Nancy Cartwright.

Jeff Snow has been in animation since 1991 and has held various jobs with different studios, including layout artist, storyboard, design work, overseas supervision and head of story on several feature films. After an initial stint as key animator for the noted Batman series on Fox in the early 1990s, Jeff continued to work on television series for studios like Film Roman, Warner Bros. and Marvel. He broke into feature animation in the mid-1990s working for the Walt Disney Studios as a storyboard artist on features such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Hercules and Tarzan. He left Disney in 1998 for DreamWorks, receiving an Annie award nomination for his work on The Road to El Dorado. His most recent DreamWorks projects include story credits on Shrek 2 and Shark Tale. Currently Jeff is running a training program at DreamWorks.

Nancy Cartwright: What was it that inspired you as a kid? What individuals? What cartoons? Did you always see yourself as an animator?

Jeff Snow: I loved comic books as a kid. I used to draw them all the time -- obsessed with super heroes. Even my bed sheets were Super Friends. I would draw abdomens. I loved this artist, Neil Adams -- he did Batman and was one of the most influential people in the comic book industry. I would try to draw exactly like certain people. I also loved the Disney cartoons, like Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty -- because of the dragon. I loved The Jungle Book. I also really loved the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Johnny Quest. Alex Toth did a lot of those designs and I think he is one of the preeminent animation artists [of all time]. I always wanted to work as a cartoonist. I decided at a very young age that that was what I wanted to do.

NC: When did you know that you wanted to be an animator?

JS: I’ve drawn my whole life and by the time I was eight or nine, I had read The Hobbit and knew that I wanted to do animation.

NC: How did you land your first job?

JS: I always drew, but I studied music in college and worked as a musician. After college I worked professionally as a musician in the Disnneyland bands and I met an animator. He showed me around the Disney Studios in Burbank and told me about the local cartoonist union, where I took some basic classes. It was a short “intro to the industry” course and after I finished that I got a list of all the animation studios. I put together a portfolio and beat the streets.

The first place I went was Disney and they said, “Come back in three months.” I was supporting myself by doing caricatures and cruise ship gigs as a musician. I was pretty much starving in L.A. and about to pack it in when I landed my first gig as a layout artist on Batman: The Animated Series. I was making no money, was starving, thin as a rail, and had $100 to my name, but I was working for Warner Bros.!