I began this YouTube channel called Animateduated, (pronounced animated educated) a few years ago with the idea of interviewing Animators, Directors, Artists, Authors and other creative folks. Recently it hit 400 subscribers and is gaining more. Here is a promo explaining what interviews I did in 2020...
To gain any actual income from a YouTube channel, you must obtain over 4000 public watched hours and have over 1,000 subscribers before you can have ads placed on your channel. At this posting, we are up to 527 and have 417 subscribers.
At this current rate, we should reach our goal in about 9 years, unless I can post a video of my cats doing something really hilarious, which could go viral and that goal could be reached in a week or so. I've discussed this idea with our cats, but unfortunately, they have decided to cease being cute or silly whenever I try to record them.
Below is the final interview for 2020, featuring Stop Motion Animator, Teresa Drilling. Teresa animated Leon the Snowman in "Elf" and is featured in a Netflix documentary called "The Holiday Movies that Made Us".
If you enjoy these interviews, please let a comment below or subscribe to the YouTube channel to show your support.
Several animation professional have come together to form a new animation studio called RAFT animation. Michaela Hart is a producer who has teamed up with Chris "Surf Up" Jenkins to form this new studio that wants to produced Educational Entertainment with an Environmental theme.
They produced an animated PSA featuring their mascot character called Oliver the Otter can be seen below.
I got an opportunity to speak to Michaela Hart and Chris Jenkins during the beginning of the Pandemic of 2020 to find out more about their new studio.
Enjoy this interview? We are almost at 400 subscribers and would like to give away a special prize to our 500 subscriber to the YouTube channel! More details to come when we are closer to 500 subscribers!
Thank you for watching and supporting Animateducate!!!
Kat Alioshin likes playing with dolls, very expensive dolls. The ones that can come to life and perform in films like Nightmare before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Corpse Bride and Monkeybone; just to name a few.
But before she was a stop motion producer, she helped two interesting guys named Spike and Mike run their Festival of Animation screenings. She often sold tickets to the shows and then would watch the films that were being shown and also met a lot of beginning animators like, Wallace and Gromit creator, Nick Park!
She has recently created a new documentary about Spike and Mike's adventures called "Animation Outlaws". Full of clips for many of today's Animators and Directors who got their student films into the festival and started their careers in animation.
A lot of students of animation back in the late 80's got to see other animation films from all over the world whenever Spike and Mike's show would come to their towns. Many times, featured Animators were introduced to the audience and suddenly were treated like Rockstars after the audiences had enjoyed their work shown on a big theatre movie screen. Some even got to sign their printed flyers or T-shirts featuring a character from their latest animation film.
I got to meet Marv "Bambi meets Godzilla" Newland, got him to sign one of his T-Shirts which I still have, but cannot fit into. I also supported the Festival by purchasing their official Festival of Animation shirt when I visited LA one year.
This was before YouTube, back when it was a real event to see a variety of independent animated films on the big screen at your local independent movie theater or college campus.
So please enjoy the interview below about Kat Alioshin's film "Animated Outlaws" as well as learning more about her involvement with The We Know Jack podcast. A podcast filled with stories and interviews with the artists who worked on the Nightmare before Christmas.
If you enjoyed this interview, please let me know and show your support by clicking on the blog ads, leaving a comment below, share it with an animated friend, subscribe to Animateducated YouTube channel or follow this blog. Ok now, click on it and enjoy. Thanks, Jim...
Welcome
to Animateducated, (pronouced animated educated), here's a recent interview with the Italian Walt
Disney of Animation, Bruno Bozzetto.
Now I
don’t speak Italian and Bruno finds English difficult as well, but we had an interview which you can watch below. Here is a transcript of the interview.
When was
the first time you discovered animation?
Bruno: I discovered animation as a child in the cinema, in the 40s, watching Walt Disney films, the only ones in circulation in Italy were Snow White, Pinocchio and Bambi. In particular, I fell in love with Bambi who also taught me the love for nature and ecology.
You were an only child and you discovered animation. Did your father get you a movie camera? Did you draw flipbooks? What was your first steps in animation?
