Nelson Recinos

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Nelson Recinos I am an animation producer, line producer, director, creative director, art director, and creator. I also clean my home office and take care of everything that’s needed on the projects I am working on.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
One of my first jobs was painting motorcycle helmets. I thought that, because of my art background, I was going to be able to do the job, but it was not as easy as I thought. I got training and after a few days I started working on production…which didn’t go very well. I messed up a few helmets, paint spilled everywhere, and nothing was evenly painted. The manager was understandably pissed, but moved me to another department instead of firing me. What a nice guy!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I had the opportunity to work on some amazing shows such a Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs. I also animated some of the Warner Bros. classic characters such as Bugs Bunny, Duffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester, and many others.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I always liked cartoons since I was a kid. I drew all the time. Back in my country, my brother Bill was the one who Continue reading

Sarah Jargstorf

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 What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Sarah Jargstorf and I’m a 3d artist and animator. Currently I’m working as a 3D modelor at Arc Productions in Toronto.What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I really don’t think any of my part-time gigs during high school and college can compare to animation. They were just your typical retail, amusement park and factory work. Though I’ll never forget the day I was working at the Toronto Islands and I witnessed a seagull swallow a WHOLE footlong hotdog, in one gulp. Shocking. Little bugger was determined.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve had the pleasure of animating on My Little Pony. I’ve been fortunate to work on a lot of fun tv shows but My Little Pony was a real treat.

 

How did you become interested in animation?Growing up on Bugs Bunny, Batman, TMNT, Disney Classics and Sailor Moon definitely contributed. I’ve always loved to draw and when I found out 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

Olu Alemoru

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
Olu Alemoru — Snr Staff Writer Wave Publications and Director of Nutmeg Animations Ltd.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well, I’m not working in animation per se, but I do have a couple of animation projects that I am developing.  One is called “Nutmeg,” an adventure story with contemporary and imaginary elements that follows the life and times of gender-breaking Afro-Latina soccer star Louise Sage.  The other is entitled “The Adventures of Ant Dog,”  a satirical concept about a lovable loser (a black Homer Simpson, if you will) who wins a million dollar ride on the first commercial space flight and gets zapped into another world where he will battle a great evil.  In terms of crazy jobs, the Ant Dog character is based on a crazy cat I met while working as a roller skating stock clerk in a warehouse.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
The above two.

How did you become interested in animation? 
I’ve been a long-time fan of cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny and the wonderful fourth-wall imagery of Tex Avery. Back in the day my favorite cartoons were Continue reading

Paul Griffin


What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi, I’m Paul Griffin and I’m currently an animation director. When I was seven, I was planning on being a firefighting astronaut who flew jets on the weekends, but animation director is pretty close. There is an element of firefighting some days, I get to fly spaceships and puppeteer aliens to pilot them, but weekends I mostly just kick back around the house.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to work for this couple, one summer in Toronto, who ran a ceramics business out of their basement. They had a tortoise who would eat the leaves of the large marijuana plant growing in the back yard, then he would crash into the fence over and over as he stumbled around. That was entertaining. I guess the turtle was happy for the most part.  I also painted structural I-beams for a summer and had one job where we were working next to the Welland Canal and could look down the smoke stacks of ships as they were passing several hundred feet below us on the water. That’s how I developed my Kung Fu Grip©. Man, the crazy, dangerous stuff you’ll do for $9/hour…
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
That’s a tough one. My favorite project is usually the one I’m currently working on, but have to say some of the memorable ones have been, The Fly, Magnolia, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, King Kong, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, four Superbowl commercials and the cinematics for Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (VG). Working with the gang at Dr D Studios in Sydney on Happy Feet Two last year was really a lot of fun.

How did you become interested in animation?
Growing up in Ontario Canada, before the advent of cable TV, the town we lived in had one single broadcast TV channel from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Every Saturday at 5 p.m. my family would gather around the TV and we’d watch the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour and it was Continue reading

Gary Blatchford

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What is your name and your current occupation?

Gary Blatchford. Owner and director of “illusion Animated  Productions”. I have lots of hats, I direct, draw storyboards, animate, create layouts, I used to slug and write x-sheets in the good old 2-D TV animation days. Increasingly I have been putting together teams of freelance artists to provide pre-production services to other animation companies.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I never really worked before getting into animation, I worked for Richard Taylor Cartoons after leavingSt. Martin’s School of Art in London. Dick was one of my tutors and became a major influence and mentor to me. While I was a student I used to draw portraits in my local pub to earn beer money. The craziest thing I did was, I was the singer in the worse pub band in the world. We were quite capable of emptying a busy bar in 10 minutes.  I taught animation at Dun Laoghaire college of art and design (now called IADT) in the mid 1990’s, but that is not really crazy is it?

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I am proud to have been associated with just about all the projects I have been part of. Even the less successful were learning curves. I have also met some really talented people along the way. In 2004 I directed a seven minute short 2D animated film called “The Pope’s Visit”, with funding from the Irish Film Board, RTE and the Arts Council. The great Aidan Hickey wrote a terrific script and acted as producer for me. It is being shown at the Annecy Festival this June as part of the Irish Animation show. In recent years, I have been providing storyboards for the TV series made by Brown Bag Films, including: “Olivia”, “Noddy”, “Octonauts”, “Doc Mc Stuffins” etc. They have lovely projects and a fantastically talented team of creative people. For most of the 1990’s I was studio director at Murakami Wolf Dublin, which became Fred Wolf Films Dublin. Starting with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. We also worked on “Speed Racer”, “Sinbad”, “Zorro”, “Dino Babies” and I directed all three seasons of “Budgie the Little Helicopter”. In  2005/ 2006 I directed the “Slim Pig” series for Cheeky Animation. I have animated on a lot of commercial spots and music videos, for which you seldom receive a credit, but they are often the projects where you get to stretch yourself creatively.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
As a child I loved cartoons on the TV, particularly Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry shorts. I loved the Jerry Anderson “Telemarionation” puppet series, like “Thunderbirds” and “Captain Scarlett”. They were not animation but they showed that you could make a film without a cast of actors in front of the camera. The idea that Continue reading