Category Archives: Artists Interviews

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Alex Schumacher

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Alex Schumacher and I am currently a comic book artist/writer and freelance illustrator/character designer.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I think any job you do that you don’t love is crazy. Having said that, I’ve mostly worked retail and/or customer service jobs. Anyone who has ever worked in those fields can tell you that describing it as “crazy” is putting it mildly.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
The most recent (and probably biggest) projects I’ve been a part of so far are a couple of graphic novels being released in the new year from Viper Comics and Arcana Studios. I’d say I’m proud of those but hopefully my best work is yet to come…

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 
I’m from a small-ish town in California called Salinas. Most of us just say we’re from Monterey as A. People actually know where that is and B. We don’t want to say we’re from Salinas. I’ve always drawn from a very young age and growing up on Disney, Bakshi, Kricfalusi, Avery and the like I’ve always been interested in the animation industry. I dreamed of Continue reading

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Lauren Montgomery

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What is your name and what is your primary job?
Lauren Montgomery: Director/Producer of DC Direct to DVD movies at Warner Bros Animation

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Animation was my first REAL job. I had one job answering phones for a summer during college that I hated. And before that I did some babysitting during high school, which I also hated. But my first real job was right out of college as a Storyboard artist at Mike Young Productions on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in 2002.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve had the good fortune of being able to work on a lot of properties I’ve been proud to be a part of.

Those include:

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Isaac Marzioli

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Isaac Marzioli and I’m a digital design clean-up artist on Tuff Puppy at Nickelodeon.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve had a few.  Two of the craziest were when I was just shy of 20 and still trying to figure out what I wanted to do as a career.  I answered an ad in the paper (before newspapers went extinct) and ended up in an interview where I agreed to sell knives door to door.  That didn’t last long because the idea of walking into a stranger’s house and pulling out sharp knives sounded sketchy…so I went one worse and started selling perfume in parking lots.  There’s nothing like approaching a random stranger, pulling a bottle out of your bag and asking if you could squirt them with it.  It was this job that taught me that school was very important.  I came home after a long day of chasing weirdos around an ATM parking lot and enrolled into Cal State Fullerton – more specifically, into the illustration program.  And then to get myself through school (and after I graduated, but before I was able to land a job in the industry) I sold ladies’ shoes.  The Al Bundy jokes weren’t the worst of it – I couldn’t believe what people would tell me about their feet.  Or show me.  This one lady had a fuzzy green square on the bottom of her foot that she wanted me to touch.  Then the smells.  There’s nothing like a hot summer day for people to come in and take their shoes off…So I’m really glad to be working in animation.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
It’s been great to be a part of the Butch Hartman cartoons.  It’s a little pandering, but it’s hard to stay employed in the animation business.  Shows don’t last forever, and cancellation usually comes as a surprise.  Being on Fairly Odd Parents, Danny Phantom and now Tuff Puppy – I’ve been employed steadily for the last 10 and a half years.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m originally from Northern California – and I came down here to go to school at CSUF.  I hung out with a lot of animation students.  In our junior year they set up a meeting with a storyboard revisionist on Angry Beavers and I Continue reading

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David Knott

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What is your name?
David Knott

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
Supervising Director.  Although I’ve spent the better part of my career in Animation as a Storyboard Artist.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
Kim Possible was a watershed show for me.  I grew exponentially as a board artist on that show, gaining valuable experience in boarding action sequences, which, up until then, I had not done much of.  This was also due in no small part to the series’ Director, Steve Loter, whom I consider to be one of my mentors.  He challenged me to get into the head of the characters and to make that inform whatever gags or actions I had them do.  I’m also indebted to him for turning me onto ʺCowboy Bebop.ʺThe other project that has stood out for me is the one I’ve been on for the last 3+ years, The Penguins of Madagascar.  Not only is it a challenging CG show involving cinematic action sequences, slapstick pantomime gags, and even heartfelt Continue reading

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Jeff Victor

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jeff Victor and I work as an illustrator/designer for Nickelodeon Games. I work as an art lead on a online game called PetPet Park, designing characters, backgrounds, props, and more.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve worked many mundane jobs in my life, but one that is really pretty special to me is when I first moved to Los Angeles, I got work as a background performer, or “extra”. As I was unsuccessfully submitting my portfolio to studios, I made my living as a student/doctor/terrified pedestrian/casual onlooker, etc. I appeared in hundreds of TV shows and movies. As a huge film buff, it was incredible being on set watching some of my favorite directors work. You only earn a tiny paycheck, but being on set with Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese was a priceless experience. My other craziest job was working a few years at Universal Studios Hollywood. I was a show tech, which basically meant I had to set the stage explosives, hook the actors to their flying rigs, move set pieces around on stage, and in the case of Fear Factor Live, handle giant scorpions. All in a day’s work.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I am extremely proud of the work I’ve been doing for Nickelodeon. I enjoy that people all over the world have seen my work. I also really enjoyed some of the stints I had as a character designer at Warner Bros animation, and at East/West DVD, where I got to draw DVD covers for classic cartoons. It was my first real job in animation, and I am really proud of the work, even though it looks incredibly dated to my eyes today. (Of course, things I drew 3 weeks ago look dated to me, but that’s another story…)

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from the Chicago suburbs, and after receiving the “Art of Star Wars” book as a youngster, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I was obsessed with comic books and cartoons as a kid, especially Batman the Animated Series. I filled my grade school notebooks with Continue reading

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Bob Doucette

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What is your name?
Bob Doucette

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I like the two movies I am finishing now: Zhu Zhu Pets: Quest for Zhu and Power of Zhu. They are coming out real well.  I usually hate my work as soon as it is done so usually the answer is …what ever I’m working on now!

How did you become interested in animation?
As a kid I loved both Warner Bros. shorts and Disney features but I think it was Chuck Jones and Continue reading