I was an only child and my father was for me a brother, a friend, a
collaborator, a financier, and above all a great moral supporter. My
father had bought an 8mm camera (but for himself and not for me). In fact,
since he brought it home, I have seized it from him and only used it myself.
Initially I was making small documentaries. Then, using notepads and starting to
draw on the last page, then on the penultimate, etc. etc. I attempted my first
animations which I photographed by snapping one with the 8mm camera. They were
some kind of flip book.
Did you
go to art school to learn animation?
I started animating by myself trying to understand how it worked by
watching the film that I could have in 16mm in a small slow motion. Of course
the Disney films and later those of Tom and Jerry and some of the National Film
Board.
But my style was a simple, functional animation, useful for explaining what
was happening and that's it. Nothing fancy. If anything witty, but elementary.
I animated my first films completely by myself, also doing the timing.
Your
first film was Tapum. How did you come up with the story or idea?
The idea of my first Tapum film! The history of weapons
came to me in high school (I attended the classical high school where they
taught you Latin and Greek) when I was studying history.
Discovering that man
has spent practically all his life inventing and building weapons, gave me the
desire to talk about this subject to demonstrate his stupidity, wickedness and
aggression. Naturally told in an ironic and funny way.
The
animation camera that we had was made especially for shooting animated
drawings. In Italian its called "vertical". The model of our studio
was designed by my father Umberto, an absolutely brilliant man, fundamental in
my life, who helped me a lot at the beginning of my career, and had it built by
a technician who worked in our studio.
Then I looked for collaborators (who did not exist
because nobody knew animation) and I taught them what I had learned. But my
passion for animation remained and I have continued to animate many short films
by myself in the future.
The arrival in Guido Manuli's studio helped me a lot
because he was the best and he is the one who helped me the most in perfecting
the characters and in the gags. But even he knew nothing about animation when
he came to the studio.
You
made short films to learn how to do animation. How did you come up with Allegro
Non Troppo? Most of it was Live action, where did you find the actors?
Before making Allegro
Non Troppo, I had made two other feature films, West and Soda, a parody of
western cinema, and VIP, my superman brother, a story based on two supermen,
one of whom is strong and vulnerable while the other is small , frail and
unable to do anything.
Allegro Non Troppo
arrived after 10 years, and was born out of my passion for classical music and
for having loved Walt Disney's fantasy. The first story that came to mind was
Ravel's Bolero. Then, after the bolero I decided to make others and to make a
feature film.
Allegro Non Troppo's
assistant director was Maurizio Nichetti, a collaborator in my studio and with
a priority as a theater actor. He already knew some people among the actors and
so it made it easier for me to choose the characters we needed.
I have always thought
of using animation to explain useful and interesting things. I like to talk
about man, about society, about his problems. The choice of making popular
films also stems from this interest of mine. In fact, I made almost 100 popular
films together with the most famous Italian science writer: Piero Angela.
You
are working on a comic series about a person and their dog on your FaceBook
page. Can you tell me about this? How you came up with this?
Since COVID-19 began, I have decided to publish a cartoon
on Facebook every day dedicated to the relationship between a man and his dog.
The dog is called Doggy. I did it to ease the tension and sadness of those
moments, especially in my city, and to give myself a daily commitment to
fulfill.
I had a lot of fun, I still have fun, and I've already done about 240.
For Christmas a booklet dedicated to Doggy will be released with presentations
written by famous people, and the proceeds from the sales will be used to buy
food to give to the kennels.
Is it true, you have a
Sheep called Beeeelin that lives with you and your family?
In the garden, we keep a sheep that is now six years
old and is called Beeelen. She is very nice, affectionate, and probably thinks
she is a dog, because in the first months she grew up in the living room of the
my son Andrea, who lives right next to me.
Her wish is to come into the house
as often as possible, but she weighs about 100 kg and it is not easy to get her
to move in a living room. She usually lives in the garden in a house we built
for her.
Are you still
running an animation studio? What work do you do there? Does the studio do
commercials?
The studio continues to produce films, mainly for Italian television and
especially for an audience of children. Now I don't manage the studio anymore. I draw, I do
cartoons, some illustrations, and above all I am busy doing interviews, video
conferences meetings for projections, exhibitions, small projects in which I am
often involved.
