Inside Animation

We've had students on the podcast before, and we've had plenty of producers. But a student learning how to be a producer? This is a first for our last episode of 2025! I chat with David Seibert, who is studying production and directing in New York. We talk about his internships (and what he's doing in them), what he's learned so far on what producers do, and what projects he's...

I chat with Entertainment Attorney and Director of The Autism Scene, host of the AuSPEC Awards, Britton Payne. We talk about his history working as "Superman's Lawyer" at DC Comics (including an amazing perk) as well as Warner Brothers and Nickelodeon and how different studios have different approaches to animation lawyers. Plus he talks about how he started The Autism Scene and the...

In an Inside Animation first, Professor Walter Santucci returns as Director Walter Santucci. He talks about how he has been working on a feature animated film since we last spoke, the process of incorporating traditional animation with puppets and how he found the voice actors for his film as well as the editing process. Our host Adam points out the mistake he made in Not conveying well enough tha...

I talk to film critic and author Nick Spake about what a film critic does and how he got into the business of critiquing films through his time at Arizona State University (Go Sun Devils). We also talk about his book, Bright and Shiny; A history of animation at award shows (Volumes 1 and 2 available now on Barnesandnoble.com !) and a bit about how the Best Animated Film category was added to the O...

Our host chats with Bryan Engram, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Brazen Animation. They talk about a variety of things, from how a for-hire animation company markets itself to how a CEO leads a team of creatives as well as how Bryan went from being an intern to hiring interns. In our "Back in Time" segment, Bryan talks about how there weren't many classes for animation when he was...

Our host chats with Tad Branham, Production Designer and Head of Design for Steamroller Animation, about his work as a production designer and all about their new show, Spice Frontier. They talk about how being a production designer is a lot like being the conductor of an orchestra, in charge not of a single element, but the entire look of a show or film. We bring you back in time to Tad's chi...

We're back! To commemorate Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I talk with Bobby Rubio, who has had an impressive career. Starting with an internship at Disney, he has worked on Pocahontas, Treasure Planet, Avatar the Last Airbender, and many more animated films and series, including being responsible for the first animated Filipino lead character, in the Pixar short, Float. We talk about it al...

I chat with Writer Producer Pietro Schito about the community he has built around his Write for Animation YouTube channel. We start off by talking about the results of this year's Oscars and how it is good news for Indie filmmakers, especially animators. We talk at length about story telling and what makes a good story. Plus, we go back in time and talk about how Disney comics were big among t...

For the premiere of season 5, we have another indie creator, this time the creator of an Emo Goth love story set in the alien zombie apocalypse, and all done with hand animated dolls. The film is Apocalypse Love and the creator and puppeteer is Vera Vanguard, a professional hand model and writer/producer who decided to combine her talents and make a play motion film. We get into the nitty gritty o...

In this final episode of Season 4, I chat with Writer Director Phil Svitek, creator of The Arbiters, an animated feature he is developing. We talk about the pitching process, what a Pitch Deck is, the difference between a teaser and a trailer, and all the things he does as a director of his first animated feature, We go back in time to the time of Saturday morning cartoons and how Phil was reared...

I chat with Patric Verrone, who is a Writer/Producer on Futurama and has worked on Disenchantment, The Simpsons, Rugrats, and one of my favorite animated shows of the 90s, The Critic. We talk about how a Producer credit on an animated show is usually just a title for established writers of a show and less of a job description. We talk about how, like Conan Obrien, he got into animation writing thr...

I chat with the Chief Strategy Officer for Superplastic, Zack Sugarman. We talk about how Superplastic is building a "Demented Disney" empire, starting with vinyl art toys (much like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and creating animated content on Instagram and TikTok with their IP. Plus, we get into how Zack's love of collectibles and penchant for numbers makes him perfect for his role. And, as...

I chat with Leo Glantschnig, whose YouTube channel, Crash Frontier, has over 600k Subscribers and several videos with over 1 Million views. We talk about how he uses a sandbox-style, physics-based car crash simulator to create cinematic disaster shorts. In my "back-in-time" segment, we discuss how a trip to Universal Studios in 2003 inspired his love of directing and how the disaster mov...

