Aidan McAteer

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Aidan McAteer and I’m Episodic Director at Kavaleer Productions in Dublin.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
It wasn’t crazy (kind of the opposite), but I did a brief stint in a financial firm which I thought was supposed to be animation.  I turned up on the first day and they said – hello, design our new mobile website.  I should have known something was up when they said I had to wear a suit!
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I’ve been lucky to work on lots of great stuff – I did a show in UK called “The Secret Show” for the BBC, it was really fun, but never found a huge audience, which is a shame.  I also worked on Peppa Pig (which is massively popular in the UK) with a host of very talented people.    I  had a great time working in Vancouver – it’s an amazing city and I really have landed on my feet back in Dublin working for Kavaleer on a new show called “Wildernuts”.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Dublin (Ireland). When I left animation college, there wasn’t much work there, so I moved to London. I got my first job in a traditional animation studio owned by a great guy,  Philip Vallentin, called Espresso Animation.  I  was a Continue reading

Jason Lethcoe

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 What is your name?

My name is Jason Lethcoe.

What would you say has been your primary job in animation?

Mostly as a Story Artist, but I got my start as an Inbetweener, worked up to Animator and even Directed for a bit.  But at the end of the day, I fell in love with Story.

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

Selling funeral plots.  Seriously. I actually went with my dad to a seminar on how to do it and after trying it for one day, the whole thing creeped me out so badly that I had to find a better way.  Other jobs included Assistant Manager at Morrow’s Nut House.  I also used to build elaborate props for parties, 12 foot tall telephones and stuff.  It was crazy.

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

I was lucky to get an early start to my career by working on The LittleMermaid. Getting to work on the project that Continue reading

Juli Murphy

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

What is your name and your current occupation?
Juli Murphy*, and I am a timer for “American Dad”, for Fox TV.*(For 14 years I also went by my married name, Juli Hashiguchi, or Juli Murphy Hashiguchi)

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was an assistant to the oldest practicing Magician in the Magician’s guild. I think he was in his upper 70’s, and he had been on the Johnny Carson show previously. I answered an ad when I was in college, and I fit the red sequined assistant’s leotard he had. It was a sad, depressing show. He couldn’t remember how to do all his tricks, and he caught the dove’s wings in the disappearing cage. I only lasted one show with him, because he was a really bad driver (going the wrong way down a freeway on-ramp) and he wouldn’t let me drive the Magic Van.
I also worked for Federal Express for 6 years. Besides loading boxes onto planes and trucks I also de-iced aircraft from a bucket extension on a gigantic truck, gave tours through the sorting facility, and radioed pilots in the aircraft. That was a great job, because one of the side benefits was free flights on cargo planes, exactly like Tom Hanks in the movie “Castaway”, luckily without the crashing part. I have ridden in the cockpit of 727’s and DC-10’s enough times to be sick of it.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I would have to say the best job I have had to date was at Cartoon Network on “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”. I was the Supervising Director for 5 years, and it was a really wonderful experience. I had the most challenging and Continue reading

Eddie Brito

What is your name and your current occupation?
Eduardo a.k.a. Eddie Brito, I am a Writer / Director / Producer at arlequín STUDIOS.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to own an exporting business from Miami, Florida to South America. I used to freight forward appliances and cargo for a living.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
As a General Producer of the Television Show “Buscando Amor” (“Looking for Love”, the Latin version of the “Blind Date” reality show), I added the first Computer Generated Images (with Maya, autodesk) in a Latin American Television Show. We created 3 different characters, a Mouse, a Teacher, and a Scientist that would make humorist comments during the show. We did this during sweeps in 2003, and kept the format until 2004, on Estrella 62 Television, in Burbank, California.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born Venezuela, but raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I spend many years going back and forth between the two cities before I Continue reading

Emilie Goulet

http://vimeo.com/23688667#at=0

What is your name and your current occupation?
Emilie Goulet, Animator at Reel Fx.

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

Working in a cheese store. It’s not that crazy, but it’s probably the job that is the most different from animation. And yet, I worked with some people that were so passionate about cheese that it rub on me.

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

Without a doubt, my favorite project is the one I am working on now: Free Birds. Not just because the animation is wonderful and hilarious, but the people that I met on this project made me want to push myself like I never did before. The motivation and support not only came from my leads and director, but from my peers which is incredibly  precious and gratifying.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I am from Montreal, Canada and started as a clean-up artist for traditional animation in television  at Ciné Groupe around 2000. I was incredibly excited to the point that Continue reading

Jun Falkenstein


What is your name and your current occupation?
Jun Falkenstein.  Sometimes animation director and writer, othertimes animation storyboard artist.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I really haven’t had any crazier jobs than animation!  I pretty much jumped right from school into a job at Warner Brothers.   Although one summer I did teach art to kids.  Not very crazy.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Rather say some of my favorite people that I am proud to have worked with (too many to list).  Animation projects can be great or terrible, but all of the ones created in large studio settings are not usually very personal, as there are a lot of people having their say with the project.  And when they aren’t personal works of art, pride becomes a two-edged feeling…you are proud that the thing was completed, but always thinking of how it could have been better had you gotten to do it differently.  So by this criteria, probably I’m proudest of my short film Kyle + Rosemary, done with Frederator and Nickelodeon, because it was the closest to a pure vision than any big budget feature I was ever a part of.