Animation Podcast

My focus for this show was to grab five artists at Disney who recently went through the Talent Development Program at Disney and talk about how they got there and what it’s like to work at the studio. My guests include Story Artist Jeremy Spears, Visual Development Artist Lorelay Bove, Rough Inbetweener/Jack of all Trades Joe Pitt, 2D Animator Sarah Airriess, and CG Animator (and Animation Mentor alumni) Kira Lehtomaki.

The interview concludes in Part Two where Eric Goldberg shares his extensive knowledge and appreciation for animating as he talks about many of the projects he has directed including Pocahontas, Rhapsody in Blue, and The Monkey’s Tale while the conversation continues to touch down on the details of the craft of animation. Eric is currently animating on the upcoming film The Princess and the Frog.

Eric Goldberg is one of the most admired animators working today. After years of developing his craft in the commercial business in London, he exploded on the feature animation scene with the Genie in Aladdin. After that, he co-directed Pocahontas and later directed two classic sequences from Fantasia 2000 - Rhapsody in Blue and Carnival of the Animals. Eric was also responsible for animating Phil in Hercules and he is currently animating on the upcoming film The Princess and the Frog.

Ken Duncan owns Duncan Studio in Pasadena, CA. Before that he animated Meg in Hercules, Jane in Tarzan, Capt. Amelia and Scroop in Treasure Planet, and he served as a sequence supervisor on Dreamworks’ Sharktale. In this final part of the interview, Ken shares more of his experiences on Hercules and Tarzan as well as futher insights in to his approaches to performance and how he approaches running his own animation studio.

The conversation with Ken Duncan continues. In this second part of the interview, Ken talks about some of the his earlier films at Disney. Then the conversation focuses on his personal approaches to acting and his general workflow for animating productively.