By Jake Friedman

Dean Yeagle has been animating and designing for decades, from licensed characters to his own creations. His work can be seen from Bugs Bunny to Playboy magazine, and his sketchbooks, including that of the sexy character dubbed “Mandy,” are a trove of quality draftsmanship. He was also assigned the unique task to revitalize a 65-year-old Disney property in the World War II-era comic book, “Return of the Gremlins,” for Dark Horse Comics. Look for it on the shelves.

Recently I had the chance to talk to Dean about his rise to success, the Gremlins project, and his sexy pin-ups.

Let’s start with your background. What was your first job?

I started working in Philadelephia – that’s where I’m from. It was a tiny company called “Animation Arts Incorporated” and it had some very good people working there. They were able to teach me some stuff that I might not have been able to learn going cold into a place like Disney, being pegged into one job or another. I got to do a little bit of everything.

Then I had to go into the service during Viet Nam; I was in the navy. After that my wife and I moved to New York. For the first seven years I worked at Zander’s Animation Parlour as a designer and animator and eventually a director. Jack Zander was a great animator of the old Tom & Jerry cartoons; he recently celebrated his 99th birthday. Afterwards I opened my own company called “Caged Beagle Productions” with Nancy Beiman and Daryl Cagle. Nancy is a great animator who worked for Disney and is now teaching in Rochester New York. Daryl is editor of the MSNBC editorial cartoon site now. And as of 2006 I’m living in Southern California.

(Read the article)

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by Jake Friedman

Witty animation with mature themes have inspired most of us [watch “Stoned Wheat” on Youtube.com] but much credit should probably be given to JJ Sedelmaier. Very few studios have a track record like JJ Sedelmaier Productions; upon entry of the studio, which currently houses six hired full-time staff, nearly a hundred awards grace the shelves. This is the studio that introduced us to SNL’s “TV Funhouse” the first season of “Beavis and Butthead,” the intro to “Strangers with Candy,” countless memorable animated commercials, and most recently the Tek Jansen sequences on “The Colbert Report.”

In an age of CG departments in 2D studios, or in which all the drawing done is on digital Wacom tablets and Cintiq screens, Sedelmaier’s studio, co-run by JJ and wife Patrice, stands out in the sea of time. It’s a studio that encourages a creative vibe with hands-on art, using [ooh!] light discs and [ah!] pencils. I was recently graced with freelance animation work at the White Plains studio, where one of my first tasks there was cleanup and inking with pens on paper!

There’s no question of Sedelmaier’s strength in the New York animation community, but I wanted to uncover the secrets of the masked man, Sedelmaier himself.

JF: What’s your sense of quality work that you strive for?

JJS: It’s based on really thinking about why something is designed the way it is and trying to keep it as valid as I can. You can have something that feels conventional, but there should be something about it that sparkles. Sometimes it’s a glorious, luscious style. Other times the style is very rudimentary, even crude, but there’s still something charming or smart about it. (Read the article)

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by Jake Friedman

When the question arises as to the best character animator alive today, one unquestionably thinks of Andreas Deja. Following in the footsteps of the pioneers at Disney and learning from the “Nine Old Men” themselves, Deja has made a name for himself with the creation of such characters as King Triton, Jafar, Gaston, Scar, Hercules, Lilo and countless others. He could barely speak proper English when he came from Germany to animate on Disney feature films and was part of the resurgence of animation that started booming with The Little Mermaid. Recently, when all the drawing tables at Disney were being replaced with computers, Deja’s office was the one holdout to still use paper and a pencil-test machine, a decision that would otherwise the risk the company losing one of its greatest talents.

I had the chance to talk with Andreas, and it’s my honor to share some juicy bits of his history, technique and approach to the craft.

JF: What’s the hardest thing about being a Disney lead animator?

AD: The hardest thing is to live up to the expectation of pulling together important scenes of the films. You have to lead a group of animators and help them along to meet their footage requirements, and you have the least time of any animator. You have to work with the group, spend time with them, you have to do the most important pieces of film yourself because you are the lead animator on that character, and you are expected to do the most footage of them all. So it’s quite a challenge. (Read the article)

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by Jake Friedman

Terry McGovern has built a name for himself as an actor, a voice artist, and a teacher of both. You can read all about him ( or hire him!) via his website, terrymcgovern.com. His screen credits vary from Star Wars to “Transformers,” but perhaps his best known character is Disney TV’s Launchpad McQuack, right-hand-duck to both Uncle Scrooge and Darkwing. In honor of the recently released volume of “Darkwing Duck” and the upcoming release of the second “Ducktales” volume, I chewed the fat with Terry, and his alter ego waterfowl.

JF
What do you tell your students is the secret to good voice acting?

