Here is an interesting Q/A with Production Designer, Aurelien Predal who has worked on a lot of animated and live action films including, Inside Out 2, Project Hail Mary and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse. In this Q/A there are lots of clips, but no big spoilers and a lot about the production design process in general.
I was happy to find out that the original artist of the Asterix comic book series was also colored blind, because I'm red/green colored blind. Aurelien mentions this and how he used some of these odd color choices in the series. Enjoy!
I finally have something to share with you, it's a documentary called "The Dreamers and I" which I made some animated sequences thru out. Kenji Yamamoto was a film and video editor and 10 years ago, he decided to make his own film after years of working on other people's films.
He got a grant to begin this project where he discovered am endless cast of characters living in a "Hacker House". The people from all over the world who were legal immigrants who were creating their own projects in hopes of selling their projects to big companies like Apple, Google and other big tech companies.
Don't take my word for it. Enjoy this interview instead...
Here's another interview where you can hear Kenji explaining how this film came about.
I started the project when it was called, "The Big Deal" and early on, Kenji had discovered that he was basically camera shy and wanted an animated version of himself talking to the viewer instead of himself.
I started working on making the animated Kenji designs first and allowing Kenji to direct the character design process. This all began in 2024 and it was a slow process not on a tight deadline. I am currently editing down an interview with Kenji and his wife Nancy, who is also has a lot of films under her belt as well.
For now, enjoy this trailer from the film and you will see the animated Kenji towards the end.
"The Dreamers and I" will begin streaming on PBS beginning August 1st and I will post a schedule if you are interested in seeing the whole film for free!
Jack Plotnick is an actor who began making short videos when he wasn't acting. During Covid, he began a long term project where he began playing the background parts in several Disney TV documentaries from the late1950s. "The Wonderful World of Color" was a series of television programs which appeared nationwide on TV sets all over America every Sunday night. Occasionally, Walt Disney would take you behind the scenes to show the making of his new amusement park, Disneyland!
Fast forward to the beginning of Covid, Jack Plotnick comforts himself in old Disney episodes until one day, using only i-Movie, a tripod and a green screen, he created a 45 minute video beginning with artist Mary Blair, who is tired of working on Disney artwork and soon discovers a sinister plot about the real creation DisneyWorld!
Here is a recent interview about Jack's previous projects and how he combine his short Disney videos into "Disney made a House of the Future: The Movie"
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a comment on the video or a like. Subscribe to see future videos or if would like to support my YouTube channel, please donate to my ko-fi.
Hey Everybody, It is a new year for animation. KPop Demon Hunters swept the Annie Awards and the Oscars are next. I have a few interview leads which I am work on for future interviews for you to enjoy and learn something from.
Here are some reason episodes you might have missed...
I have started a new series comparing the animatic storyboards to the final animation. Below is Tex Avery's final cartoon where I combine the storyboards frames with the final cartoon.
If you like what you see on my Animateducated YouTube channel you can now!
Every semester is 15 to 16 weeks in length and last week was the end of the Fall 2025 semester at CSUF. I have been teaching the ART353B Animation Production class since 2019. Some classes are easier than others and I always learn something new while teaching these classes.
In the previous class of ART 353A Animation Pre-Production, students learn about storytelling, a little bit about character design, storyboarding and creating a final animatic of a short 1 to 2 minute film. Some students create longer ideas, but in my class I know how long it takes to make a film. I work with the student to find a way to keep the film shorter.
At the beginning of the 353B class, I want to see their final animatic from 353A. I am always amazed and frustrated when the animatic is not complete, the story is confusing or it is too damn long. Sometimes I get all three in one project.
A lot of these projects were finished in other Animation Pre-Production classes and it is now my job to help the student get there animatics finished up so they can start to begin the production process as soon as possible. This can be either a week or more before they can start to breakdown their animatic into Harmony files.
I teach Harmony because it is an industry standard and I want my student to have work experience using so they can apply to an animation studio that uses it. Clip Paint Studio, Procreate and other software can be used, but might not get you a job at Disney or any other studio. But that's another story...
Before we go further, the film below started as a simple animatic which was a little confusing and is about a very unique subject. How the sound of the words in this sentence spoken in Japanese all sounded almost the same.
