Toonin to the World of Animation with Tony Benedict

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

CTN Legend Tony Benedict arrived on the Walt Disney Studio lot in summer of 1956 and took an inbetweening potition on Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmations before joining Bob McCrea’s television unit where he got to do a bit of animation. Find out how he got started at UPA as an assistant to animator Ed Freidman and was given an opportunity to write some Mister Magoo episodes and his journey to Hanna Barbera as a full time staff writer working with Mike Maltese and Warren Foster. Sit back and enjoy the tales of this talented contributor to the Golden Age of Animation.

Lots of vintage movies, photos and art at Tony’s website at http://www.homepage.mac.com/tonytoons

Toonin to the World of Animation with Dan Hofstedt

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Caricature of Dan by Dan

Dan Hofstedt, affectionately known as T-Dan, has animated on some of the most successful animated movies of all time.  His gift for caricaturing both a likeness and an action of a character has served him well so far in a 24 year career.  After putting himself through the Character Animation program at California Institute of the Arts as an amusement park caricaturist T. Dan has garnered a widespread “in-house” reputation at Sullivan-Bluth, Disney, Warners and now Sony Imageworks as one of the top caricature artists around. He has taught Character Animation for Maya at Studio Arts in Glendale, CA, taught caricature workshops at Sony Imageworks, and guest lectured at the Cal Arts Character Animation program, where he studied in the early ’80’s. T-Dan has been on animation panels at the Visual Effects Society, demonstrated Maya animation techniques used in “Monster House” for Autodesk at Siggraph in Boston and at 3December in London, and been a featured presenter at the Sony Wonder Lab in New York. He has made a successful transition from the 2D animation world to the 3D computer generated realm. Sit back and enjoy an interview with this extremely versatile and talented man and key contributor to the 2nd Golden Age of Animation.

Dan Hofstedt

Dan Hofstedt can be reach through his CTN Webpage.

ToonIn to the World of Animation “An Artist First”

A graduate of Cal Arts in the 70’s Mike Giaimo went through the training program at Walt Disney Feature Animation and held many creative positions culminating after his 18 collective years at the studio as Art Director and Production Designer. Join us with Annie Award winner Mike Giaimo while he talks with Tee Bosustow from ToonIn to the World of Animation about being an artist first in this new collaborative podcast series “From the Drawing Board Level”.

Mike Giaimo and Joe Ranft 1983 G Wing at Walt Disney Feature Animation
(Photo Care of George Scribner)

Click below listen to this great interview.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Inside UPA is a fantastic time-tripping device! The book’s rare candid and posed photos of the creators of those classic films, at work and at leisure, gave me a feeling of being at the UPA studio in its heyday.” ~John Canemaker

Click here if you are interested in purchasing “Inside UPA” and for more on this and many other artists from the world of animation please visit Toon In to the World of Animation .

ToonIn to the World of Animation
“At the Drawing Board Level”

Rubén Procopio has been in the animation industry for over 25 yrs., with scholarships to both Cal Arts and Art Center College of Design. He later trained under Eric Larson, one of Disneys legendary nine old men. A chip off the old block he also was trained by his dad Adolfo Procopio, a 35 yr. veteran sculptor at Walt Disney Imagineering. Rubén was instrumental in bringing back the maquette process to feature animated films in the early ’80’s. Having a wide variety of skills from 2d to the 3d world and as an Artistic Supervisor as well as head of departments he has now opened up his own studio appropriately called for his admiration of the masked heros of yesteryear, Masked Avenger Studios, where father and son have joined forces with a combination of over 50 yrs. of experience to make their talents available to the motion picture, animation, toy and collectables community.

Join us with this second generation Walt Disney Animation artist Ruben Procopio while he talks with Tee Bosustow from ToonIn to the World of Animation about his experiences and insights in this new collaborative podcast series “At the Drawing Board Level”.

Click below listen to this great interview.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

For more on this and many other artists from animation please visit Toon In to the World of Animation.