Jose Mari “Joma” Santiago

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jose Mari “Joma” Santiago. I’m currently into Pre-Production work doing Storyboards and Character Design for  Goriotik Multimedia, a small  animation studio here in the Philippines, specializing in traditional, Flash and 3D animation for local TV commercials. Since I work for a small studio, I also act as Animation Supervisor once we proceed to animation.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Unfortunately, animation is the only career I have pursued since graduating from college. I took up Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Advertising in the oldest university here in Asia, the University of Santo Tomas.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I have worked on a lot of shows since I started as an In-betweener back in 1991, but as an animator, I must say that my proudest moment as an Animator was when I worked on the Kronk’s New Groove project back in 2004, where I really had fun with my scenes.

How did you become interested in animation?
I always loved watching animated movies and Saturday Morning cartoons since I was a little boy. I started drawing as soon as I knew how to hold a pencil. But I only became interested in animation when

Eddie Mort

What is your name and your current occupation?

Eddie Mort.  Occupation?  Well I animate, storyboard, design and composite. Sometimes for shows you may actually see.  I work with Lili Chin under the name Fwak! Animation.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I only had two jobs before I got into animation.  Filing Clerk at the Department Of Veterans Affairs, and pumping gas.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Mucha Lucha! for Warner Bros Animation because we were able to bring an awareness of Lucha Libre to US broadcast television.  I am also proud of the feature film Lili Chin and I did together - Los Campeones de la Lucha Libre.  Though we only had the budget equivalent of just over two TV episodes, we managed to produce a theatrical feature.
How did you become interested in animation?
Animation was always something that really super talented people did and I never considered It was for the likes of me.  It was through watching Ralph Bakshi’s films I realized it didn’t all have to be slick and polished.  His films – and the original Ren & Stimpys – showed me Continue reading

Majella Milne

What is your name?
Majella Milne

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
Animation Direction

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Back home in Ireland I worked in a factory doing injection molding for cell phones with some of the funniest and loveliest women I have ever known. Those were great days. A daughter of a publican in Ireland, naturally I have many bar stories to tell but the most enlightening days were as barmaid in Hayden’s Hotel during the Ballinasloe Horse Fair , the oldest fair in Ireland, where people come to trade horses from all over the world and from every nook and cranny of Ireland. This was my first glimpse  of how complex and varied us folk are, and how feckin’ strange you all are.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Chowder”,  Cartoon Network is one of the best studios to work for here in LA, plus, the crew were funny, friendly and good looking, ha ha!

How did you become interested in animation?
Disney’s  “Cinderella”… I think was the first movie that I went to, and was hooked on animation from there on.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I am from the village of Crinkle, outside the town of Birr, in County Offaly, dead center of Ireland.  I applied for an administration job in Continue reading

Mike Collins

 

What is your name and your current occupation?

Mike Collins.  I’m a digital clean-up artist.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?I don’t know about crazy but I worked at the swing shift at Kinko’s to put myself through college.  I was also an assistant inker to Sean Parsons of Roughhouse Ink.  It was unpaid and I got no credit in the comics but the experience was invaluable.  It was a lot of fun working with someone who became one of my best friends.  And it helped prepare me for clean up work.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?I’ve really enjoyed working on all of them.  But I’d have to geek-out and say The Powerpuff Girls 10th Anniversary Special and Sym-Bionic Titan due to being able to work with my animation idols Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky.  So cool!

How did you become interested in animation?When I was 10 years old, I remember walking out of a movie theater in Colorado Springs, CO after seeing Who Framed Roger Rabbit and thinking Continue reading

Rich Arons


What is your name?
Rich Arons
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Directing/Producing/writing on Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Freakazoid, Biker Mice. Lately I’m having fun making cartoons on youtube and developing new properties.

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
Directing/Producing (ha! I snuck in 2 jobs)

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I scrubbed toilets at a miniature golf course, made sandwiches at Arby’s and cleaned school desks. I even studied to be a lousy auto mechanic once. I failed.

How did you become interested in animation?
Watching Bugs Bunny on TV as a little kid got me into it. I remember asking my mom, “what do they call those guys who draw those cartoons,” when I was about six, because I had to write a paper on what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wish she had said “billionaire” instead of  “animator.”

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I grew up in NYC and made a lot of flip books as a kid. I went to art school back east and then went to the Disney School at Cal Arts for college. I was also lucky enough to study under the great Ben Washam when he taught animation from his Continue reading

Gerald de Jesus

What is your name and your current occupation?

My name is Gerald de Jesus (pronounced “dee HAY-soos” instead of like “Jesus Christ”) and my current occupation is a Painter on “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Before I got into Animation, I did a lot of editorial illustrations for places like “Entertainment Weekly”, “Capitol Records” and “The Village Voice”, as well as gallery work for my personal stuff.  Then things started drying up and I got really broke, so I helped my friend make floral arrangements at his flower shop.  Removing the thorns off roses really sucked.  I also had to do these really awful drawings of kids in wheel chairs or carrying crutches for this educational pamphlet…it was pretty demoralizing copying an art style I thought was atrocious.  Hey, whatever it took to pay the bills!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
One of my favorite animation projects to work on was Nickelodeon’s “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera”.  Not only was it a great looking show, the crew was just awesome to work with.  Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua (the creators of “El Tigre”) had such passion for the show, it infected everyone and we worked our hardest to make it look great.  It was sad that it was cancelled before its time, but we were recognized (post-humously) with a bunch of awards, including my first Emmy!

How did you become interested in animation?
It was kind of a fluke… as I mentioned before, I was struggling with finding freelance illustration work, when out of nowhere, my friend Tony Mora, whom I have known from going to Art Center with Continue reading