The NY actor turned teacher discusses how DreamWorks’ 1996 request shifted his life path and kicked off his 30+ year career training animators.
Check out Terry Ibele’s Animation Industry Podcast, featuring a new podcast every week focusing on the stories of today’s animation professionals - how they got to where they are and what they learned along the way. Now home to 231 episodes, the podcasts cover all areas of the industry, including storyboarding, writing, animating, directing, visual development, and game design. Guests have included returning guest Aaron Augenblick; the notorious JJ Villard; Spike & Mike’s Spike Decker; Disney Director John Musker; Sony Lead Animator Humberto Rosa; Frederator’s Fred Seibert; Tumble Leaf’s Scarlet Nelson; and many others from major animation studios all over the world.
Podcast EP 231: Ed Hooks with Master Tips on ‘Acting for Animators’
This episode features New York actor Ed Hooks, who for nearly three decades has been teaching Acting for Animators to the biggest studios in the industry. In this chat, Hooks talks about his 1996 switch from acting to teaching acting for animation when DreamWorks asked him to develop a unique approach to training their animators for their first feature film - Antz. Since then, Hooks has trained animators in over 35 countries and created the essential acting guidebook called “Acting for Animators.”
Tune in to Ibele and Hooks to hear:
- Seven master tips to improve your character performance.
- Why you need to be stingy with your acting emotions.
- The simple guidelines that all acting theory boils down to.
Ibele has begun to publish the interviews as videos as well – you can find previous interviews here!
Check out Hooks’ website.
Ibele, himself a stop-motion animator (see AWN’s Fresh Takes piece on his whimsical short, The Silly Duck Wizard), deftly digs into all manner of topics, encouraging interviewees to share insights and opinions on a wide range of topics like pitching shows, marketing your work online, and key skills studios look for when they bring on talent in storyboarding, vizdev, character design, and animation.
In 2018, Ibele, who lives in Toronto, decided to quit his career as a marketer and pursue his love for animation. Since then, he’s become well known for his viral animation productions, which include the previously mentioned Silly Duck Wizard, which is how AWN first came to know him and his work.
Learn more about Ibele’s work and podcast by visiting terryibele.com. You can find all The Animation Podcast episodes on his Soundcloud site: https://soundcloud.com/animation-podcast.
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
