What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Chad Essley, and I’m the owner  / director of CartoonMonkey Studio.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I started into my animation career in my early 20′s, so I have to go back to my teens to remember early crazy-ish jobs..hmm..
I once worked for a short period of time, at a factory where they made basketball hoops. A robot would weld the hooks onto an iron hoop, and I would stand with these thick leather gloves on, grabbing the hoop as it came off the robot (still white hot from the welding) and file off all the extra bits before stacking it on a forklift palette. The place was full of 40 to 60 year old people who really never saw the sunshine outside the bounds of this dismal industrial factory who would drink on the job, and smoke copiously in the break room. Think I lasted about four days before walking out into the sunshine, never to return.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Someone from Microsoft contacted me, and flew me up to the Tablet PC headquarters to design all the game graphics for a children’s handheld tablet console called the KidTab. I was given a big bunch of money, and given almost total free reign to come up with whatever I wanted. This was for the research and development department, and I workedwith some people on the (more…)