Angie Ferrater came up with this project set in a classroom to tell her unique story. Here is the final results below.
Angie succeeded in making her final film during a really rough semester and after accidently dropping her laptop several weeks before the final. She was able to re-animate her missing scenes and get the film finished for the final presentation.
Always have a Plan B
A storyboard and animatic may go through many changes before the story is told is a form that works for an audience to understand and enjoy. Students might discover while working on their scenes that either they have a lot of work to do or discover a way to shorten their story to in order to have less scenes to do.
It is ok to revise your animatic to add or remove scenes during production. The animatic is the blueprint of a house, you can remove that extra bedroom or put a pool in the backyard. In making a film, sometimes it takes making another edit of your animatic to test out your theory. By editing a shorter version of your animatic and seeing what works better, will save you time and work, but still keep the story moving along.
Stay on Target, Almost There
The saddest thing I see is when a student has a really good film in the works and by the end of the semester, they show the film "almost finished" but they never touch it again after the class ends. They get their grade for the class and that's it.
We now have an end of the semester screening to showcase finished student work. I encourage my students to work towards getting their films into this screening if they can or watch the films that got into the screening.
There is something that no class can teach you when you have finished your film which took a year or less to complete and you watch it with an audience. When people react to what you planned out and worked on for many weeks or months, All the self doubt and long hours suddenly will pay off. You made a film and people are reacting to it how you hope they would. You also have a film which you can enter in a film festival if you like and other people will see it too.
In fact, someone might even contact you later after seeing your film, it is possible.
Here are two more students who created trailers or previews of their final film which they are planning to complete in the Spring of 2026. Both Ruben and Brady have animation and storytelling skills in the making of their films. Enjoy!
The Barber and the Beast by Ruben Perez
It Came to Port Gamble by Brady Grassi
As I stated at the beginning of all my classes, making a finished film is not easy and takes a lot of personal concentration, imagination and time. It's a learning process that takes a lot of effort to get to the finish line.
And it is hard to do if you have 4, 5 or more studio classes, have a part time or full time job or have family responsiblities as well. If you can juggle those things successfully while making a film and finishing it, you will have successed what you started.
I wish Angie, Brady and Ruben success in the future and can't wait to see what they come up with next.
Zootopia 2 is in theaters now and if you've seen it, watch the Q&A below. But be warned there are a few spoilers if you haven't seen the film yet.
While I filmed the entire Q&A, I had a slight problem with the video when I was editing it together. The screen went black, but I could still hear the audio. I tried everything to get this video back up, but could not find a solution. That's why it switches to a title card.
So you can now enjoy it as a podcast and learn how they make films at Disney. The video does pop back on at the very end.
Animateducated 2026 calendars are still available at my ko-fi shop and am posting links to other interviews too. If you don't need a calendar and like Animateducated, you can donate to my Ko-Fi.
I'm currently finishing up animation classes at CSUF and CSUN soon and will be looking for new interviews and episodes to produce in 2026. If you have an suggestions for show ideas, please let me know. And if you need a calendar...
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!!!
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 when they are sold out.
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/
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...
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!
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.
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.
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.
Every year close to Halloween, when the veil between the living and the dead is quite thin, I take advantage of this by contact a well known person in the past of Animation.
This year, I contacted the Leonardo Da Vinci who I contacted through the OUIJAZooM app. Enjoy the interview below.
I have contacted other people which you can find on the Animateducated YouTube channel.
It has only been two weeks since we landed in Dublin, Ireland to begin our trip to the UK. I dragged my laptop and small video/still camera and a lot of cords, plugs and a hand held mini tripod to see if I could make this a working vacation.
I had contacted 3 people throughout our visit, starting with Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny. I was planning to meet Tomm Moore, however as the trip drew near, he had to cancel the meeting, but I could talk to Fabian Erlinghauser, a director who created "Dorg Van Dango" for Nickelodeon.
After Ireland, we would fly up to Edinbough, Scotland to experience the Fringe as well as meet with Iain Gardner, the creator of a new 2d film called," A Bear named Wojtek. To my surprise, I was able to make two more future episodes featuring some Fringe work which I will share later.
