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Rising Stars
Matthew Bordenave Director, Diabolical episode “Nubian vs Nubian,” Prime Video Age: My first Game Boy had no backlight and 4 AA batteries years old Birthplace: Los Angeles, City of Champions School: Bourassa School of Design I first knew I wanted to work in animation when: I knew when I was watching a featurette on Batman: The Animated Series and they started talking about storyboarding and I thought, “Oh, that’s a job?!” I knew I just wanted to draw all day, but I just didn’t know how I could do that as a career until I saw the Batman animatic. First job in animation: Ink and paint artist for Young Justice season two. Fave TV shows growing up: I love Dragon Ball Z, I would watch that on KCAL 9 at 6 a.m., then on Telemundo, then Toonami. Huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans and Cowboy Bebop. What I love about my job: Working with the team of artists and production crew on making something that people hopefully enjoy. Waking up and getting to draw all day is a hard thing to complain about. When
you’re on a good team with great artists and a great production staff, who don’t get as many shoutouts as they should, it makes the job really fun and enjoyable. Biggest challenge: Taking an idea and bringing it to life isn’t easy, so how do you execute the needs and wants of the director, the writer, the producers, the showrunners and add the flavor you want into it on a schedule that isn’t long enough. Schedules make the job challenging and it would be great if they were extended. Animation idols: Can I say me, because who else is going to say me? From Phil Bourassa to Tim Divar to Jeremy Polgar to Yoshihiko Umakoshi to Yutaka Nakamura to Toshihiro Kawamoto to Naohiro Shintani. Most of my friends and colleagues are a great source of inspiration for me so if I ever commented on your art or sent you a fire emoji, I’m definitely inspired by what you do and who you are as a person. Best career advice: Figure out what exactly you want to do in animation then learn everything you can about that job’s position. Once you have done the learning part, just practice what you need to do for that position. Show people what you can do and make sure that work is easily accessible, so post on any platform where you know you can get some eyes on it. Future plans: Wake up and make plans, after I hit the snooze button. I plan on continuing to team up with great people and make stories that will entertain people for years to come. I also plan on getting a show made, so if anyone is looking for a new hot show, I got ideas ready. Maybe open up a school in my neighborhood and teach art with those great people and have figure drawing classes with a DJ spinning nothing but ’90s R&B music!
Ruolin Li Director, Abominable and the Invisible City, DreamWorks Animation Television Age: 36 Birthplace: Urumqi, Xinjiang, China School: Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. I knew I wanted to work in animation when: Three terms into art school when I found out people actually do indeed make a living in the animation/entertainment industry in general. After graduating from school, It took me a couple of years of doing concept art for video games to find my true calling, which is to do story for animation. First animation job: Storyboard revision for the Nickelodeon’s 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. What I love about my job: Being able to collaborate from all disciplines of the production, getting direct feedback from the writers, showrunners and executives, and helping the whole team bring their vision and voices to life … The process of making the sausage, that’s what I love. Most challenging part: Finding the balance between satisfying the team’s ambition of wanting to tell the richest story with the coolest visual, and the budget and limitation of the production, such as asset counts, effect counts, etc. Animation idols: Glen Keane, Sergio Pablos, Robert Valley, Genndy Tartakovsky, Eric Goldberg. But truthfully, everyone who contributes to creating these fantastic worlds, so lived in and so vivid, taking the most beautiful, unique part of the world and not only recreate it, but transform it and elevate it into art form, is my hero.
Favorite animated shows & movies growing up: I grew up in China in the ‘90s, so I didn’t watch too many American cartoons, except Tom and Jerry. My favorite American movies were The Lion King, Iron Giant and The Prince of Egypt. There were more Japanese anime back then in China, and my favorites are Doraemon, Castle in the Sky and Cowboy Bebop. Best career advice: Always think a couple of layers outside the scope of your job, so you have a better understanding of how your work contributes to or affects the overall production. Being a director, it’s even more crucial to look ahead of the production pipeline so you know what to pay attention to in your animatics. I attribute this advice to several mentors in my career: Aliki Theofilopoulos, Jim Schumann, Jim Mortensen, just to name a few. So many friends, coworkers, directors, teammates and bosses over the years have dropped all kinds of wisdom, and I drink them all up like a giant Slurpee.
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april 22
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