In our 70th podcast we interviewed Pixar animator and iAnimate feature animation instructor, Tal Shwarzman. Before joining Pixar Animation Studios Tal spent over seven years at DreamWorks Animation were he animated on such films as Kung Fu Panda, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Shrek Forever After, Kung Fu Panda 2, Rise of the Guardians, and How to Train Your Dragon 2. Since joining Pixar he's worked on the short Piper, Finding Dori, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4.

His interest in animation started while watching animated TV shows of the mid 80's and films like The Fox and The Hound and The Land Before Time. He graduated from Sheridan College (Ontario, Canada) classical animation program in 2000. Tal shares his knowledge of animation history and his experience in feature animation industry with iAnimate students from the first semester it opened its virtual doors.

If you would like to find out more about game animation visit our Feature Animation Workshops page.

>> Download this Podcast

In our 69th podcast we interviewed industry veteran and iAnimate feature animation instructor, Jim van der Keyl. Jim has been in the animation industry since 1989, getting his start as an inbetweener on the Little Mermaid at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He later worked at Warner Brothers where he was nominated for an 'Annie Award' as best animator for his work on Brad Bird's 'Iron Giant'. Jim made the transition to CG animation early on during Osmosis Jones and later worked for such companies as Sony Imageworks, Dreamworks Animation, and Blue Sky. He's worked on such films as Shark Tale, Over the Hedge, Monsters vs. Aliens, Kung Fu Panda, Flushed Away, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Puss N Boots. Most recently Jim was an Animation Supervisor at Singing Frong Studio where he helped with the super successful feature film La Guerre des Tuques (English - Snowtime).

If you would like to find out more about game animation visit our Feature Animation Workshops page.

>> Download this Podcast

In our 68th podcast we interviewed industry veteran, and newest iAnimate Game instructor, Keith Lango. Keith is an award winning animator & animation director with over 20 years of experience. He's worked on AAA titles such as HALO, Portal, Team Fortress 2, DOTA 2, and Counterstrike, in addition to various commercials, interactive, and VR projects. Keith has been fortunate enough to work at some of the most recognized studios like Valve, Blur, ReelFX, Sony, EA, Blue Sky, Warner Brothers, Take 2 and Disney to name a few... Keith is recognized as one of the first early pioneers in training up the next generation of animators through his on-line tutorials.

If you would like to find out more about game animation visit our Games Animation Workshops page.

>> Download this Podcast

In our 67th podcast we interviewed iAnimate Feature animation alumni and DreamWorks Animation Supervising Animator, Ravi Kamble Govind. Ravi was one of our first students to attend iAnimate and one of our first graduating classes. It has been remarkable to follow his growth and success since graduating. Since graduating, Ravi has worked on many feature films and commercials. Ravi worked on the feature film 'The Penguins of Madagascar' where he was promoted as character lead on the octopus villain "Dave" and was nominated for an Annie. He served as a character developer on the 'Detective Pikachu' movie, and has acted as one of the Supervising Animators on both the upcoming Abominable movie and Boss Baby 2 feature. Ravi is both passionate as well as humble about his craft, which made for a fun and informative interview.

If you would like to find out more about game animation visit our Feature Animation Workshops page.

>> Download this Podcast

Here are 10 samples from iAnimate Creature instructor and ILM Senior Animator, Erik Morgansen. Erik shows how he breaks down reference.

In our 66th podcast we interviewed iAnimate game instructor and Senior Animator at Blizzard, Casey McDermott. Casey has animated professionally since 2008 for film, commercials, music videos, R&D, pre-viz, cinematics, and most recently, in games. Since working at Blizzard from 2012 he has been an animator for incubation teams, World of Warcraft, a lead animator in cinematics and is now a Senior Animator/Game Developer for the Overwatch team.  He has also taught at several schools and has mentored students for the better part of the last decade, a good handful of those students currently work alongside him at Blizzard. Having worked in multiple different areas within animation, it was great to sit down and talk with him.

If you would like to find out more about game animation visit our Game Animation Workshops page.

Watch Casey's latest animation reel.

>> Download this Podcast

In our 65th podcast we interviewed industry veteran and our Pre-Viz instructor, Conan Low. Conan is a 20 year veteran of the film entertainment industry and has worked on a wide range of projects from groundbreaking television, beginning with the pioneering computer generated animated series Reboot to box office movie hits like Madagascar 3 and Rogue One. After working on the first four seasons of Futurama and the first season of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars with Rough Draft Studios, Conan joined the CGI pioneers in Northern California at PDI/Dreamworks where he supervised teams in their pre-visualization department. Anytime you can interview someone who is excited about our art form and been in the industry for 20 plus years, you're sure to learn something.

If you would like to find out more about pre-visulation visit our Pre-Viz Workshops page.

>> Download this Podcast

In our 64th podcast we interviewed game animator Lana Bachynski. Lana is currently a Senior Animator at Blizzard Entertainment and has been working on Heroes of the Storm where she was instrumental in bringing the original character Orphea life. In addition to animating at Blizzard, Lana also has taken up the gauntlet of running the Animation Boot Camp held each year at GDC.
Lana had some great insight to working in this industry as well as a genuine enthusiastic attitude that made this interview a lot of fun.

If you would like to find out more about animating in games visit our Game Animation Workshops page.

>> Download this Podcast