I reply to many who write to me, send me books, subjects,
drawings, offer me advice, juries, etc. etc. in animation however I'm not doing
anything anymore. The studio also does advertising and informative work, but in
recent years the demand for advertising work has decreased a lot. We hope it
resumes.
What advice would you
give to young people interested in learning animation or just good advice on
learning or life in general?
For young people I would recommend that they read a lot, observe
what happens and be attentive and critical of everything they see. Only in this
way can they express their personal point of view which can then become a
drawing or a film.
Any advice for the
world or humanity?
The only thing I can say is that we have to stop growing.
We are in too many in the world and when there are too many, the problems
become more and more serious and complex.
And the second thing I would say to
humanity is that we must stop feeling superior to the rest of creation. We are
part of nature and we are animals too. We must therefore begin to look at and
treat animals with a totally different spirit, ceasing to consider them only
objects or food, but realizing that they are exactly like us and ask to live,
to play and to love. Not to be killed or exterminated.'
I know it's just a dream
but dreams are what help us live and try to improve the world.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to
me today on Animated Educated!
If you enjoyed this interview and would like to see more interviews like this, please visit Animateducated on YouTube and subscribe to the channel!
Interviewing a well known director or animator is always a treat, but recently I got a chance to interview a very famous deceased photographer.
Zoom Video Communications development team claims they have created Zoouija, a new app similar to an Ouija board which allows users to contact the dead or recently departed.
Still in the Beta testing phase, I got an opportunity to try Zoouija and made contact with Eadweard Muybridge (1830 - 1904). Muybridge is known for his pioneering work with motion and motion-picture projection.
He currently resides in the Limbo region of eternity for killing his wife's lover. He hopes people will remember the good things he has done and he is constantly searching for a small tin of Snuff.
Below is a Zoouija recording of our conversation...
I really don't know what I can possibly say to leave a comment below or subscribe to the Animateducated YouTube channel to show your support after watching this interview. I mean, this guy's been dead for 116 years and I was able to talk with him. Zoouija worked great and I never lost the connection, which usually happens during my other Zoom meetings with living people.
Well, I really hope you enjoyed this interview. It was quite an experience which I would love to get some feedback from anyone, living or dead.
I got an opportunity to talk to Ron Clements and John Musker, the dynamic duo of such Disney classics as "The Great Mouse Detectective", "The Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Hercules", "Treasure Planet", "Princess and the Frog" and "Mohana"
The above is Part 1. Check back as I include the other part or parts. While you are waiting, below is a really interesting interview you should also watch.
If you liked the interviews, please let a comment below on this blog.
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've seen "The Secret of Kells" or "Song of the Sea", then you have seen the work of Tomm Moore and his animation studio Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny, Ireland. Recently, I got an opportunity to interview Tomm and talked a lot about his new film, Wolfwalkers.
The theme of this film is "When friendship conquers fear" and is the story of a young girl living in Kilkenny in 1650. Her father is a hunter who she wants to be like. One day, she goes hunting by herself and she meets a very interesting and wild little girl who lives in the woods nearby.
When I spoke with Moore, he was in middle of finishing up the movie poster for the film. I also learned that Moore will be doing the 2d animation for Jim Capobianco's upcoming animated feature called "The Inventor"; another upcoming interview. Take a look at the interview below and learn how this film is also based on Irish history.
If you enjoyed this interview, please show your support by leaving a comment below or subscribing or liking the YouTube channel Animateducated !
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!
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!
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!
I'm preparing for another big interview, this time with the directors of Disney classics like The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Princess and the Frog and Moana.
The dynamic duo of Ron Clements and John Musker.
I will be recording the interview this Wednesday if the weather is right and posting it later to the Animateducated YouTube channel which you are a subscriber of or should be!
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.
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...
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.
Before the internet was around, I started collecting articles about animation and animators, everything I could learn more about the art form. Recently I am going through the many boxes I have packed over the years and converting them to digital files and chucking the originals.
Here's a very interesting article by John Canemaker about stop motion pioneer, puppeteer and artist, Lou Bunin.
Enjoy!
Hope that was worth saving all these years for you to discover. If it was, leave a comment below to let me know if I should post more rare findings like this one.