Then we would fly to London to meet Comic book artist Alison Sampson, who has some of her work at the Heroes exhibit at the Cartoon Museum in London. I was hopping to be able to interview her in person and see the museum's archives. It turned out, I was shown a small storage room full of boxes, but they didn't show me what was inside them.
While in London, I found a few more things to make future Animateducated episodes, including this one featuring the BFI's Stop Motion series. A month long celebration on Stop Motion films and filmmakers. I have just finished this posting of a Q&A of the directors of ParaNorman, Chris Butler and Sam Fell. Enjoy...
If you enjoyed this blog and the above episode, please share it with a friend or leave a comment or like on the Animateducated YouTube channel. As I said, I have one more week of traveling England to see if I can find some more interesting people or places to share with you.
A lot of the time I find someone who I would like to interview and spend a good amount of time researching what they have done and contact them through email. This recent interview with Paul Demeyer was the result of a good friend of ours who recommended us to met each other through email.
And so, I contacted Paul and we discovered that we had a lot in common. For one, we both had won a Student Film Awards when we were in College. Paul has been working on his illustrated book about his life called "Walking on Clouds" and he includes a few pages about winning the award in 1977.
Then 10 years later, I won my Student Film Award for my animated film called "Cat & Rat" back in 1988 and I remember getting to see a screening with the crew of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". I had a long week and cannot recall how I got a ticket to the screening, I only remember I was in a seat on the first row looking straight up at the screen. I was one of the first people at Columbia College to see the film, but the worse viewing although I was so excited I didn't care.
So I contacted Paul and we can up with this interview which took me a while to edit together since we taked about so much. Anyway, here's the interview which I hope was worth the wait.
This year was the 50th anniversary of the Student Film Awards which I took Paul with me to see it in person. We had a great time and were amazed that most of the winners had a small crew which shared the award. We remember how awkward we had felt getting up on stage alone to accept our awards. We were impressed by how these new winners were all very confident and professionals at accepting their awards as well.
If you enjoyed this posting, please leave a comment below or go watch more Animateducated videos on YouTube!
I first became aware of Sara Varon's graphic novel when my son was in High School and brought it home from the library. I remember see that there was no dialogue throughout the entire book and liking the simple cartoon illustrations.
Years later, my son is now in college and I discovered that "Robot Dreams" has become a new 2d animated feature film by Pablo Berger. I saw the film at as a screener for the 51st Annie Awards through ASIFA Hollywood which I am a member.
"Robot Dreams" won for best independent animated feature at the Annies and was later nominated for an Oscar for best animated feature. Heron,(which won the Oscar). However, all this time the film had not been released in US theatres, until now.
Please enjoy these 3 interviews I have done beginning with Sara Varon, the artist/author of "Robot Dreams".
Here's an interview with Benoit Feroumont, who was the animation director of "Robot Dreams" and who helped get Pablo Berger's storyboards turned into the final animation.
And finally, here are two interviews with live action director Pablo Berger. The first one was part of a Q/A which was shown after a screening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, talking about his first animated film, "Robot Dreams".
And the last interview, I only had 10 minutes to interview Pablo Berger. I asked him about several of his past films and a few questions about "Robot Dreams".
Well, I hope you enjoy the interviews above. Robot Dreams is a nice 2D feature which might be more touching for adults where as kids will see it on other levels. It is definitely a nice break from the Summer superhero or killer robot stories.
Please leave a comment below to let us know what you thought of the film.
Here are a couple of new documentaries that you might not know about, but will enjoy watching.
Friends of mine made this documentary about Albert Ruddy, who was the producer of "The Godfather". Directors are usually more well known than Producers by the general public and the result of only two meetings, Smith and Bradley discovered they had enough footage to make "Tough Ain't Enough: Conversation with Albert S. Ruddy".
The film was released to the film festival circuit in 2013, however only recently has the film been distributed by Indie Rights.
Tough Ain't Enough is a very inspiring and fun documentary told by Al Ruddy himself about his adventures in the film industry as a producer.
And finally, everyone can see and hear his story which is now streaming on Amazon PrimeandYoutube.
"Dear Ike: Lost Letters to a Teen Idol" is a personal documentary about young Dion Labriola's quest to contact with the young actor Ike Eisenmann through writing many letters to him to star in an animated science-fiction epic he was developing in middle school.
