2026 Animateducated Wall Calendar

Here it is, the perfect invention to hang on your wall and use to keep track of what you do every month for a whole year!!!

Yes, its the new official Animateducated Wall Calendar found here for a limited amount of time!

Here's what you'll get!

12 images from past interviews and episodes of Animateducated, full of famous birthdays, days of interest and holidays too! 

If you are a collector, This is the perfect item to start your collection because there are only 4 of them available. I bought 9 this year and sent 4 as gifts to people I interviewed this year and kept one for myself. So now I'm offering the last 4 to you! You can buy only one or all 4 to send to friends or family!!!

https://ko-fi.com/ae_jimr/shop

If people buy more, I will have to purchase more from Vistaprint. And this venture is not a money making one for me in anyway to be quite honest. So, I will be offering these calendars for a limited time and pulling the plug on Dec 1st or when they are sold out.

So there you have it! Help support the Animateducated blog and Animateducated YouTube channel. Be a lucky owner of a new 2026 Animateducated calendar which can be used again for 2015, 2037, 2043, 2054, 2065 and 2071! Provided if we are still around. 

Happy Holidays and Thank You!

Jim

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.

Spider-Man Beyond Amazing exhibit in Chicago

During a recent trip to Chicago, I stopped by the Museum of Science and Industry to see this new exhibit called "Spider-Man Beyond Amazing". Now if you have seen it or didn't know about it, I have included a few photos below as well as a short tour of what you will see.

Below is the beginning of a 20 page Spider-Man called "Electro" in script form which was given to the comic artists to turn into comic book form.

And below is the final version of the artwork complete with lettering and credits.

Here are a few more final artworks...

Enjoy the video...

So if you want to visit the exhibit, it will be at the museum until February 2026. It is very fan and family friendly.

Coming Up next. What do you think about Netflix's new KPOP Demon Hunters?

Arcane Q&A and new book reviewed

If you are a fan of the Netflix series "Arcane" or new to it like , I went to a Q&A with the creators of the show which was moderated by Amid Amidi, publisher and editor of Cartoon Brew. Please enjoy the videos below.

At this event at Netflix, they handed out  the Arcane the art and making book. Its a large book of art from the series. Here are a few pages.

 

Here is a video review of the book.

If you enjoyed these videos, please leave a comment or a like or subscribe to see more.

Bill Kroyer, Mr Inbetween

Get ready for an interview coming your way about a brand new animation book called, "Mr. Inbetween; My Life in the Middle of the Animation Revolution" by Bill Kroyer. Here is a little promo for the interview as I finish editing it together.

And now, here's the final interview...

If you like what you see, please leave a comment, a like, subscribe to animateducated on YouTube, go visit www.mrinbetween.org and take a look at some animation history or read about it, send this link to one of your animation friends, you know the one would draws a lot and is always working on something interesting, they would love to have this book and their birthday isn't too far away, what are you waiting for???? 

Kent Melton, Animation Sculptor

Kent Melton was a character sculptor and maquette builder who worked on some of the most famous animated films -- someone had to sculpt the genie from Aladdin!

Puppetmaker Maria Andreotti was lucky enough to work as Kent's assistant on her first film, Boxtrolls, and was soon fangirling about the amazing sculptures and maquettes he had created at Disney, Laika, Dreamworks and Pixar for such movies as The Incredibles, Paranorman, Prince of Egypt, Treasure Planet, Tarzan, Hercules, Mulan and more.

Kent eventually became Maria's good friend and mentor and when he was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Maria was inspired to make a documentary about him.  She created a Kickstarter campaign and has so far raised over $100,000 (and counting) to finish the film.

If you would like to make a donation to Maria's documentary, here's a link:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mariaandreotti/untitled-kent-melton-documentary Also check out Maria's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariathemuppet/

Enjoyed this interview? Please leave a comment or check out more past Animateducated interviews on the YouTube channel. 

And Thanks for Reading!

