Tag Archives: Director

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Eddy Houchins

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What is your name?
Eddy Houchins

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite project of all was the 2nd season CBS “Timon and Pumbaa” series that I directed for Disney Television Animation back in the mid-90’s.  At that time Judy Price still helmed CBS’s children’s programming division, and she called me in at the start of the season to “meet the new director.”
I got the word straight from her mouth tho take that show to the absolute limit, to the line of cartoon violence, innuendo, bad taste, potty humor, and sarcasm.
She said if I stepped over that line, however, she’d come down on me like a ton of bricks, but I’d better lean as far as I could over it because she was competing with a lot of
pretty “out there” stuff in those days from the competition.  Well, I knew what she wanted, I knew what Disney would accept, and I set about making those cartoons with an
energy and relish I had never felt before.  I remember calling a meeting of the entire crew after that meeting and telling them what she had ordered.  As far as we were concerned,
we now had carte-blanche from our client to make the absolute funniest, whacked-out cartoons we  could make.  I remember telling everyone, “Enjoy this, we will most likely never pass this way again.”  Prophetic words, because never again did I have the control or “hands-off” attitude from the Disney (or any other) execs and the network when creating or working on a show.
The closest thing was at Continue reading

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Scott Heming

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What is your name?
Scott Heming

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?
For most of my Computer Graphics career (Since the early 90’s) I have been a 3D artist. I have done my share of animation, video, short corporate films,  and web media. The smaller the company I work for, the more animation I seem to do.  I often have to wear an Animators hat when its called for. So, I would say I primarily do 3D Pre-Visaliaztion Animated films, well at lest I did for many years before I started working in the game industry.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (DIC-1999?) – mostly because it was early 2D/3D mixing on a project that was supposed to be another cheap DIC p.o.s. The show was typically short handed but everyone involved really got into it and I think it shows. It was Emmy nominated and still gets airplay 10 years later.

Curious George (TV series Universal 2006-2010) Kids and adults like it despite PBS’s educational mandate. Fun crew to work with. It’s a character I remember fondly from my childhood, so it’s been a privilege to ‘play’ in the world.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Fred Wolf Films – early 90’s) It was my second job in animation. A real trial by fire because of the insane schedule that first year. I had to learn a lot fast to survive, so I guess the pride comes from that…survival. We did something like 95 1/2 hours of animation in one year – Turtles, James Bond Jr., Toxic Crusaders… it wasn’t all pretty – but it got done.
How did you become interested in animation?
I was assisting doing comic books – which meant spotting blacks, doing backgrounds…doing grunt work. It didn’t pay shit but it got me out of the vacuum I’d been drawing in. One of the guys at the little studio we worked at was doing freelance props for DIC. I asked him how well it paid. He drew a quick ellipse  inside of an ellipse and said, ʺ See that? That’s a plate. That’s $35.ʺ Continue reading

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Steve Schnier

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What is your name and your current occupation?

My name is Steve Schnier. I’m an animation screenwriter and story editor, also a producer and director. I specialize in creating pitch bibles and pilot scripts – usually for animated programs, but some live action as well. I’m best known for creating the animated anthology series, “Freaky Stories”. We produced 3 seasons of the show which amounted to 140 4-minute short stories. Here are some links:

FREAKY STORIES: “The Suspect”

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Sean Petrilak

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hello there, my name is Sean Petrilak and I am an episodic director on the show “Wabbit” at Warner Bros. Aside from animation, I am a live action storyboard artist.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to be a head referee at a paintball field. I got shot at, broke up fights when tempers got flared, and shoveled heaps of paint, shells, and garbage until my back was sore. Perfect experience for animation. I don’t know if this is considered ‘crazy’, but before animation, I started working in the music industry and working with many high-end performers as a storyboard artist- still do. What I think is ‘crazy’ about it is the pace at which it moves and the politics that can cause workflow to change at a moment’s notice. I sometimes see a morning news report about a mishap with one of my clients. All you can say is, “Well there goes that job.”
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
This sounds cheesy, but everything I worked on so far in animation has been an absolute pleasure, because I’ve been allowed to do different things on each one. “Kung Fu Panda: LOA”(the series), “Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja”, and “Wabbit”.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I didn’t look far, that’s for sure. I grew up in an animation family. My father, Kevin, is a director, sheet timer, and character animator. My mother, Jill, is color goddess, BG and BG Key painter. My great uncle Gerry Dvorak was a baseball card illustrator who got into animation as well. No matter how hard my parents tried, I still got into animation.  I had a million Continue reading

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Joe Croson

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Joe Croson, Director for Creative Production at BItTorrent and the Creator/Writer/Voice for Transfurter.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Ooof, when I was 15 I used to clean dorm-rooms at the University of Oregon. I’m pretty sure all of the deep cleaning chemicals made my brain the slow mass of ooze it is today.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Aside from creating and producing Transfurter, writing for Superjail season 2 was definitely a highlight. The team was extremely talented and I had a great time learning a lot from each of them.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
Originally I’m from Eugene, Oregon.  I got into animation through an internship working on the Venture Bros. for [adult swim], back when Continue reading

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Chad Essley

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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 Continue reading