After an exhaustive string of failed attempts, a magical turn of events points Dion directly toward his goal in the most unexpected of ways - 40 years later.
Here's the Animateducated interview with Dion Labriola and link to watch "Dear Ike" for free through PBS SoCal.
Hope you get a chance to see these films and leave a comment below if you watched them.
Torsten Schrank was learning to be an animator while in University, but eventually got more into character designing. Below is a recent interview of him explaining how he designs characters.
Here are some of his concept art and character designs.
Here are a collection of model sheets of caharacter designs from "Klaus".
Enjoyed this post and the interview? Subscribe to Animateducated on YouTube.
I first found out about this film when I did an interview with John Musker and Ron Clements when Covid was on the rise. Here's the interview, feel free to watch the whole thing.
I just realised the above video was labelled Part 1, in Part 2, John mentioned he was starting to work on his own animated short film and was trying to figure out how he was going to do it.
Four years later, "I'm Hip" premiered at Annecy, one of the most well known animation festivals in Europe and the film managed to make the Short List for this year's Oscars. Unfortunately, the film was not nominated.
I caught up with John Musker at an ASIFA screening of "I'm Hip" and here is the interview below along with some stills from the film.. Enjoy!
This is Dan Dinello and John's sister Mimi, Dan Dinello was my Film Tech 2 teacher at Columbia College in 1983-1984.
A movie theater of famous hip movie goers.
The beginning of the film so Musker and his wife walking under the Live Jazz sign...
Can you name these two Hip guys? Add your answer to the comments below.
That's Marlon West on drums and the head of effects at Disney, I went to school with him at Columbia College and he was hip even back then.
The guy snipping coffee is John's son.
"I'm Hip" will be coming to a theater near you as part of the 23rd Animation Show of Show. Contact www.animationshowofshows.com to find out when and where.
If you enjoyed this post, leave a comment below or on the YouTube channel Animateducated.
It's a brand new shiny New Year and I have complied a short Bucket List of things I would like to happen in 2024.
Animateducated, the YouTube channel, has grown a lot in 2023 than the year before. I am hoping the channel will finally pass the required 4000 watch hours to qualify for monetization. Then I can't wait until my interviews will be interupted by ads about how you can make thousands of dollars a week without doing anything!
I have several interviews ready to edit and some new ones which will require some travel and/or begging.
Andrew Chesworth is a 2d/3d animator who recently posted his film, The Brave Locomotive to YouTube where it has gotten a lot of attention. I wll be editing his interview in the new year, here is a short promo.
I'm working on an interview with Felicity Moreland, who is has a new documentary about 2d animation called, Hand-Drawn: Documentary.
I'm working on getting an interview with John Musker about his short film, "I'm Hip". John's film has qualified for the Short List for this year's Oscars! Before the announcement, I had ask him if he would like to talk about his film and he has agreed. We are now making plans when to do the interview.
In the coming year, I hope to visit Michael McMaster and his shop to meet some of his creations.
Here's a fun video he made several years ago, featuring these two very famous robotic characters.
I am also looking into contacting artist and filmmaker, Jim McKenzie who has recently made this very fun film about his latest artwork called "Potato Face".
Hey Jim, you can contact me yourself, because I would love to find out how you made this film and what your new projects in 2024 might be. If anyone knows how I can contact him, please let me know.
This Summer, my wife and I are also planning a trip to the UK and would like to visit a few animators and animation studios to create few interviews while mine there.
But before this happens, I have to get in better shape and start my walking routine again. As animator, I sit a lot at my computer. When I worked at studio jobs, my weakness was free drinks like Pepsi or Coke. I drank it like water and I discovered by simply not doing so, I would loose weight and walking helps as well.
So this Summer, I don't want to squeeze myself into an airplane seat and be out of breath from walking up a few steps. I don't want to be the fat American tourist, so I'm starting now to get into an exercise routine and hopefully watch my weight go down.
Animating Stuff will return in 2024 where I will have a weekly live streaming episode where I will be working on or talking about something about animation. If viewers show up to listen in or participate that's always makes a better episode.
A big Thank You to the 1605 subscribers and the future subscribers! Do you have any ideas for me to pursue in the new year on Animateducated?
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