Monthly Archives: March 2015

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Toon Talks Podcast with Eric Goldberg

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Toon Talks has a nice interview with Eric Goldberg up.

From the site:

To anyone who has met Eric, I’m sure you’ll agree that he embodies everything we love about the characters and craft of animation – he really is a ‘living cartoon character’! What a wonderful honour and pleasure to have him on the show!!
In the mid-1970s Eric broke into the industry working on Raggedy Ann and Andy at the Richard Williams studio where he quickly raised through the ranks from Assistant to Director! For a time in the 80’s Eric ran his own studio, Pizazz Pictures before returning to the States to work at Walt Disney’s as a lead animator on the Genie in Aladdin and later co director for Pocahontas, and the lead animator on Phil in Hercules. While at Disney’s Eric began his own short which was set to the George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. His short later became part of Disney’s Fantasia 2000 after he was allowed to use Disney’s staff which were on down time from The Emperor’s New Groove, to help complete it. He was also director for Fantasia 2000’s “The Carnival of the Animals” segment.
Eric also developed Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are as a CG animated feature film and was an animation director on Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes: Back in Action, as well as providing the voices for Speedy Gonzales, Tweety, and Marvin the Martian.
Eric also directed a short cartoon for a Buddhist cultural centre in Hong Kong, A Monkey’s Tale. A fun lesson about greed. He animated the title sequence of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 2006 remake of The Pink Panther, with Bob Kurtz of Kurtz and Friends. Later returning to Disney, where he directed four minutes of animation for the Epcot attraction Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros and contributed to animated short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. He was the supervising animator for Louis, the Alligator in The Princess and the Frog and Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh and head of animation on Get A Horse!

But all this, is still just a drop in the sea of contribution Eric has added to our industry.

Check it out at this link.

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Randy Bishop

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name’s Randy Bishop and currently, I work as a freelance illustrator and character designer which is fantastic.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?

Oh goodness… I’ve worked a lot of jobs before being able to support my family doing freelance. I’ve worked landscaping, retail, construction; I even drove an ice cream truck one summer. That was a cool job.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?

Right now I’m actually working on a project that I’m really excited about. The Thrilling Adventure Hour is a old timey radio performance show that has a great fan base and a lot of great people working on it. I was approached by the creators to illustrate one of their properties into graphic novel form and it’s been a blast to work on. It always helps when you enjoy associating with the people you work with. My very favorite project to work on is a personal project I’ve been collaborating with a friend of mine on for a few years. It’s a property called Monomyth that we’re very proud of and very protective of. We’ve had to put it on the back burner for a while until we get the time and funds to really work on it full time, but once we get started it’s going to be phenomenal. We’re planning on telling an epic story directly influenced and surrounded by multiple ancient mythologies including greek, norse, egyptian, as well as others. It’ll be done in graphic novel form, but we like to think of it in terms of animation. The stylization of the characters as well as the storytelling itself lend it to eventually being made into an animated franchise.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 
 I’m from Idaho which isn’t a place where you’d Continue reading
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Robert Burrows

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name’s Robert Burrows and I’m a comic illustrator and story artist.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a courier for a while, being on the road 10 hours a day you tend to develop a pretty zen approach to traffic. You also see a lot of carnage. I also worked at an ahem… adult shop. I call this my “character building” phase.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
The two graphic novels I’ve illustrated:Something Animal, which is a gritty look at a man losing his grip after witnessing a terrible attack on his sister and Beatrice Is Dead which is the first story in a set of short horror/dark fantasy volumes about Beat, a sixteen year-old girl coming of age in the afterlife. Both are fully painted the old fashioned way using acrylic, gouache and gallons of india ink.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born and raised in the southeast of England, then I lived in Detroit for most of my grown up life. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Continue reading

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SunTrust buys DreamWorks Animation property

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The L.A. Times is reporting that an investment arm of SunTrust Banks Inc. has acquired DreamWorks Animation’s plush, Tuscany-style campus in Glendale.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, DreamWorks Animation disclosed that SunTrust Equity Funding had signed an agreement earlier this week to purchase the DreamWorks campus for $185 million.

The sale includes 10 buildings on about 15 acres of land, which was developed two decades ago and is dotted with olive trees, oaks and a koi pond.

DreamWorks isn’t exiting the property, however. Instead, the studio behind the “Shrek” movies will lease the property from SunTrust Equity Funding, a subsidiary of the bank holding company based in Atlanta.

You can read the full story at LA times.com.

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Animation Credits Demystified

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The Artiface has an interesting article by Lauren Carr, about the credits of an animated film (thanks Lisa!) and interviews some animators in the process.  As one of those lingerers who watches the entire credits of a film,  I feel it’s important to respect the hard work of others if only to see if I know anyone who worked on the film (I always do). Besides they usually have entertaining bits of animation throughout and sometimes they even have a little button at the end which is always a great finisher.

From the site:

The movie ends; the crowd wants out as if tear gas was released. Nevertheless, there are a few lingerers sitting through the credits keeping extreme focus on the screen, not willing to risk looking down while grasping for a piece of popcorn. How do they still have popcorn? Regardless, those last few keep a profound stare at tiny names racing down the screen. Perhaps the majority who glimpse at the credits might wonder how those names became crew members on an animated film. Some envision the crew thoroughly savor their employment. What in the name of all that’s holy can be cooler than working on a feature?

 

Check it out the entire article on their site The Artiface.