Animateducated: Joe Murray interview

I am not a professional interviewer and I can become quite chatty when I'm nervous or in the presense of someone's work I admire. Case in point, I am currently editing out all my babblings and keeping the gold nuggets of inspiration from my interview with Joe Murray. Here is a promo for the interview to give me time to edit the interview together.

Joe Murray talks about his early days at De Anza College, where he made his student film "The Chore" which won him a FOCUS Student film award and an Academy Student Film award in animation in 1989. 

His third film, "My Dog Zero" a self funded film before Kickstarter and Indiegogo caught the attention of Nickelodeon which evolved into "Rocko's Modern Life" and rest is animated history. Here's a clip from "My Dog Zero"

Here's the Joe Murray interview...

Joe Murray is offering a Masterclass coming in January 2026! Here is a link to his website to find out more: https://joemurraystudio.com/ 

You can also find a free download of his book.

So, you can see the final interview which I will post below and feel free to leave a comment or a like or subscribe to the Animateducated channel. I may post a full interview to the members section of the channel, although no one has become a memder yet, but maybe you will start the trend! Hope you enjoyed this post...

Robert Shields, My Life as a Robot

Recently I watched Francis Ford Coppola's film "The Conversation" which premiere back in 1974 and was surprised to see a fimiliar looking mime at the very beginning of the film. Back in the day, Robert Shields created a "mechanical man" character that he performed daily in Union Square in San Francisco. He never liked the word "Mime" and preferred "Movement Artist" instead.

Shields is now the subject of a new documentary, "Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot" all about his life performing, forming "Shields and Yarnell", performing in Las Vegas and having their own TV show on CBS.

I grew up watching "Shields and Yarnell" and was so happy their story has been captured in this new film. I contacted the makers of the film, Mark and Christina Bonn and got a chance to talk to them about the film. Enjoy the interview below,

If you are in the Los Angeles area, you can see the film Saturday, September 27th, 4pm in the Caminito Theatre on the campus of Los Angeles City College at the LA Mime Fest and at the Black Hills Film Festival, Saturday, October 4th 1pm!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/robert-shields-my-life-as-a-robot-film-tickets-1657895884219?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

Visit: www.mylifeasarobot.com to learn more about the film and where to see it.

Do you remember "Shields and Yarnell"? Let me know in the comments below.

CG Spectrum animation school

Has it really been 4 years already? I recently got a few posts to my Linkedin page letting me know I have been teaching online at CG Spectrum for 4 years now.

Before CGS, I started teaching online animation for a sketchy online service with students who only would try it out for one or two sessions and then would not return. I was also paid a very small fee where most of the income went to the website. I was not very happy and did not trust this situation.

Eventually, a good friend of mine told me about CG Spectrum and I am so glad he did. It is a very professional outfit where Mentors teach online to a small group of students. At the time, I had about 4 at the most and usually it was more like 2 or occasionally only 1 student for the 12 week term.

Students learn from video instruction, given an educational license to ToonBoom Harmony, work on the weekly assignments and meet online with their Mentor for a 1 hour Q/A meeting every week. 

The best part in my opinion is that no grades given. The Mentor is there to give their feedback and help guide the student in their own way. It allows the student to learn from their mistakes and giving them more knowledge and experience than just watching a video tutorial.

Below is a recent advertisement for CG Spectrum. The first animation you will see was done by one of my students, Craig Morris Jr. I was so happy to see that 2 of his works made it into this video. Congrats Craig!!!

I am still a mentor at CG Spectrum and hoping to be there for another 4 years. If you are interested in learning more about CGS, click on this link to learn more.

Drop me a comment below if you enjoyed this post.