Todd Myers

 

 

What is your name and your current occupation? 
Todd Myers (L. Todd Myers on IMDB)  Just completed work designing characters for a special, animated Christmas episode of Eureka on SyFy for Curious Pictures.  I’m currently designing characters for two other projects at Curious.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 

Not counting working with Bill Cosby on the Captain Kangaroo Show (that was eye opening and crazy), I’d say I’ve had the usual.  As a kid during the mid-70’s I worked for Jim Kovacs who wasone of the first nationally known comic book dealers.  He was the guy who cornered the market on Howard the Duck #1.  Everyone remembers that, right?  I later worked in a record shop after being turned down by Burger Chef.  Burger Chef!  Burger Chef wouldn’t have me.

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

Starting a studio with Gav Gnatovich and producing 3 pilots for Cartoon Network in (of all places) Cleveland, OH.  Working with “Mr.” Tom Warburton for 5 seasons of Codename: Kids Next Door.  Contributing to the development of Dragons vs Robots.  Doing boards on Venture Bros.  And even though it was canceled after Continue reading

Becca Ramos

 

What is your name?
Becca Ramos

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
I started out as an animation checker but with my architecture background, I took the bg layout test on “The Simpsons” and that’s when I started wearing two different hats – layout & checking. Then I moved on to design when WB hired me for “Pinky & the Brain.” Since then, I have been switching back & forth doing background design or layout and props, from time to time. 🙂

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I would have to say “Chowder” would top the list. I loved the style of that show, I still do, even though our department was the only non-digital one because we were hand inking all the bg designs as the style required. Kudos to Carl Greenblatt & Dan Krall, who created the show and art directed it, respectively.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was an architect (in the Philippines) for a short while and had just passed the Continue reading

Andrew Farago

What is your name and your current occupation?  
Andrew Farago, Cartoon Art Museum Curator, author and cartoonist

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
Nothing too far into the “crazy” category.  My father’s a general contractor, and I worked with him every summer growing up.  I’ve probably put in a lot more time roofing than most people in animation.  Other than that, I’ve been a temporary office worker, library assistant, dishwasher…  I wish I’d spent some time as a gravedigger or daredevil stuntman so that I could give a more interesting answer for this one.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I’ve worked on a lot of great animation exhibitions, including a retrospective of 40 years of Saturday morning cartoons, an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sleeping Beauty, the Totoro Forest Project (works inspired by Hayao Miyazaki) and a show spotlighting the art of Mary Blair.  The Mary Blair exhibition led to a huge retrospective of her work in Tokyo.  Studio Ghibli purchased a large collection of her artwork following that exhibition, and that’s touring Japan right now…and our exhibition in California helped get that all started.  As far as personal projects go Continue reading

Patrick McHale


What is your name and your current occupation?

my name is Patrick McHale, and i am currently employed by cartoon network as a freelance writer.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
i haven’t had too many jobs.  i worked as a babysitter at a jewish community center for a whole room full of kids.  we ate a lot of animal crackers.   but they weren’t the normal kind that come from a circus box.  they were crispier and tasted better.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“the marvelous misadventures of flapjack” and “adventure time” were both amazing shows to work on, especially right out of school.  i’m unbelievably lucky.

How did you become interested in animation?
i watched disney’s robin hood about a million times as a kid.  and…. i watched saturday morning cartoons a lot with my dad.  i liked the ewoks cartoon show a lot.  that was probably my favorite show?  from what i remember it had really Continue reading

Kirk Tingblad

What is your name?
Kirk Tingblad

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
Directing/ Timing Direction/Storyboard Artist for Warner Bros., Cartoon Network, Disney, and many others.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I ran the shipping department for my father’s publishing company.  I cleaned up the Dunkin Donuts.  I checked in medical periodicals in the University health/science library.  I was a courtroom artist.  I was a radio dj.  I was an editorial cartoonist. 
 
