Number four of our continuing series of TAG interviews.
TAG Interview with Robert Alvarez
*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.
Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link
When it comes to animation, Robert Alvarez has done almost everything. "I've boarded, I've directed, I've designed, I've done backgrounds and I've animated. Everything but loading film." ...
While a student at Choinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, Robert began his career with t.v. animation producer Fred Calvert. One of his first assignments? Working on a British project entitled Yellow Submarine, starring a rock group whose name has been lost in the mists of time. (Not.)
In the years that followed, Mr. Alvarez worked on various features and hundreds of television shows. As he tells it, he's spent most of his working life fulfilling his junior high school dream of "being an animator."
"How many people get to do what they dreamed about in the eighth grade? Not many." ....
We spoke with Robert on a recent morning at the Cartoon Network studios in beautiful Burbank.
You can find our previous interview with Ed Gombert here.
Posts
16 comments:
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who wished John Gibbs to drop dead!
Man, these are so great!
The Animation Podcast drops the ball with "oh no... it takes so long to do these podcasts... boo hoo..." and Steve picks up and does just a fantastic job, interviewing an excellent cross-section of our industry.
These are amazing, Steve-- and it sounds like you're having fun doing them. Can't wait to hear more!
Good stuff
They are fun to do.
Have a number more lined up, one more in the can (to coin a phrase.)
Hey! I think Steve's doing a great job but cut Clay a little slack. He does have that day job over at Disney, and I'm willing to bet he was probably a little busy making a movie.
What Floyd said. I ran into Clay at CTN, and he expressed frustration at not being able to get the podcasts up more frequently.
Thank you Steve and Robert for sharing with all of us. I had the great pleasure of working with Robert several years ago and he is truly a generous and talented man.
Part II up very, very soon.
Um, yeah. Clay edits his podcasts, as do I for SpeakingOfAnimation.com and it can take anywhere between 10-20 hours to edit about an hour of audio. That's a lot of time to spend on something you're giving away for free! So I can understand the break Clay is taking. Be happy he's done and released the ones that are there.
These sound great Steve, thanks for venturing into this avenue and adding them to the TAG blog!
Well, we do a little corner cutting here, because these things are recorded on a small digital recorder and put up. No editing (for the most part.)
Yeah, no worries. Editing is just a preference and obviously,as heard here, not a must. Just wanted to let people know what Clay was putting into it and probably why they came to a pause/stop.
Thanks again for doing these!
Robert is one of the special people in the world, not just in animation. Talented? Sure. But generous and patient too, with a fanboy's enthusiasm for his work. Thanks for all your great stuff guy.
And thank you Steve for all these wonderful oral histories.
Thanks, Fred. We plan to put up a lot more interviews in the coming months. And maybe some day I will learn how to pronounce your name.
Great interview!
A couple years ago Robert helped guide me through a pilot short I was working on for CN. He was incredibly patient and willing to help any way he could. I learned so much from him and hope I get a chance to work with him again in the future.
Interviews are offline :(
Thanks for the heads up Manny. Amazon switched things up on us. Links restored.
Post a Comment