Ana Maria Alvarado

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Ana Maria Alvarado, Character Animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
In 1985 I got my first paying job was as an interpreter and guide for an American Journalist in Nicaragua (I grew up in Nicaragua). I was 15, and I made enough money to buy my own radio/boombox after a month of work. I basically just went around Managua with this journalist, helped him navigate the unnamed streets and helped him with his interviews. At one point he asked my parents if I could go north (to the war zone) with him. They gave him a resounding no, but when he returned he asked me to interpret a series of recordings of another American he met in a village up north whom he believed to be a CIA operative. The tapes revealed nothing.  I also worked at Burger King in Stockholm, for 4 days.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I loved working on Stuart Little 2 and Open Season, at Sony Imageworks. The bar for the animation was really high, and I learned so much from other animators.  Recently I also had the privilege to work on Scorcese’s Hugo at Pixomondo. It was a wonderfully collaborative process, and ideas for the animation of the flying paper sequence came from the ground up.

How did you become interested in animation?
I’ve always be interested in visual arts and storytelling.  I was studying film in Prague (back when it was still Czechoslovakia). A one of my classmates and I were looking at some Preston Blair drawings someone had left behind in a classroom. My friend casually commented that I could probably draw like that. I didn’t think I could. While in Prague we tinkered with Continue reading

Harinarayan Rajeev

http://vimeo.com/20518291
What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi,I am Harinarayan Rajeev and i am currently working as a 3d animator in Dreamworks Animation Dedicated Unit,India(DDU).

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Honestly, the only job i had ever done in my life is that of an animator.I got my first job in the industry right after finishing my 2d/3d animation training , when i was 18.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of ?
Well,I am super excited about the Dreamworks Animation projects i am working on right now and going to work for at DDU,India which I consider are amazing oppurtunites that as an animator I could ever have. I also had a great time working on my third animated feature film “Dorothy of OZ” [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884726/] while i was working in Prana animation studios.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I used to draw and watch a looot of cartoons as a kid,infact i remember running like a deer after school so that i could reach home on time and watch my favourite cartoon shows,Swatkats,Dexter’s Laboratory,Johny Bravo,Popeye,Samurai Jack , He-Man,the list goes on.. I used to watch them as if they were real and living .  My intense love for Continue reading

Jobs: Animator at Sony PlayStation-San Diego

Sony logoSony currently has two highly anticipated PS4 titles we will need Animation support for. If hired you will be responsible for either Stylized animation over the top of motion capture, facial performances, and some hand-key work OR for Motion capture animation going toward realism with facial performances.

Please email April Wise with your resume/reel if you are interested in learning more @ april_wise@playstation.sony.com

Warren Leonhardt

 

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Warren Leonhardt, story artist at Blue Sky Studios

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Worked as a logger, prep cook at a truck stop, janitor at a hospital and a shoe repairman for a day. I thought about going into amateur kickboxing in 1993 or 94 after being invited by my coach to train in Thailand, but I’m too darn lazy when it comes right down to it.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
It’s not so much the gig as the folks I’ve been lucky enough to work with. I’ve been on great crews such as the one we had at Red Rover studios up in Toronto in the early ’00s. We had a blast making Puma, Mexican Gerber commercials, and concert videos for R. Kelly when he was just on the cusp of going completely bonkers. I had to draw his recently deceased mother as an angel who talked to him, which was awkward, to say the least. As far as movies or recognizable credits go, I’d have to say those guys at Sony who made ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ were really awesome for the short time I was on that movie. Still pals with a few of em. But there were fun crews in Ottawa, Copenhagen, LA, or Toronto that I’d like to gather together in a room again anytime, regardless of the job.  Of course I have high hopes for the movie that I’m working on right now. The crew at Blue Sky has some really bright and eccentric people here, which is always awesome to be around. Makes for good comedy bits.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
Same as anyone else, I guess. Television reruns of classic Looney Tunes and Disney shorts, mostly. There was one Disney special every Sunday evening when I was a kid. I was also a “Saturday Morning” kid, but I really liked waking up really early weekday mornings and watching original Tom & Jerry cartoons, Looney Tunes on Saturday morning and these Disney specials on Sundays. On one of those behind the scenes things, Walt Disney revealed that real live people made these cartoons with pencils and paper! I decided to try to become one of those guys even if it meant I had to figure it out myself. I’d have made a crappy chemical analyst anyway. My dad’s job was not for me. I got my hands on Preston Blair’s book and copied stuff from that and comic books.  And there was this other thing, too Continue reading

Raquel Omana

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Raquel Omana. I am now a freelance artist.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was Interior Designer.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Most popular old Saturday morning cartoons, Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby Doo, My Little Pony and many more; First educational games that started the Sony Play Station; film features, Anastasia and Titan AE.

How did you become interested in animation?
It was more alluring to me at the time.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m originally from the Philippines. At that time, Continue reading

Sony Takes Over ‘Robotech,’ Plans Film Franchise

Robotech Movie

Variety is reporting that Sony has picked up the rights to develop Robotech as a feature franchise.

From the site:

Sony Pictures has secured rights to the popular anime series “Robotech” and views the project as a potential film franchise.

The studio hopes to move quickly into production on the live-action feature, with Gianni Nunnari andMark Canton (“300,” “The Immortals”) producing and Michael Gordon (“300,” “GI Joe”) writing the script. The series centered on humanity’s use of robot technology to fend off alien invaders and has an “Independence Day” meets “Star Wars” vibe. It is seen as having the global appeal necessary to become a blockbuster property.

You can read the whole article here.