Animation School in the Palm of Your Hand Part II

I blogged earlier about how animator Clay Kaytis had made this amazing podcast called, "The Animation Podcast". Great and inspiring interviews with animators such as Glen Keane, Ray Harryhausen, Andreas Deja, James Baxter and Eric Goldberg. There were 30 podcasts in all. The last podcast available on iTunes was about three years ago.

For those going through Animation Podcast withdraw, I am sure you have found other great podcasts online. Animation Mentor has its newsletter and offers webcasts through its site. There's Toon In! made by the UPA Legacy Project. And of course there is the SplineCast from the Spline Doctors.

What stood out the most was TAG Blog's TAG Interview by Steve Hulett. TAG Blog is designed in the interest of promoting members of The Animation Guild, I.A.T.S.E. Local 839. Here, you just won't hear interviews with the household names in animation like Andreas Deja, Burny Mattinson or Andy Gaskill, but very noteworthy people in animation who might not be at the tip of your tongue. On TAG Interview people seem to be a bit more "frank" about their experiences in animation. See the Walt Peregoy interview for further clarification.

What people offer to say on the TAG Interview isn't always as "carefully phrased" or "self-censored" as in some other interviews. Realities of production, working with difficult or unscrupulous people, breaking in, and yes, what to do in the face of unemployment. You'll find a little of all that in the TAG Interview. A nice compliment to the other sources of what you can learn about animation online.

Animation School in the Palm of Your Hand

So...what ever happened to the Animation Podcast??

What is The Animation Podcast you ask? That's a question I wouldn't be surprised to hear from a person who would be a layman to animation. If I mentioned Glen Keane, Andreas Deja or James Baxter and you didn't as so much flinch, you'd be forgiven. If I said "Nine Old Men" and your Jeopardy answer was, "FDR's Nine Supreme Court Justices", you'd be forgiven.

But if you were an animator who worked for a major American animation studio and asked me "What's the Animation Podcast?" I'd be shocked. Because that's the very same question I was asked when I had the opportunity to hang out with an animator who's credits to me were quite impressive. Are there actually animators in the industry who actually do not know what The Animation Podcast is??

The Animation Podcast is a free (key word is FREE, folks!) podcast available on iTunes run by animator Clay Kaytis. His credits include most recently animation supervisor of "Rhino" from Disney's "Bolt". ( An impressive piece of dynamic animation for a character whose design is essentially a palm sized beanbag....trapped inside a plastic ball no less.)

The Animation Podcast features interviews with some of the animation industry's most respected animators like the ones mentioned above. People who were literally responsible for breathing life (and yes, magic) into iconic film characters of Oscar nominated films as The Beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", Scar of "The Lion King" and The Genie from "Aladdin".

I believe in his first podcast Clay said, "So much of what I know about animation is from handouts, lecture notes and interviews of great animators of the past. It's always a rush for me to find some new clip or audio file that gives you an insight into who they were and what is was like when they were creating such amazing work."

The Animation Podcast is a priceless wealth of information, not just about animation (and quite frequently Disney history) but also filmmaking and production in general. Listen to a couple of podcasts and you'll learn a great deal not only about what about what goes into animating a character, but also what goes into developing a film concept from start to finish. Did I mention the podcast was free?

Clay published thirty (count 'em, 30!) free podcasts featuring interviews and audio recordings of animators such as the aforementioned above and film legends Ron Clements and John Musker, Milt Kahl, Burny Mattinson and Ray Harryhausen. About a year ago The Animation Podcast culminated to an interview with Eric Goldberg (animator of The Genie in "Aladdin")... and I was like this podcast is REALLY getting good. "What's next for the Animation Podcast?"

The answer to that was, "silence".

For almost a year there have been no podcasts, no teases not a single audible peep from The Animation Podcast. Which brings me back to my original question, "What happened to The Animation Podcast?"

The main website, http://www.animationpodcast.com/ is still up and functioning, and Clay did make a post to make a plug for Walt Stanchfeld's new "Drawn to Life" books. But no updates. I'd like to think well, if Clay isn't around making podcasts, hopefully he's animating.

I don't know what goes into publishing a podcast, but I am sure it's a LOT of work. Clay Kaytis is obviously very passionate about animation and loves the medium intensely. I can't think of any other reason why he would produce for free, such excellent work that many interested people would certainly pay money for. Work that without a doubt will be included in lists of reputable material pertaining to Disney history and animation history in general.

I am confident that Clay and The Animation Podcast will return at some point, most likely with a podcast that will do more than please but inform and inspire.

...by the way just to note how generous Clay Kaytis is, you can find him on Twitter under www.twitter.com/animpodcast. Doing what? Giving tips and advice on animation....yes, for free.

I can be found on Twitter now too. www.twitter.com/ki_innis.