The 25-year-old data analyst shares how he picked up Blender as a hobby, created a unique animation style and subsequently saw his short animations go viral on social.
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 243 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 243: Lee Griffin On Picking Up Blender and Going Viral
This episode features 25-year-old data analyst Lee Griffin, who learned Blender as a hobby. Since then, he’s developed a unique style of animation, a modern twist on old Nintendo 64 graphics, that has gone viral on social media. In the last six months, his shorts have garnered over 60,000 followers on Instagram, 40,000 on TikTok, and millions of views between the two platforms. In this chat, Griffin shares how he developed his style, why it’s so attractive for social media, and where he plans to take it.
Tune in to Ibele and Griffin to hear:
- How Griffin self-produces everything
- What Griffin did to grow from zero to 60,000 Instagram followers in 12 weeks
- The secret motivation behind Griffin’s work
Ibele has begun to publish the interviews as videos as well – you can find previous interviews here!
Social Links:
- Check out Griffin’s website
- Follow Griffin on Instagram
- Follow Griffin on TikTok
- Subscribe to Griffin on YouTube
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.
