Happy Birthday Eadweard!

Being dead and 192nd years old doesn't keep this departed soul down. Please enjoy this amazing Birthday interview with Eadweard Muybridge...

So this should be enough for anyone to show their support for this blog. 

The Inventor begins

Creating a film is no easy task and Jim Capobianco should know this after working on his first 2d animation short, Leonardo. The film follows a cartoon version of Leonard Da Vinci and uses music from the era which Da Vinci may have heard during his life.

A Kickstarter campaign has begun to help fund a new feature film called "The Inventor" about Leonardo traveling to and living out the rest of his life in France. If you are interested about learning more about this project, please watch this recent interview which Jim Capobianco.

If you enjoyed this and would like to help fund "The Inventor", please visited this link to the Kickstarter Campaign; https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/77077682/the-inventor 

And if this post was of interest, please show your support and subscribe to the Animateducated YouTube channel!

Nightmare Before Christmas

Here's a great article about The Nightmare Before Christmas from Cinefantastique, Dec 1993. Enjoy...

If you want to learn even more about the making of this classic Stop Motion film, check out the podcast called "The We Know Jack Show". Here's a link to it!

Thank You!

The Ron Husband Interview

As a young kid, Ron Husband loved to draw and his High School art teacher got him to start drawing quick sketches from life in a sketchbook. He did and started filling up every sketchbook he owned. He majored in art and won the Scholastic Arts national competition as well as played varsity football for Monrovia High.

While taking a class at Art Center in Los Angeles, Ron met Disney Imagineering and teacher, Sam McKim who got him an interview with Eric Larson at Walt Disney Studios. Larson was in charge of recruiting for the Walt Disney animation training program.

Ron had a portfolio which wasn't acceptable, but he was able to deliver 3 of his sketchbooks from High School filled with quick sketches. In 1975, Ron was accepted into the program and would eventually become the first African American animator working at Disney.

From 1975 to 2008, Ron animated on 19 Disney animated films and still keeps a sketchbook to this day. To find out more about him, check out the Animateducated interview on YouTube.

To learn more about Ron Husband's work, here's a link to his current blog and how to get his book, Quick Sketching. 

If you enjoyed this post and would like to show your support, please leave a comment below or subscribe to the Animateducated Youtube channel!

Mosleying Along

Back in the 90's, Kirby Atkins was a High School teacher who applied to Will Vinton Studios in Portland and was hired into the world of animation. Soon he was getting paid to learn more about CG animation while working as a CG Animator on various M&M commercials the studio was producing at the time. 

When the studio had downtime in between commercials, Kirby developed his own animated short called "Mutt", about a Dog comedian telling dog jokes to other dogs, in which he wrote the dialogue, animated, modeled, lit and even did the main character's voice. The film went on to win several awards at film festivals, including the Hollywood Film Festival.

Atkins also began a very personal short film called "Beast of Burden" about an intelligent creature which was used to pull a plow even though he could talk and tried to reason with his owner. It was a very dark and epic like idea which Kirby kept working on and developing after he left Vinton and began working for other animation studios.

Kirby develop the story into an animatic and recorded himself performing the voice of Mosley and his 7 year old daughter playing Mosley's small daughter Rue. 

20 years in the making, "Mosley" was released in New Zealand in 2019 and is only now finally making its way around the world to US. Recently the film was shown at the Annecy animation festival in France in July and is on its way to the Ottawa animation film festival and the Burbank International Film Festival in September. 

Take a look and listen to this very informative interview!

Upcoming Interviews with Ron Husband, Raft Animation and Ron Clements and John Musker! 

Subscribe to the Animateducated YouTube channel to see more interesting animated interviews!

Thank You!

Lee Crowe Interview

Back in the early 1980s, Women were just beginning to enter the animation industry and Lee Crowe was one of them. She graduated with a BA in Art from a college near her home in Georgia, before moving to Canada to be enrolled into the Sheridan College Animation program.

After graduating, moved to Los Angeles, where she job her first job in animation at a smaller animation studio called Carter Mendez. She met Floyd Norman and worked there on several animation projects before it was discovered that the studio was a front for a money laundering scheme.

Take a look at the interview below and learn about more animation stories that Lee Crowe experienced during the early part of her career in animation. 

If you enjoy it, please subscribe to the Animateducated 

YouTube channel and help me make more interviews like this one!

