A Day in the Life of a Pixar Animator: Q&A with Chris Chua

“How can I become a Pixar animator?” Those seven little words comprise one of the most commonly fielded questions at Pixar HQ. To be sure, they can be heard well beyond, mumbled from children’s lips in the theater to the hallways of college animation departments. While computer skills may be important, it’s the ability to bring life to a character that distinguishes a Pixar animator from others. And that’s no small task, as Pixar animator Chris Chua can tell you…

To read my interview with Chris Chua, visit this link on AnimationCareerReview.com.

Moonfruit’s Answer to Cross-Channel Commerce

Moonfruit is a proven leader in all things DIY for websites, helping hundreds of thousands of small businesses with limited time and resources get their websites up and running painlessly. Drawing from its extensive experience as the UK’s number one site builder, its latest ShopBuilder tool seamlessly integrates cross-channel commerce into their mix of social tools.

I spoke with co-founders (and husband-wife duo) Wendy Tan White and Joe White about what keeps Moonfruit so fresh after more than a decade, the lessons they’ve learned and how easy it is to use ShopBuilder. The article can be found at this SocialTechnologyReview link.

Youth Animation

Readers of my personal site may not realize that I take on daily writing jobs for a variety of publications, both print and online. Among those, AnimationCareerReview explores the craft of animation, studio expectations, the evolution of the industry and animation programs.

As a note to self, I’ll begin archiving the feature interviews that I conduct for ACR here under the appropriate heading ‘Animation’. To begin, here’s the latest contribution on a college-prep animation and video game development program from the brains behind DigiPen, a leading digital arts university.

Project Fun Article and Interview with Dir. of Marketing Emma Trifari, published Dec. 6, 2011

Democratizing Data: DataSift

Intent on democratizing data, DataSift crossed the Atlantic November 16 to much anticipated applause for its US launch. The platform offers real-time social media data filtering in a disruptive and digestible way thanks to its unique relationship with Twitter. DataSift, sprung from Nick Halstead’s genius (the same guy responsible for TweetMeme) was in fact founded four years ago in the UK and has been busy perfecting and growing its social data arsenal so that the rest of us don’t have to…

You’ll find Bonnie’s piece on DataSift, featuring insight from Founder Nick Halstead and CEO Rob Bailey, on SocialTechnologyReview.