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I won an EMMY for directing on “Pinky and the Brain”,  I was nominated for an EMMY for directing on “Animaniacs”.  I wrote and boarded about a dozen gags that made it into “Space Jam”.  I probably had the most fun directing “Johnny Bravo”.
 
How did you become interested in animation?
When i was ten, I saw “Porky in Wackyland”.  That gave me the animation bug.

 Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Sheboygan WI, and grew up through high school in New Richmond WI.  After high school I went to The Kubert School in New Jersey for a year and I studied under former Disney animator Milt Neil.  After that I went to the University of Minnesota in Duluth were as a senior in the graphic design major you had to do an internship at an ad agency.  One day a sales rep for Bajus-Jones Film Corp. came by and dropped off their demo reel.  I cold-called them an talked my way into an interview.  Owner Mike Jones liked by portfolio and had me do an inbetweening test, while he watched over my shoulder!  He liked that I could inbetween on paper with a fountain pen without doing pencil roughs and he hired me to be former Terrytoons animator Al Chiarito ‘s assitant.  Al was a great teacher.

 What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
Right now I am the Supervising Timing Director for “The Looney Tunes Show”  and “Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated”.   My work is divided between doing timing at home on a table made from an Indian palace door (kinda cool)  and working at Warner Bros. at the Burbank ranch going over the other timers’ work and  taking care of retakes.  The thrill is always when the show is done and on the air and it doesn’t suck too much.
 
What part of your job do you like best? Why?
Working on funny stuff.  As a teenager in Wisconsin my best friend and I would talk endlessly about getting the chance to work on movies and tv, all the while in the back of my head I never thought it would ever actually happen.  Whenever i get frustrated I try to remind myself that a lot of people would love to be doing what I do, so just get back to it.  I have also been lucky enough to work with a lot of really talented people

 
What part of your job do you like least? Why?
The hours can get kinda gruesome.  While its not “the Deadliest Catch”, you can get some painful papercuts.  Show business is not a stable business, just realize that when you sign up for this trip and the times you get fired or laid off  without any notice or good reason will suck just as much as it would in any other job.
 
What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
Gettin’ woken up by phone calls at 3am to rush into the hospital to do emergency arterial bipass surgery.  Oh, wait that’s not it.  I once told producer Jed Spingarn that there were thousands of tiny animals constantly cleaning his eyeballs, that was hard to watch.  My hand tends to get sore after 16 hours of work.  Insert your own double on entendre here.  Firing people and getting fired or laid off is never fun.

 
What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis?
Cintiq  and laptop.  I have a very powerful pencil sharpener.  Don’t mess with the sharpener, okay.  I use a manual can opener to gain access to food.

 
In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
I’ve met Bob Clampet and his amazing hair at the Minneapolis Comic-con in the late 70’s.  I’ve met Virgil Ross, Chuck Jones,
Ollie Johnson, Frank Thomas, Bill Hanna, Joe Barbara, and several other greats of animation.  John K once asked me why i would work for the big studios?  “Mostly for the money, mostly”, was all I could come up with.

 
Describe a tough situation you had in life.
I had to sue my kid’s school district a couple of times.  That was annoying.  Someone slashed the tire of my Jeep Wrangler in the Galleria Parking garage when I was directing “Pinky and the Brain”.  It took an hour and fifteen minutes for AAA to show up.  Oh yeah, I got shot at outside of Film Roman in 1994.  They missed, but left a hole in the window behind me.  I was told the woman who worked in that office refused to enter it again.

 
Any side projects you’re working on you’d like to share details of?
I’ve written a screenplay which every producer who reads it says it makes them laugh out loud  followed by a list of reasons why they aren’t going to buy it.

 
Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?
Work hard.  Learn why things are funny, and i don’t mean funny just to you, but funny to everybody.  Don’t just study animation, study as many things as you can.  A good understanding of music can go a long way.  Make your own animation, its fairly easy to do on your own now.  You learn more my doing than anything else.

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