I chat with a peer in the animation industry, Casandra Groves. Previously, I've talked with other voice actors, but never with one at my level, trying to get voice acting work of significance in the industry. We talk about the trials and tribulations of attempting to "make it" as a voice actor, which sites to avoid, which classes to take, what equipment to buy, and much more. In my &...

I interview Producer Michael Hirsh, who led several animation companies including Nelvana, which was responsible for developing Babar, The Magic School Bus, The Berenstain Bears, Beetlejuice, and many more animated series. We talk about how his company got hired to create the animated short (as part of the Star Wars Holiday Special) that was the defacto introduction of the character of Boba Fett....

I talk with Post Production Supervisor Chris Keith about how his job was to be the last person to see an animated episode before it went out to the audience, ensuring the proper mix of dialogue, sound effects, and music. He talks about his work on Goof Troop, Bonkers, Biker Mice from Mars, Darkwing Duck, and the 2nd season of Family Guy (including some great stories about working with Seth MacFarl...

I meet the podcast's youngest guest ever, Josh Young. At just 13 years old, he is already set up to become an incredible cinematographer and stop-motion animator. While his current productions are short and with a very low fps (frames per second), his attention to detail and camera angles already betrays a bright future ahead. We talk about how his younger brother's obsession with The Nigh...

I chat with Doug Engalla, a Researcher at the Walt Disney Animation Research Library (ARL) about his work preserving the art of Disney Animation. We talk about how Disney has accumulated approximately 65 million artworks in the 100 years of the Walt Disney Company and how Walt himself started the archive to create a repository to learn from past works and be able to reference older works at any ti...

I chat with Taylor Aseere, Layout Lead at Dreamworks Pictures about what is layout, how it's different from storyboards and how pre-vis is the counterpart in live-action films to layout in animation. Plus we talk bout Taylor's own company Shattered Glass Films, which mainly does "pre-vis", or pre-visualization. In my "back-in-time" segment, we talk about Taylor's jo...

This is Inside Animation's first interview with an Oscar Nominee. Adam interviews Pablo Berger, director and writer of Robot Dreams, Nominated this year for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. They talk about the process of taking an animated feature to an Oscar nomination, or at least the steps he took. Also, as this is Pablo's first foray into animation, the differences between live-action...

We start off the 4th season on a positive note with the self described biggest pessimist in the world of animation, Mike Smolev. We talk about how he got into creating an animated show because he wanted good sound design and his harrowing journey so far, including 3 different attempts at a pilot and why he is doing stand up as a way to be able to pitch the show. Plus we find out the one animated s...

In the Season Finale for Season 3, I chat with composer and songwriter Kevin Smithers, who has worked for many projects from HBO to Disney Channel, even video games, and most recently worked on Frankelda's Book of Spooks on MAX. We briefly talk about the differences between narrative composing for animation and composing video game music before diving into Frankelda's Book of Spooks and ho...

In another Inside Animation first, I talk with Howard Benjamin, Interviewer for the ABC Radio network and The Interview Factory LLC. We dive indepth into how interviews happen and why it's best for the interviewer to bring their own equipment (we actually used Howard's equipment to record this episode!). In my "back in time" segment, Howard talks about how his wife founded a comp...

I talk with fan of the show and Stop Motion producer Harrison Killian, who is currently working on a 5 minute preview of a stop motion feature film called Rider on the Storm, in which the stop motion is augmented by CGI. We get into the nitty gritty of everything that goes into making a stop motion animated film and how he's doing it pretty much all himself. I my "back in time" segme...

Adam talks with Composer Mark Evitts about his process for composing an animated series, how he went from "On the Road" to "Frog and Toad", and just how much of a Simpsons fan he really is. Plus, great advice for musicians that want to get into composing. You can watch Frog and Toad on Apple TV+ or follow Mark at @markevitts on social media.