Paul Driessen, His Life in Cartoons

Paul Driessen's work has always interested me because it was fun to watch and his stories were told with a quirky bit of humor. I contacted him through his website recently to see if he would be interested in doing an interview via Zoom from his home in France. I was so surprised that he agreed and mentioned that he had published his biography called "My Life in Catoons". We made plans to meet online in a few weeks, just enough time for me to find and get his book. The book publisher did not ship to the US, so I had to get it through Amazon. The book finally arrived and I was able to find out what his life was like before getting into animation. 

Dreissen was in Holland and at an early age grew during World War ll and recalls a lot of memories during this time. He even winds up in Moscow with his family in the above photograph. And luckily, he and his entire family survives the war and eventually are included in this photo below in a happier time after moving back to Holland. 

The book is very well written, I only wished that some of the photos were larger on the page and I also would have liked to seen more color stills from some of his colorful films. 

I was amazed to learn that he discovered animation by getting an opportunity to work on the Beatles animated TV series and eventually followed it up by getting to animate of the Yellow Submarine feature film.

If you enjoy Driessen's or writing Biographies, you might enjoy this one to get a flavor of how life was like for this an independent animator who eventually worked on several films for the National Film Board of Canada and later, making his own personal films.

Please enjoy this recent interview with Paul Driessen.

If you enjoyed this blog or the above interview, please subscribe to the YouTube Animateducated channel or leave a comment below. I don't think anyone reads this blog, because most of the comments I get are from people who just want sell their animation services or spam ads.

So, let me know if you liked this or what your favorite Paul Driessen film is. And if you have never seen his work, hopefully this will spark your interests.

Thanks for Reading this.

Congrats to the Flow!

Congrats to the Cat!

Very happy to see an independent animated feature from Latvia win an Oscar against some of the biggest animation studios in the world. It gives me hope for the other Cats out there working to make their dreams come true.

Animating for Music Video

Once a very popular format getting your song or showcasing your band out to the masses, the music video. Here is a classic which still holds up today, "Take on Me" by A-Ha. I saved this article from HOW magazine back when it came out to understand how they made it. Here is a very dated article with lots of reference to ancient animation techniques used before CG animation was even around. Frame by frame using a 35mm animation stand, dealing with film and optical techniques that you can do on your phone these days.

Please enjoy this HOW article from the animation past!

Can you believe how much work it took to make this animation back in the day? If you would like an easier version to read, send me an email to animateducated@gmail.com and I'll send you a pdf file. 

Thanks,

Jim

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are beginning 2025, another new year and I'm still working on projects from the last one. 

Over the Summer of 2024, my family and I flew over to Ireland to drive around and brush up on our driving skills. We visited Dublin first and then drove out to visit Kilkenny the home of Cartoon Saloon and where I got to meet and interview Fabian Erlinghauser, one of the directors there and creator of "Dorg Van Dango".

At the time, he was busy finishing up work on "Silly Sundays" and working on a new project. Here is a quick promo to the upcoming interview I will be posting soon.

There is another upcoming interview I am currently editing with Animation Director Iain Gardner who I met while we were visiting Edinburgh, Scotland. 

He had completed his animated film, "A Bear named Wojtek" which has a very similiar animation look to the films of Frédéric Back (The man who planted trees and Krak).

I visited Iain at his studio space called Animation Garden during this year's Fringe. And later, we met again when he was in LA for the Animation Summit. I am happy to report that "Wojtek" has made the shortlist for this year's upcoming Academy Awards.

Below is a short look at some of the people who visit the "Wojtek" statue in Edinburgh.

And finally, an interview I had with one of my animation heroes, Paul Driessen. He recently publish his autobiography called "My Life in Cartoons". I was amazed to find out that he worked on the first Beatles cartoons which eventually lead to an animation job on "The Yellow Submarine". This was his animation school for learning what he liked to do and eventually making his own films.

I hoping to get these all finished up before February or so. Until then...

Happy New Year!