David Wachtenheim


What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is David Wachtenheim, and I am an animator/director/producer at W/M Animation which I own with my partner Robert Marianetti.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Crazy?  I don’t know about crazy.  I worked as a P.A. on some furniture commercials which was mainly like working for a moving company.  I also worked as a P.A for matte painters Bob Scifo and Ken Allen at the now defunct Dream Quest Images.  The craziest thing there was working with James Cameron on some preliminary work for The Abyss and watching so many people fawn all over him and tripping over themselves to do his bidding.  I got fed up when I was told to hold the slate for the shots and getting yelled at for not getting the slate out fast enough.  I also worked in a pharmacy for a Summer for my brother which was a little insane.  He can be pretty intense.  You should never work for your brother.  Actually, I can’t say that, I don’t know your brother.  What I meant was, you should never work for MY brother.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m glad you asked what am I ashamed to have worked on.  Most of the stuff we have done at our studio has been adult oriented for Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central and Adult Swim and I am pretty ashamed of all of it.  Well, not so much ashamed but I can’t show my kids much of it.  The stuff we have done for Sesame Street and Cartoon Network I am pretty proud of.  To be honest,

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Albert Orozco

What is your name and your current occupation?
My Name is Albert Orozco, animator/artist

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
I worked at sonic drive in and we got robbed three time lucky i had those days off. We had free food for days but not good for the body. It was a great growing experience for me and it was like a family i had on the side.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I am proud of my Stewie animation rendition of rocket man because my professor told me I did a great job in the amount of time i had which boosted my confidence.

How did you become interested in animation?
I became interested in animation at a very early age in loony tunes and many different types cartoons like Continue reading

Wade Wisinski

What is your name and your current occupation?
Wade Wisinski,  Line Producer,  The Looney Tunes Show, Warner Bros. Animation.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I owned and operated a chain or retail comic book stores. The shop in Newhall, CA is still there with fabulous new ownership – Brave New World – check it out. If you have ever spent any quality time in a comic book store, you may get a pretty good idea of what it would be like to work, live, eat, and sleep in one. All of the stereotypes are true.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
All of them pretty much. I’ve been fortunate to have begun working on Kevin Smith’s Clerks, then the first three seasons of Kim Possible, The Spectacular Spider-Man (my favorite Spider-Man interpretation by far…). Most recently some classic character takes – Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and The Looney Tunes Show.

How did you become interested in animation?
Animated films and televisions shows were the first movies and TV I watched, which is typical. That’s all I knew for a while, really. I was obsessed with comic books, but animation was always around. As I became more entrenched in 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

Gregory Stoffel


What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Gregory Stoffel. I’m a lead 3d artist working on simulation projects for a japanese company here in Vietnam and a freelance artist working mostly for advertising.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I have been traveling around Australia for 2 years and did a lot of hard, dirty, crazy jobs at that time but I think cleaning bricks outside, it was freezing cold and raining was one of the worst job I ever had…good it lasted only for 3 days.

How did you become interested in animation?
Probably the first time I watched Toy story, then get my hand on 3dsmax R3 a bit later and never stop since then.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Belgium, after traveling to Australia, I went to Vietnam, gave my demoreel to a director a met , Continue reading

Andrew Farago

What is your name and your current occupation?  
Andrew Farago, Cartoon Art Museum Curator, author and cartoonist

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
Nothing too far into the “crazy” category.  My father’s a general contractor, and I worked with him every summer growing up.  I’ve probably put in a lot more time roofing than most people in animation.  Other than that, I’ve been a temporary office worker, library assistant, dishwasher…  I wish I’d spent some time as a gravedigger or daredevil stuntman so that I could give a more interesting answer for this one.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I’ve worked on a lot of great animation exhibitions, including a retrospective of 40 years of Saturday morning cartoons, an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sleeping Beauty, the Totoro Forest Project (works inspired by Hayao Miyazaki) and a show spotlighting the art of Mary Blair.  The Mary Blair exhibition led to a huge retrospective of her work in Tokyo.  Studio Ghibli purchased a large collection of her artwork following that exhibition, and that’s touring Japan right now…and our exhibition in California helped get that all started.  As far as personal projects go Continue reading