Winsor McCay

I feels good to finally go through these boxes in my garage and clean up the place for a change. As I mentioned before, I have collected a lot of articles of interest, long before the internet was available, and will post them for all to see, enjoy and learn from somewhere in the Animateducated blog. Its kinda of a Information yard sale, all I ask is that you click on the ads to let me know you appreciate this blog.

So here's another interesting tid bit about Winsor McCay, the grand daddy of animation from Cartoonist Profiles.

Enjoy,

 

Well there you have it, here's McCay's early animated film, How a Mosquito Operates (1912) based on the comic strip in the article above...

Here's a link to another article I found in that same box.

Thank You!

Don Hahn Interview

This Summer, I've been working on a lot of new interviews for my YouTube channel, Animateducated. I always enjoy the process of finding guests to interview, recording the interview and then editing everything together. 

My hope is that Animateducated will help and inspire students to learn more about the people who have worked in animation and in other creative ways.

Please help the Animateducated YouTube channel by subscribing or sharing it with a friend or two and enjoy this recent interview with Disney producer, writer, artist and educator, Don Hahn.

Enjoy...

Sergio Pablos 2020 Interview

My first interview with Sergio Pablos was back in 2016, just before Klaus was pitched to Netflix. You can see the posted interview by clicking here.

Klaus was nominated for an Academy Award in 2020 and during the Covid-19 situation, I was able to set up a Zoom interview with Sergio from his SPA Studios in Madrid, Spain. Enjoy the interview below and please share it with a friend!

If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a comment below or subscribe to see past and future interviews on YouTube channel Animateducated! 

And one more thing! 

Do you have any questions for the next interview with Don Hahn? Leave your questions in the comment section below!

Summer Online Animation Sckool

For years I have been teaching Animation classes during the Fall and Spring semesters, but I've always wanted to have an Animation Summer class. 

And so, this June, I'm offer an online animation class teaching the hidden secrets of 2D animation and how to use Toon Boom Harmony to anyone interested in signing up. 

Click here to receive more infomation. 

Any questions? Please leave a comment below!

A Tribute to Kobe

I never got the chance to meet Kobe Bryant, but I did have the opportunity to see him at an animation awards show for his film, “Dear Basketball,” which won an Oscar for best animated short in 2018

The tragedy that happened to him, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven other people on that fateful helicopter flight is unimaginable. Our hearts and prayers truly go out to their families.

And although Los Angeles is feeling the pain and grief, I would like to take a moment to reflect on one aspect of his life which he created after he retired from his basketball career.

Dear Basketball from TRANSIENT on Vimeo.

I had the opportunity to meet the film's director, legendary animator Glen Keane, at its premiere in front of an audience. The animation was amazing and the music by John Williams was nothing less than spectacular.  It was deep, personal and moving.

I would like to share this short gem in remembrance of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, and the rest of the people on that helicopter.

RIP Black Mamba

A Snowden Fine Interview

2D animation is still alive and kicking and after 25 years, the animation duo of Allison Snowden and David Fine created a new animated film, "Animal Behavior", using today's animation technology.

You can see more of their earlier work by click on this link.

Mike Roberts; Animation Director

A native of Canada who became a US citizen and is now working on some big projects he can't talk about at this time. Take a listen to the link below. In this interview, Mike Roberts discusses his early life, animation projects which he can talk about and his path to becoming an Animation Director.

Beginning Tuesday, March 26th @ 1pm and 10pm until the next Tuesday, Listen to this link to WU Radio.
or anytime on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-444046006/mike-roberts-animation-director

Here are several other projects he has either animated or directed so far...

His first film, "Rumbleseat"

Rumbleseat -The Sadies from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.

Animated Titles and more for "Tales of the Rat Fink"

Ron Mann's Tales of the Rat Fink from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.

Bojack Horseman (Opening Titles)

Bojack Horeseman Titles from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.

Animation Director on "TripTank"

TripTank Titles

Triptank titles reel - 28 Episodes - 168 different titles from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.

Dallas and Robo

Mike will work on short films to test out a technique or just to discover something new. Check out all his videos and more at Mike Roberts on Vimeo

Coming Up:
And another Mike will be live streaming...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE3XA1E-NHc

And our first international interview with Aya Suzuki,
Take a look at her interview on Animateducated and be sure to subscribe for future episodes.