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Justin Brandstater (interviewed November 2007) is one of the leading artists in the little known area of Matte Paining, although there is a bit of wrestling going on as to what the job title should be.  Is it basically CG backgrounds, or more?  After interviewing Brandstater I’m convinced it’s quite a bit more, in fact, he, and many of his fellow artists are leaning the new title, Environment Artists.  We interviewed Branstater, at the DreamWorks campus, in Glendale, where he had just finished working on the Bee Movie, with the credit of Lead Matte Painter.  I found the conversation fascinating, as it involved an area of animation I knew little, or nothing, about.  We talked quite a bit about the history of matt painting, and the variety of ways he works on a project, and particularly Bee Movie.  He hasn’t been at DreamWorks long.  He was a matte painter on Over the Hedge and Flushed Away, before taking the helm as lead matte painter on Bee Movie.

His first experience in animation was at Disney animation, where they all went by the more traditional title of background artists.  He worked on Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan, and the Emperor’s New Groove.  However, for me, one of the fascinations with Brandstater’s work is that he also has a substantial live action background, and has brought much of what he learned there into the animation field.  He says he prefers animation because in live action a matte painter is supposed to not be notice, their work is supposed to look so real that the viewer thinks that the picture must have been shot in Egypt, or China, or some lost little island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean.  But, in animation the background/matte painting/environment is stylize, like the characters they support, so he finds it much more interesting.  A matte painting of inside the hive, from Bee Movie is to the right, and some of his other works will soon be in the Gallery and Flip Board.

If you’d like to see some of his live action work, he created matte paintings for The Time Machine, The Borne Identity, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Notebook, and Casanova, among others.  But, for now you can listen to Justin Brandstater, by clicking the Listen Here link above.

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This episode sponsored by The UPA Project

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Steve Hickner (interviewed November 2007) reminds me how, after more than a hundred animation interviews under my belt, his story is so similar, and yet so different, than everyone else in the great animation family out there.  Hickner grew up loving to draw at an early age, then discovered animation and began focussing on animation as an eventual career, then with both determination and good luck, he meet some great animation mentors, who gladly give of their time and expertise, and finally he’s now living his childhood dream, actually making a living at what he loves most.  It’s the same ol’ story, right? … and yet … he’s has experienced his own remarkable little twists and turns, in fact, usually not so little, really, humongous twists and turns.

We interviewed Steve Hickner at his DreamWorks production office, shortly after the release of Bee Movie, which he co-directed, with Simon J. Smith.  The interview is basically one half pre-Bee, with the second half inside the hive, as it were.  Hickman has worn almost every hat on the animation hat rack, from in-betweener and hand-drawn animator, to story artist and producer, to directing DreamWorks first feature, The Prince of Egypt”.  Before joining DreamWorks, he worked, in roughly five year intervals, at Filmation, Hanna-Barbera, Disney, and Amblimation.  He was a Production Coordinator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Working in CG animation now, with a background strongly routed in traditional animation, Hickner is able to give us some thoughtful insights into the advantages and disadvantages between 2D & 3D techniques, and finds both to have their dos and don’ts.  He also expresses how much he enjoyed his collaboration with Jerry Seinfeld, saying “Jerry is the king of observational comedy.  Comedy is really good at taking the foibles and idiosyncrasies of people and presenting them in such a fresh way that it makes us laugh.  We hope this gives you and idea of what’s in store, in ou interview with Steve Hickner, and you find it as enjoyable as we did.

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This episode sponsored by The UPA Project