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Megan Ann Boyd

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi! My name is Megan Ann Boyd, and I’m a toy designer and illustrator!

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I don’t know if I’d call it crazy, but I worked on a small virtual pet website called NeuroGalaxy for many years. I got to make all sorts of artwork for the website, ranging from pets, monsters and items to world illustrations. There was even a time I would make site merchandise in the form of keychains- it was a great little community!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I got to collaborate with Rovio and create the toys for the Angry Birds Stella line! I absolutely love Rovio’s animations and characters, so it was an honor to bring them into the world of toys. I’ve got all those little birdies and pigs on display in my work room.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from New Jersey! I was obsessed with cartoons as a kid, who wasn’t? I ended up Continue reading

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R.I.P. Gordon Kent

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Yesterday we lost another one of our own in the Animation industry in Gordon Kent who’d been in the business since 1977. I met Gordon many years ago at Warner Bros. on my very first job working as a character layout artist on the series Tazmania where he was the Story editor and have bumped into him off and on at studios and parties throughout the years. He was a kind and thoughtful man who had a dry sense of humor and he had a unique style of drawing which I really liked(and you can see above). Incidentally, we interviewed Gordon last year about how he got into the business.

I’ve been doing this since 1977… I worked on a show called CBS Storybreak for two seasons. I was associate producer – but my job entailed hiring character and background designers, storyboard artists and story editing (and some writing). I also was the voice director for most of them and worked with the composers and sound effects people as well as working with the engineers on the final mix. I got to learn and do a lot. That was for Buzz Potamkin at Southern Star. I also worked for him years later at both Disney TV and Hanna-Barbera. At HB I got to be Supervising Producer on a couple of movies for TV – Titles change in animation all the time – today that would be supervising director. The Flintstones’ Christmas Carol was my favorite project there. I’ve been an animation timing director since then and have been lucky enough to work on Kim Possible, Teamo Supremo, Billy and Mandy and Bob’s Burgers among dozens of other shows.

Rest In Peace Gordon Kent… you will be missed by many.

You can read the full interview here if you like.

 

 

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Ben Camberos

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Ben Camberos, Illustrator and Character designer.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I always been involved in art, i guess that would be pre press technician.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I still have a long way to go, but i guess that would be the current job i have right now…I’m working as a character designer for a feature animated film here in Mexico.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
Im from Tijuana Mexico, and i have to admit that Continue reading

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James Nethery

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is James Nethery and I’m a freelance Flash/Toon Boom Harmony animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well, the craziest was probably working at the Magic Kingdom park in Orlando as a “Custodial Host” (aka a janitor in Disney Park-speak) for a few years. I could probably start a series of blog posts on all the crazy stuff that went down on that job… from “how the heck did it get on the ceiling??!” restroom cleaning stories, to rude/angry park guests, to employees getting fired for coming in drunk/high, to insane employee policies that parks put in place. That was a fun job (and the free park admission was a major perk) but it could certainly be tough sometimes.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Three words: Cyanide and Happiness. That show is a lot of fun to work on and it’s great working with the guys over at Lowbrow Studios and Explosm who are a really talented bunch. I love seeing how much I can get out of such simple designs. So far, I’ve worked on about 11 shorts, two of which haven’t been posted online yet. Some of I’m animated fully, so I’ve just helped out a bit on doing animation revisions and such.  I’m also working on another project right now that’s really cool that I can’t really talk about… all I can say is that its being animated in Toon Boom Harmony and that’s its based on another very popular web comic.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Orlando, Florida. I got into the freelance animation business basically by working my butt off on my demo reel and applying to every job I could. It was tough starting out, but Continue reading

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Carla Pereira

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi! My name is Carla Pereira (http://carlapereira.com/) and nowadays I am working in the filming of a stop-motion short movie. I work also as a freelance illustrator.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Before working in the animation business I have tried a bit of everything! But one of the most curious jobs I took was as an artistic nude model for the faculty of Fine Arts. I worked there for many years.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite one is the stop-motion series “Clay Kids”, from Clay Animation (http://www.claykids.com/). I worked with a good deal of wonderful professionals, and I learned a lot.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Buenos Aires (Argentina), but I did study Fine Arts in Valencia (Spain). I focused in Continue reading

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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.