Kat Miranda

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Kat Miranda and I’m a freelance story artist/illustrator.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Hmm crazier than animation? I served at the Cheesecake Factory for 3 years and for a short while I also worked for the government. Top secret stuff, you know. (They’re probably monitoring this interview as I type!)

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
While interning at Titmouse in Manhattan, I’ve had the pleasure to work on Venture Bros Season 5! GO TEAM VENTURE! Also a tad on Metal, a tad on Super Jail and a tad on Motor City helping with little things over all!

How did you become interested in animation?
I watched movies such as Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Sword in the Stone and all the other amazing disney features. But I also loved my saturday morning cartoons like Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Hey Arnold, AH! Real Monsters, and you get the gist of it. But it really hit me when I learned that I could Continue reading

Cale Atkinson

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Cale Atkinson and my current full time job is Art Director for RocketSnail Games. I also do contract work in animation and children’s illustrations.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Before I really decided to go into the job direction of animation I was madly into film and making movies. One job I had for a little while was ‘Wedding Videographer’, filming high-end weddings around Vancouver. Interesting times of chasing limos to find photo shoot locations, staying awake during extra long ceremonies, and having my camera eat the tape in the middle of a wedding :O !

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Honestly in one way or another I’m proud of everything I’ve been apart of.  I’m super proud of all the things we are currently working on at RocketSnail Games. The children’s books I’ve been able to illustrate are also something I’m always really excited to be involved in.

How did you become interested in animation?
Always a hard question, as I can’t remember not being interested in animation. As a kid I was crazy about drawing and loved getting any books about cartooning, animation, and comic strips. I can’t say I did a lot of animation practice as a kid (probably due to the amount of work and time it takes) but Continue reading

Arshad Mirza Baig

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
Arshad Mirza Baig Freelance Animation Artist – Currently storyboarding

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I have been fortunate enough to have been involved with animation from an early age The first freelance job I obtained was at age 15, whilst still a schoolboy – I had to animate characters for a PC adventure game. I did however help out at my father’s pharmacy whilst going through college and then university…I gained a lot of information about medicines and health that I still draw on today and often advice my colleagues what they should take and when they should take it…something I really should stop doing as I am not a qualified pharmacist!

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Its funny because as a child growing up I dreamed of being a part of the Hollywood machine – of course the stuff they produced was amazing but after having being involved with a few of those higher end projects such as ‘Tale of Despereaux’ and ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ I personally found the work I done for the smaller lesser known projects far more rewarding. If  I had to choose one it would be the low budget feature film ‘Sokator 442’ (produced by Galleon entertainment and Zoo films). I was given the choice to work on Tim Burton’s ‘Frankenweenie’ as a story artist or head the story and art department of this smaller project and I even surprise my self when I think back to how I didn’t hesitate when I chose Sokator 442. I had the creative freedom to rework the script direct the action sequences design all the central characters. Aid with animation and editing…even throw in a voice or two it was a dream job for me! Sadly the film only sold to Nickelodeon in Australia and New Zealand – but I have no regrets – it has certainly been the highlight of my career and I can look back on that project and really feel that my art made a difference to the outcome.
How did you become interested in animation?
As a child I was drawn to the Asterix and Tintin comics and still love them to this very day. I began writing my own comics at around  6 years old and then I think at age 7 I saw Disney’s Continue reading

Frans Vischer

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
Frans Vischer. I am an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation.  I am also an author/illustrator. I have two children’s books published, Fuddles and Jimmy Dabble, and another book being published next year.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
In high school I did weekend janitorial work at a Montessori school, and I was a lousy busboy at a Mexican restaurant, spilling trays and breaking lots of plates. I delivered pizza for a single night after my 2nd year at Cal Arts, (when thankfully an animation job came through.)

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” “Cats Don’t Dance” “Back To Neverland,” “Back to Neverland” “Michael and Mickey” “The Night of the Living Duck,” (a Daffy Duck short.)

 

How did you become interested in animation?
When I was thirteen, my mother sent some of my drawings to the Disney studio. Don Duckwall, the aptly named animation department production manager, wrote back inviting us to visit the studio whenever we were in the area. We lived in Cupertino, in Northern California, and the following summer we vacationed in Southern California, and made part of our plans to visit the Disney studio in Burbank. I met Mr. Duckwall, as well as Ed Hansen, who would succeed him in the job, (and later become my boss.) I also met a number of animators, who inspired me to make my own animated films. My parents bought me a used 8 mm. camera, and my dad built a light box with a set of pegs, and I jumped right in and started experimenting.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. When I was eleven, my family moved to the United Sates. During high school I met Chuck Jones at a talk he gave at a junior college. I wanted to show him one of my Continue reading

Kevin O’Neil

What is your name and your current occupation?
Kevin O’Neil and currently a freelance special effects animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Being a bank courier, picking up bank checks from all the big banks in downtown Chicago, for Jet Courier services in Chicago, back in the 80’s. I worked at Midway and O’Hare airports in the middle of the night, 1 am to 5 am. Also before that, I taught guitar for 6 years, and played in a few bands in Chicago. I was a full time musician before going back to art school at age 28. So I don’t know if they were exactly crazy, just jobs.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
One of my favs was Iron Giant at Warner Feature, and Hercules and Mulan at Disney Feature. Working at Disney TV on The Tigger Movie was also a lot of fun, and working with Jun Falkenstein was a great experience. I was glad I got to work at Disney if even for a short time. Brad Bird at WB, John Musker and Ron Clements at Disney. Great people if you ask me. Proud to be a part of those films. The caliber of artists at these places is just great. Actually the caliber of artists at most of the studios is great, it’s just too bad a lot of the stuff we saw in the studios is art that never makes it to the screen.  I also worked at Warner’s Classics back in the 90’s as a character animator. We did a lot of commercials. I worked with Keith Baxter, Jeff Siergey, Spike Brandt & Tony Cervone. The place was fun and I got to draw Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. How could that not be great?  More recently I had a lot of fun on the Priest animated prologue for Genndy Tartakovsy. I did most of the effects on that except a couple of shots. It was fun because it wasn’t your normal efx, there was a lot of blood and guts and I got to blow things up. I finally saw an unedited clip of the whole thing online. I guess for the movie, it was tamed down.

How did you become interested in animation?
I guess just watching and growing up with the usual cartoons like everyone else. I leaned towards Warners. But I got into rather late, in my late 20’s. I was undecided in art school whether to pursue Continue reading

Why this Scene Looks so Amazing

LTS1

Andreas Deja has an interesting post up about the animation process behind the scene above from Lady and the Tramp which while it was animated by Frank Thomas, both Milt Kahl and Iwao Takamoto went over the scene for ultimate drawing appeal. Iwao Takamoto if you remember was a very large part of Hanna Barbera’s style.

You can read the entire article here.