In this episode we’ve got a double scoop of talented creators in Karen Disher and Sharon Bridgeman, who join me to chat through their careers. Karen and Sharon have recently joined the multi-talented crew that have been assembling at Spire Animation Studios. After glittering career journeys through major animation houses, Karen and Sharon were drawn to Spire’s creative culture.
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Prior to Spire Animation, Michal Makarewicz spent 19 years at Pixar where he worked on 14 feature films & 4 short films. Some of the films he’s animated on are, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Inside Out. Michal has been honored by ASIFA with 2 Annie Awards for “Best Animation in a Feature Production” on Soul & Ratatouille. It was a treat to speak with him about his time at Pixar, how he approaches animation, and his future.
This episode features Karen Disher, who was the first female Director and Story Artist at Blue Sky Studios where she worked on Robots, Ice Age: Dawn on the Dinosaurs, and Ferdinand. Currently she is the Creative Director in Development at Spire where she’s working on their new feature film. In this chat she’s going to share how she got her start, what she’s learned about story and where to find the confidence to build your own path.
After studying at CalArts, Shawn Krause jumped almost straight into Pixar, where he stayed for many years, working on 15 Pixar features including the first two Toy Story films, Finding Nemo and Dory, Incredibles and Incredibles 2 and all three Cars films. Now he’s made another leap, to Spire Animation Studios as Creative Director of Animation and Story, where I caught up with him to talk about his incredible career, his path to Spire and what they’re doing.
Michael’s career started out in 2D animation in classics like ‘Beauty and The Beast’, ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Lion King’, and then 3D animation with projects like ‘Tangled’ and ‘The Croods’ before switching to the Story department. Now at Spire, he’s tasked with helping shape Spire’s initial projects, which include ‘Trouble’ from Danny McBride. I’m sure you’ll enjoy walking through Michael’s career and then our discussion about Spire.
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