cartoons were only on on Saturday mornings when I was a kid, so it was a really big deal when a new show like Scooby Doo aired. I didn’t realize it at the time, but

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Dean Yeagle

January 22nd, 2012 Laura


What is your name and your current occupation?
Dean Yeagle – I have my own animation company, Caged Beagle Productions, and I do cartoons for Playboy Magazine and publish my own books as well.  My pinup girl character, Mandy, has become known all over the world due to the Internet, and I do original drawings of her for galleries and collectors.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well, aside from a summer job when I was just out of high school with the Head Start program, animation was my first ‘real’ job.  It was interrupted by a stint in the Navy during Vietnam, and then I went back into animation.  There’s plenty of ‘crazy’ in animation, anyway.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I produced, directed and largely animated the Cookie-Crisp cereal spots for eight years…they were fun, sort of like 30 second Tex Avery cartoons.  I worked on  various TV specials, for Warner Bros. (animating Bugs and Daffy and Elmer), and animated the Trolls in The Gnomes; I did pre-production work on ICE AGE; and I did lots and lots of commercials and worked with some great people, here and in London.  And now I’m doing full-page color cartoons for Playboy Magazine.

How did you become interested in animation? 
The way everyone does – watching cartoons as a kid.  The Disney features were just magic to me, and I knew early on that I had to be involved in doing that.  The old Disney ABC network show often had programs about the process of animation, and I knew

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Darnell Johnson

January 21st, 2012 Laura

What is your name and your current occupation?
Darnell Johnson I am an Illustrator and Visual Development Artist, who enjoys telling stories with color and light.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I didn’t really have any crazy jobs. Starting in high school I started my own t-shirt airbrush business. I designed business cards, flyers, logos, and painted portraits.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I would have to say the freelance Marvel gig I worked on pencils for “Dog Pool Vs Void Mutt” in “DeadPool Family”. It was my first big professional job. Still fairly new in my career so I’m sure there will be other projects that I’m proud of in the future.

How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always love to draw since I was little creating my own comics at home. It was my elementary school art teacher Mrs. C who told me one day to draw my own cartoon characters. From that day on I started to develop short stories to design characters for. They weren’t your greatest stories but it was a start. As I got older my appetite for

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Craig Elliott

January 20th, 2012 Laura

What is your name and your current occupation?
Craig Elliott, I am a visual development artist and character designer, as well as an illustrator and fine artist
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I only had one job, as a paperboy, before I got a job at Disney. Not a very exiting or crazy job, unless you consider a glass perrier bottle blowing up and cutting my hands up with flying glass exciting… or being unable to carry the papers some Sundays and sitting crying on the driveway at 3 am alone! There was the occasional dog that chased me for several blocks, making me have to come back later on to do the deliveries in that area. That always made customers mad, and they would call to complain about late papers. What can you do? I didn’t want to get eaten alive! These occurrences seem less common in animation for some reason…
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I think Treasure Planet, and Enchanted are some of my favorites. There is something about any project that is a joy though. The challenge of turning a story into a visual is always rewarding no matter what the final outcome, or even if my work is used in the film. I always enjoy shows that require a greater amount of imagination- Treasure Planet definitely qualified in that sense. The movie wasn’t set in a specific place that is real, so anything goes! My mind and energy really get pumping in a situation like that. On Enchanted, Kevin Lima (the Director) asked us to come up with a Disney forest world, but with a twist. It was that twist that had us trying all sorts of creative things to help Kevin find what would satisfy his vision. I think it was my friend Christophe Vacher that thought to suggest we try using the Art Nouveau movement as a springboard. We all took off, working from that starting point. I put together a 30- something page style guide with Art Nouveau cues throughout, and even had a chance to speak with Alphonse Mucha’s Great Granddaughter on the phone at length as part of my research!
How did you become interested in animation?
I think I always was attracted to animation because of it’s limitless possibilities for

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Jorge Vigara

January 19th, 2012 Laura

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jorge Vigara and I´m working as senior character animator at Sony Pictures.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Definitely when I worked as clown and social entertainer. I did it when a I was a young student for getting some money and I remember that I did so many crazy things as juggling or fire spitting. There was nice, and I learnt then so many stuff that I can use now on my current job.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m very proud of working in Despicable Me , 3 years ago, when I did some of the most memorial shots of the show as the ” It´s so fluffy!!” one. Never though that shot could become so famous.  Also, to work in “Alma”, the short film directed by Rodrigo Blaas ( currently director in Dreamworks ) . It was my very first project working very closely to high talented and old school artists. Such and amazing project that I’ve like a treasure in my memories… simply wonderful.
How did you become interested in animation?
I always been interested in animation. Since I was a child I’ve been drawing and loving movies, so it’s always been

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Joshua Taback

January 18th, 2012 Mike

What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi, my name is Joshua Taback, I recently became episodic director on Randy Cunningham, 9th Grade Ninja.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Nothing too crazy. I worked at an AMC Movie Theater in high school and some of college.  It was perfect job to geek out at, especially when home video wasn’t as convenient as it is today.  When I was in school in Philly I worked at another movie theater that was more artsy. Blockbuster Video one summer.  All of which fed my film fanatic-ness. Besides that, camp counselor when I was younger, clerk in the humanities office at college.  I heard those folks talk a lot of dirt.  Then I “went west, young man” on the cupboard wagon of animation.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Since I had been on The Simpsons for eons, I would have to site specific episodes and sequences. The Wizard Of Evergreen Terrace, in which Homer becomes an inventor inspired by Thomas Edison, was an episode where I really hit my stride. There were a lot of great acting opportunities as well as action bits where I had a lot of fun and I think the episode turned out great. Also, being a fellow New Jerseyan I liked giving Edison a plug. As far as the shows I was an assistant director on, Homer The Moe was a show we really attacked and did well.  There were a lot of great bits and we did a lot of good animation.  I also did a good deal of storyboarding on that episode.  That’s about the time in my A.D. career that I began to have my hands on almost all the aspects of a show.

There was a couch gag that I came up with.  Usually the writers come up with the couch gags and we

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