The director, story artist, writer, and animator shares his journey, which took him from Cleveland to LA in pursuit of an animation career and how he rose in the ranks working on a variety of shows.
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 242 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 242: Keith Pakiz on How to Become a TV Show Director
This episode features director, story artist, writer, and animator Keith Pakiz, who moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles in pursuit of an animation career. Since arriving in LA, he’s worked on a variety of shows, including Costume Quest, Tiny Toons Looniversity, ThunderCats Roar, and Aquaman: King of Atlantis. In this chat, Pakiz shares how he moved up the ranks to animation director and gives tips for others seeking to follow a similar path.
Tune in to Ibele and Pakiz to hear:
- Why you shouldn’t apply to online animation jobs (and what to do instead).
- How career stability changes once you become a director.
- The pros and cons of developing a personal animation style.
Ibele has begun to publish the interviews as videos as well – you can find previous interviews here!
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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, 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.
