Tell us a little about yourself and your career.
I grew up on the East Coast in Maryland and Massachusetts, and went to art school just next door in Rhode Island at RISD. I’ve always loved to draw, and going to art school, I learned to love painting. I ended up majoring in illustration.
Animation was something I loved my whole life, but moving out to California and living so close to Los Angeles, the possibility of working in it felt much more front and center, although I didn’t find work for quite a while. I ended up picking up some graphic novel work and later moved into casual video games in San Francisco. I was laid off during the 2008 housing/banking crisis and moved back down to L.A. I got work as a Concept Art Intern at a VFX/animation house called Brain Zoo Studios. They did a lot of different types of work but had made their mark in video game cinematics and trailers. I was able to wear a lot of hats there and eventually moved into a more permanent position. Since the projects were short term, I got to meet a constant influx of new people and hear about all the different companies they were coming from and projects they had worked on. It gave me a much more detailed picture of an industry and a city I just wasn’t that familiar with.
I freelanced for a bit in 2020 in video games and board games, but also for Bento Box Atlanta. That was my opening to TV animation. I did the tiniest bit of freelance for the Union in 2021 for DreamWorks, but I didn’t get my first real Union gig until 2022 on Rick and Morty. I’ve been fortunate to find myself character designing there for the last three seasons.
What challenges have you faced in navigating a career in animation?
It’s only been a couple years for me in the Union, but at every phase of my career, standing out in a sea of worthy candidates has been a challenge. Even when it seems like the decks are stacked in my favor, there’s still a lot of room to miss an opportunity. You never really know what skills to highlight, whether it’s better to be focused or more general, or even if you’re availability will line up.
I think the other great challenge is just the uncertainty that comes with seasonal and other contract work. Before 2020, my jobs were always full-time, but without the end dates like we experience on TV seasons or movie projects. Most of us will have an end date every year, which also means looking for work every year. Even when I’m lucky enough to have a gig that comes back, the time off can be variable. Since I’ve been in TV animation, every year has been different, and every year I have to plan a bit differently, which means a hiatus isn’t always time to recharge—it’s time to develop a new game plan.
Who are you inspirations in the field of animation?
Peter de Sève and Carter Goodrich—fantastic Illustrators and fantastic Character Designers. Early in my career, to see them working in both fields let me know that you could cross over and that the strengths of one industry could be valuable in another. They both bring a really great sense of humor to their work, as well. I’m also a big fan of Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville), and Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack and Primal). Their projects made me realize that you could tell slower or more minimal stories where stripping away dialogue allows you to just enjoy the beauty of movement that comes with great character animation.
Hiyao Miyazaki—Princess Mononoke came out in high school for me, and that was the first Studio Ghibli movie I’d ever seen. It wasn’t just the more realistic rendering of backgrounds and character proportions, or the throwaway animation of dust or twigs getting kicked up that sucked me in, but the way the cameras moved with the action felt so different and so intense. It was gripping in a way that a lot of 2D animation didn’t approach. There’s often a sense of weather too in his films—gentle breezes, heavy winds, humid forests that really pull you into the location and affect the characters’ behaviors.
What do you hope to accomplish as an artist in the animation industry?
I was really lucky in the beginning of my career to have a lot of senior artists mentor me and take the time to share their experiences and even to better help me understand why we did things the way we were doing them. As I’ve shifted into TV animation, I hope that I hit a level of knowledge and experience where I can pay it forward myself.
Speaking more to career accomplishments, I would love to design for stop-motion and CG. Each medium has its strengths, and I wonder how I’d adapt as a designer shifting from 2D to 3D.
What does being in the Union mean to you?
For anyone who has had a non-union part of your career, you know that when you’re not in the Union, you’re entirely on your own. You’re limited to your own skills, your own knowledge set, and your own connections. When you’re in the Union, you’ve got your teammates, former teammates, and a ton of people who could be and would be your teammates. There’s shared knowledge, shared concerns, shared benefits, and shared passion. It’s not just a community; it’s also a team that’s there to give us the best opportunity to thrive.
Learn more about Tony at his website.
Follow him on Instagram.
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