Character Design Podcast

Kiri Østergaard Leonard is an artist, storyteller and creator living in Austin, Texas. She’s been drawing ever since she was a child, but decided to take art more seriously by the age of 19. Since then she’s attended several art schools, had mentorships and started her very first personal and commercial art project The Fairy Pin-up calendar in 2012. Then in 2013 she started a freelance career and has stayed on that path ever since. She mostly works in the realm of digital art but much of her work and education is based on experience from traditional art. What makes Kiri’s artstyle outstanding is her interest in everything related to folklore, specifically northern european storytelling culture and mythology. She’s inspired by everything from the nature in her home country Denmark and H.C Anderson’s fairytales to D&D and Unicorns. Immediately when you look at her artwork i can feel a spark of curiosity and wonder. If you take a look at her online portfolio there’s no doubt that she’s mastered the art of creating a thousand words with a single painting. If you take a look at her website’s about page you’ll see a picture of her arm with a couple of tattoo’s reading “Be true to your work and your work will be true to you”“Do it to make your soul grow”Kiri’s journey in art is a living testament to these quotes. Her personality clearly translates into her artwork. And even though she’s had her ups and downs in art, she’s kept on working hard with the aim of a successful career. And that work ethic and focus has been fruitful to say the least. Please enjoy today's episode with Kiri Østergaard Leonard. Kiri's website https://kirileonard.com/Kiri's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/hellcow64Kiri's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kirileonard/

Shane Patrick White is by all means an outstanding and talented artist first and foremost. He’s got over 2 decades of experience as an artist working in a myriad of industries and mediums over the years. Warner Brothers, Microsoft, DC and Marvel Comics are just a few of the most established companies he’s worked with so far. And by the side of being a hired gun and freelancer he’s also developed his entrepreneurial spirit in this field. He runs his own freelance studio called Studiowhite visuals where he for the most part creates storyboards for the game industry. And when he’s not busy with that he’s creating content for his self-titled YouTube channel, leads a private coaching platform through patreon and so far he’s released 4 personally written and illustrated comicss. During this conversation with Shane i was also surprised to hear his vast knowledge in many other mediums of art as well such as russian impressionism, oil painting and charcoal. He’s also got an interesting philosophy around what it means to be an artist and the process of developing and reinventing yourself. In other words, this turned out to be a very rich and varied conversation. Hope you enjoy this episode with Shane Patrick WhiteShane's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/sequentialistShane's website https://shanewhite.com/

Eric Bravo is a script coordinator and production assistant currently working at Nickelodeon. He was born and raised in San Francisco, California and got a bachelor's degree in managerial economics at UC Davis. While studying he got multiple internship jobs in the entertainment industry for companies like Warner Bros. Records, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, and DreamWorks Animation Studios. He landed a job as a financial analyst for the media giant Lions Gate in 2019 but didn’t feel like that was the right job for him in the long run. Since he’d been an intern for several big animation companies, he decided he would try for a job in the animation industry. Today he’s working as a coordinator and production assistant at Nickelodeon and he’s written a book about how he and other people have landed jobs in this competitive industry. On the side, he writes music, he’s an avid photographer and works on a personal project that combines music and animation. In other words, today we’re having a conversation with a truly creative person. Hope you enjoy this episode with Eric Bravo. Eric's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ericmbravo/?hl=enEric's website http://www.eric-bravo.com/Eric's music https://ravo.bandcamp.com/album/need-to-know

Character Design Podcast 004Terry Ibele is a stop-motion animator from Ontario, Canada. Over the years he’s written numerous short-stories, worked for a membership management software company and nowadays he’s taking animation classes at Sheridan College.  In addition to being a talented stop-motion and 2D animator he started an ongoing podcast back in late 2018 called Animation Industry Podcast where he invites guests from all around the animation industry to talk about exactly that. The business of animation. In this episode we discuss everything from his decision to change career paths to his experiences as a claymation artist so far. Terry's YouTube and Podcast: https://bit.ly/34VTwctTerry's website: https://terryibele.com/Music: City of Jewels by Density & Time https://bit.ly/34TjfCmContact: [email protected]

Character Design Podcast 003Dan Ekis is a business minded writer and graphic novelist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. He got his art education at Edinboro University of pennsylvania where he specialized in animation and received a Bachelor in Applied Media Arts. Today he does freelance illustration work for clients such as gradesaver and ygetit. And he’s got an active social media presence, particularly with his self titled YouTube channel where he posts weekly videos on how artists can make a living off of their art. You can find everything from 10 minute long advice videos to longer 1 hour interviews with other artists. Dan’s artistic feet on the other hand are planted in the world of graphic novels and cartoons. So far he’s created two graphic novel series on webtoons, the first one being Odyssey, Inc and Soul Of The World which he successfully funded through Kickstarter. Here he teamed up with Marco Della Verde who’s well known for his over 20 years as a letterer in the comic book industry, and i gotta say i’m really digging the clean, crisp and simplistic look of his characters and backgrounds. It definitely has that classic, adult cartoon look to it. He’s launching a new kickstarter campaign on April 28th for Odyssey, Inc: The Twin Bengals. In this episode we talk about everything from business to artificial intelligence and how these things relate to digital art. Dan's website: http://danekis.com/Dan's YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2RXs4WFMusic: City of Jewels by Density & Time https://bit.ly/34TjfCmContact: [email protected]

Character Design Podcast 002Raphael Bluzet is a freelance director and motion designer from Paris. Over the years he’s worked on a series of projects involving everything from live action to 2D and 3D animation. The one project that introduced me to Raphael was the short-film series called “We need to talk about cosmos”. A story about a stranded astronaut named Roger who tells us about his problems, activities and observations in space in a deadpan, yet humoristic fashion. The series was a part of the official selection of 7 film festivals in 2018 and is still making waves today. Now what stands out about Raphael to me is that he’s got a lot of experience across the spectrum when it comes to adobe programs. In a time where specialized knowledge becomes increasingly more valuable, Raphael’s had a finger in photoshop, premiere pro, after effects and adobe animate. Leaving him with what i would imagine to be a great fundament for his role as a director. In his spare time he also loves to travel and he seems to have an obsession with old fashioned film cameras. In this episode we talk about everything from his artistic roots to the recent animated projects he's worked on.Raphael's website: http://www.raphaelbluzet.fr/en/Raphael's Instagram: https://bit.ly/3eBkyKRMusic: City of Jewels by Density & Time https://bit.ly/34TjfCmContact: [email protected]

Character Design Podcast 001Today’s guest is Alejandro Garcia. He’s a professor at Saint Jose State University and teaches a course on physics in animation. Before teaching physics to future animators he was a normal physics teacher for 10 years. His branching into animation first started when he took a drawing course at San Jose State which ultimately led him to become a part of the school’s faculty down the road. Since that time he’s worked as a consultant at Dreamworks Animation on films such as Megamind, Madagascar 3, Trolls, Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Penguins of Madagascar. And over the past decade he’s put out a series of free lectures on YouTube on subjects such as basic animation, character animation and optics and lighting. Videos that have helped hundreds of thousands of animation students around the world honing their skills. Garcia is meticulous in giving serious and detail oriented lectures but is not afraid of putting on the occasional hula skirt and wig for a more context oriented and humorous study session. In this episode we talk about everything from basic animation exercises for beginners to obstacles that professionals have to deal with. Alejandro's website: http://animationphysics.org/Alejandro's YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2RYDlpxMusic: City of Jewels by Density & Time https://bit.ly/34TjfCmContact: [email protected]