TM
Practice. Knowing what to practice and doing the work every day, not just taking classes. Classes are good, but people think that if you take enough classes you’ll suddenly be good at this, and it doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. You have to do the work on a daily basis. This is an athletic undertaking. You have to drill on your weaknesses and make them better. (Read the article)

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by Jake Friedman

Gary Conrad has put his stamp on some of the most memorable kids’ cartoons shows since the ’90s. Now finishing up a four-year directing stint for Nickelodeon’s über-popular “Fairly Oddparents” and beginning a new project for Frederator’s “Random” cartoon series, Conrad shares his history, his mistakes and his advice.

JF: What was your career path post-college that landed you where you are now?

GC: Well, I graduated CalArts in 1984, and I was offered a job at a little studio in Cincinnati as an animator where I worked on commercials for three years. But I missed Los Angeles, and I was lucky enough to move back to work on a presentation for a Garfield movie, which did not sell. For I while I animated on several of the Garfield prime-time specials. I also worked on some of those later Charlie Brown shows they were doing over at Melendez, which was fun. Then they sold the “Garfield and Friends” series, so I moved onto that series as a storyboard artist. After a couple years they sold a show called “Bobby’s World,” so I was moved onto that show as a storyboard artist, and then I became a director and then a producer, which lasted for six years. When that wrapped up, I went to Nickelodeon as a storyboard artist on “The Angry Beavers.” They asked me to direct, and I moved into directing again. After that, I moved onto “Dora the Explorer,” which was brand new, as its director. From there I went to a little studio in San Francisco called Wild Frame Brain where I directed a series for them called “Mr. Baby,” and then I came back to direct “Fairly Oddparents” for four years. From that I moved on to “Danny Phantom,” and from that to “Random Cartoons,” where I am now. (Read the article)

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by Jake Friedman

With the June 9th release of Cars, Pixar takes a step back towards its roots of animating anthropomorphic objects. However, this time the trap is sprung with a cultivated talent for art direction and design that has taken decades to perfect. As we’ve seen in making-of books, DVD extras and museum exhibits, the Pixar design team works as hard on the pre-production process as it does on the actual animation. Though maybe not as technologically innovative, the approach of these artists using clay, wire, pencil, paints and paper is to inspire the final product just as the classic artists have done since the golden age of animation.

Jay Shuster, as a Pixar sketch artist, is one such person. Though his art cannot be seen directly on the screen, he is one of the talented few who shapes the look of the movie. I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about what work is like for a sketch artist at the world’s most popular CG studio. (Read the article)

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by Robert Kohr

Recently I heard a rumor about an American animator working at a Japanese animation studio, [ Production I.G ]. The have a very concise English based website run by one of their CG artist’s Justin Leach. Justin is originally from Michigan and an alumnus of the Ringling School of Art and Design. Prior to journeying to the Far East he worked at [ Blue Sky Studios ] on the Academy Award winning “Bunny” and the acclaimed feature “Ice Age”, as well as boarding a sequence for Fox’s “Titan AE” and is presently a CG artist on I.G’s “Innocence: Ghost in the Shell”. For about 2 years now, Justin has been working at I.G, which is known for its adult animation. They produced the original Masamune Shirow’s “Ghost in the Shell” as well as the “Jin Roh”, “Blood the Last Vampire” and the acclaimed series “FLCL” (Furi Kuri), which was co produced with GAINIX. (Read the article)

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by Celia Bullwinkel
For most moviegoers, Tom Sito is not a recognized name. Still, his work in animation has been acknowledged the world over, in such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Pocohantas, Shrek, and his feature length directorial debute, Osmosis Jones. As a native New Yorker and SVA Alumni, Tom Sito flew in from Hollywood to give a lecture to students and fans at The School of Visual Arts’ main theatre Monday, March 4th. There, he screened his latest film, Osmosis Jones, following with a slide show of concept art, and Q and A session on directing animation.

AU members Rob, Chris, and myself met Tom for a breakfast interview Tuesday morning at L’Express on Park Avenue. Over bagels and eggs Florentine, Tom shared stories of being in the driver’s seat of animation’s second boom. Tom Sito was surprisingly approachable for a Hollywood power player. He talks with a smile, his eyes twinkle, and he speaks of animation like a film historian. All the while, his New York accent still emerges from his talk of Hollywood. Tom shared with us experiences animating Beast in Beauty in the Beast, and storyboarding for Aladin, and the excitement on the opening night of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Aside from working in film the past 20 years, Tom remembers working at 19 as an apprentice for the great Grim Natwick (Disney animator, creator of Betty boop). At the very end, the three of us had the chance to enjoy Tom’s final Holiday card from Chuck Jones.

Thanks again, Tom

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