Tell us a little about yourself and your career.
I grew up reading lots of comics, and watching tons of anime and Disney movies. That inspired me to want to create art for a living, and so I attended ArtCenter College of Design. I graduated a long time ago and have since worked on video games, movies, VR, and animation. It’s been a strange career with lots of ups and downs. But, I’ve been lucky enough to have worked at Lucasfilm Animation and now WB Animation, where I work as a visual development artist.
What challenges have you faced in navigating a career in animation?
Honestly, just finding work has always been challenging. My work has never seemed to fit in with a lot of the projects that are going on. I’ve been told that my work has been too realistic for animation and too cartoony for games, so it’s been rough finding the right fit for me with just getting on to the right projects, where people give me a chance. Thankfully, I’m working with a great group of people right now, and everything is awesome.
Who are your inspirations in the field of animation?
I love everything that came out of the Into the Spider-Verse movie. So I look up to every artist that worked on that amazing project. I also really enjoyed Raya and the Last Dragon‘s design work. So cool! And a lot of the stuff that I enjoy looking at comes from anime, too. Artists like Shōji Kawamori, Katsuhiro Otomo, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Thomas Romain, and many others are super inspiring to me.
What do you hope to accomplish as an artist in the animation industry?
I just want to work on fun projects with nice people. Also robots. I want to work on stuff that has really cool robots in it. Superheroes too! Pretty much anything that the 10-year-old me would think is cool. 🙂
What does being in the Union mean to you?
Being a Union member is a huge deal to me. Coming from a background where I spent time working on games, where there are no unions, it has been a gift. And having a community to lean on and work with is amazing.
Discover more of Bantog’s work on his website and ArtStation.
Follow him on Instagram at @randybantog.
