Category Archives: Artists Interviews

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Andy Sykes

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Andy Sykes. I go by the name ‘Hexjibber’ onlline. I work as a part time lecturer at The University of Leeds, where I teach Animation and Digital Storytelling. I also work as a freelance commercial illustrator and animator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I’ve worked as a visiting artist in schools. Working with kids is rewarding, but very frenetic and tiring. I’m lucky that most of my jobs have been related to art in one way or another.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I created 3 animated films with funding from Screen Yorkshire, called ‘Special Glue and Other Stories’. One of the films, ‘Stupid Table’ won the award for Best Short at Bradford Animation Festival in 2009. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbkLwF8O7Jw, I have self-published 3 illustrated books. The first ‘The Hexjibber Colouring and Activity Book’, is a subversive activity book for adults. I created some bizarre adverts for it here: http://www.hexjibber.com/colouring-book/.’The Hexjibber Anti Revision Book’ is a creative procrastination book. ‘Hexjibber Hobbies Vol.1’, is a compilation of the first year of my illustrated blog http://hexjibberhobbies.blogspot.co.uk. I am currently working on Vol.2, which is a complete story, centring around my recent battle with insomnia. I enjoyed creating large scale interactive art projects for Light Night in Leeds. It is an art festival that takes place on the first Friday of October, involving installations, performance and projections. It is great get so many people involved in creating illustration and animation. You can see some video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL2xAmTbg34, I created the ident for the Bradford Animation Festival in 2010, with illustrations from Tom Wooley. It is Jekyll and Hyde meets 90s anime. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wd0NIOuvbc

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I am from Leeds, which is in the north of England, in the UK. Think Winterfell in Game of Thrones. It’s a bit like that:) I studied Interactive Arts in Manchester (which is also in England), where I worked mainly in animation. I taught myself Flash and started creating short animated films. It took me a long time after graduating before I started to make a living from it. I did some work for free for experience anywhere that I could find it. I created a lot of visuals for nightclubs and gradually started getting bits of paid work. Shortly after graduating, circa 2004, I applied for some production funding from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) to make some ‘Pocket Shorts’. These were short films designed for mobile phones. These films started to get shown at festivals, which helped raise my profile a bit. Then I got some production funding from Screen Yorkshire to make ‘Special Glue and Other Stories’ in 2008. This did quite well at festivals and won an award. It has been a long drawn out process.

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Alen Esmaelian

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Alen Esmaelian and I work as a Background, Prop, and Character designer at Rough Draft Studios.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve been working in this industry for 6 years and prior to that, I used work for Pizza Hut as a customer service representative (fancy way of saying that I used to take customer orders over the phone).

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Without a doubt, my proudest moment was working on Futurama alongside the very talented crew at Rough Draft Studios. I was particularly proud to see my finished designs for Bender’s robot monastery on episode nine of this current season.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Tehran, Iran but I’ve lived in the Los Angeles area (San Fernando Valley) since I was two. I started to exhibit a love for animation and design at the tender age of 5, when I used to Continue reading

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Largest Hand Drawn Animation Studio Formed in Canada-Colombia JV

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — ConVRter Technologies Inc. of Vancouver, announced that it is forming Last Studio Standing Inc. (www.laststudiostanding.com) with Conexion Creativa of Colombia in order to make the largest hand drawn studio in the Americas.

The company is focusing on science fiction-based animated film and television productions including science based children’s content.  In addition, they will co-produce adult animation content that does not fall into the manga genre. “We are taking a new path for animated film, but one that is well traveled in graphic novels and popular with audiences, yet not as prevalent in the mainstream media as it should be,” said ConVRter Technologies CEO Jonathan Kitzen.

Conexion Creativa has over two decades of animation experience and has produced nearly 10,000 minutes of on-air programming to date. “With the new JV we will now be entering the North American and European market for the first time,” said Hernan Zajec, president of Conexion Creativa. Until now, Conexion Creativa had been focused on Spanish language programming for Central and South American audiences, but with the new Canadian entity, the company plans on homing in on English language entertainment for the first time.

The formation of Last Studio Standing marries the latest improvements in Computer Generated Imaging (CGI), visual artificial intelligence, convolutional neural networks, sound design, and new Ultra HD workflow with old-school organic drawing. Conexion Creativa is the last large hand drawn animation studio in all of North and South America, and one of only two in the world still using a paper workflow. Conexion Creativa will focus on character design and the core of the animation. The plan is a hybrid of hand drawn and computer generated backgrounds that combines the two systems for a fast and efficient workflow.

“Hand drawn still has its place in a world of CGI. There is still a desire for that organic look, that quality a computer cannot create, however, with this hybrid approach, I think we get the best of both worlds,” said Zajec. “CGI has its place but that doesn’t mean that hand drawn is dead—there is a desire for both according to extensive market research,” added Kitzen.

The first film from Last Studio Standing is Tonya (almost) Saves the Earth, a sci-fi comedy to  be released in the Spring of 2017. In the film, a 13-year-old high school student is abducted at random and asked to mount a defense of humanity against aliens who believe the humans are too violent and aggressive for the safety of the galaxy. As evidence, the aliens rely on intercepted Hollywood films that show human’s triumphantly killing the aliens time and again. “At first we thought it was just a fun film – but after Brexit, Trump, and the rise of anti-religious and anti-immigrant political movements it really became a film about xenophobia and the fear of ‘other’ that is a very human fear,” said Jessica Hendrickson, who is a creative producer on the project. “It is a good film because Last Studio Standing is all about making two competing styles get along so it is metaphorically about story, the real world, and combinations that have new outcomes – it is a good place for a company to start,” said Zajec.

About ConVRter Technologies
ConVRter is a Canadian based corporation founded in 2013 and the recipient of National Research Council funding for experimental vision systems.

About Conexion Creativa
Conexion Creativa is an award winning Colombian animation studio with the largest output of any Latin American company. It is currently the largest hand drawn animation studio in the Western Hemisphere.

 

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Christian De Vita

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Christian De Vita and currently I work for TeamTo in Paris as storyboard supervisor of an 11 minuteX52 episode 3D animation comedy series.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Not many crazy jobs before animation to be honest. I went straight from college into animation. As a student I worked as a waiter back in Italy for a while to save a little money for when I moved to the UK. But it wasn’t a crazy restaurant and I definitely wasn’t a crazy waiter.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
The two main films I worked on in the past 4 years: Fantastic Mr Fox, where I was Lead Story Artist, and recently Frankenweenie, as I had always been a fan of Tim’s work.

How did you become interested in animation?
I originally wanted to be a comic book artist. I studied animation in Rome at the Roberto Rossellini institute for Film and Television as I’d read that Continue reading

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Keiko Murayama

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Keiko Murayama, my current occupation is a BG painter at Nickelodeon Animation Studios.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
I used to work at a Motion Studio as a vis dev artist for TV commercials. One fun project I had there was for a sugar company where I had to design a set and props made only of sweet stuff, and then they actually had to build that.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I got to work on a couple pages for the Big Golden Book for Wreck-It-Ralph. A lot of my friends from school also worked on it I’d never seen my work as a published book form, so when I saw the actual product, I was very proud.

How did you become interested in animation? 
I grew up watching anime stuff, which I love, but it’s not my passion. Then, I came to the U.S after high school and saw Continue reading

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John Kenn Mortensen

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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