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Podcast EP 188: How Chris Bailey Worked His Way Up to Animation Director at Disney

The animator-turned-director discusses behind-the-scenes of his most recent project, “The Great Wolf Pack: A Call to Adventure,’ and shares a key tip to mastering hand-drawn animation.

Check out Terry Ibele’s Animation Industry Podcast, featuring a new podcast every week focusing on the stories of today’s animation professionals - how they got to where they are and what they learned along the way. Now home to 188 episodes, the podcasts cover all areas of the industry, including storyboarding, writing, animating, directing, visual development, and game design.

Guests have included Aaron Augenblick, the notorious JJ Villard, Spike & Mike’s Spike Decker, Disney Director John Musker, Sony Lead Animator Humberto Rosa, Cuphead’s Tina Nowracki, Frederator’s Fred Seibert, Tumble Leaf’s Scarlet Nelson, and many others from major animation studios all over the world.

Episode 188: How Chris Bailey Worked His Way Up in Disney to Become an Animation Director

This episode features legendary animator Chris Bailey, whose credits include The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, and The Lion King. Most recently, Bailey directed The Great Wolf Pack: A Call to Adventure, Great Wolf Lodge’s first animated feature film. In this chat, Bailey shares a look behind-the-scenes of his latest film, how he went from animating to directing, and finally, he gives a tip on mastering hand-drawn animation.

Tune in to Ibele and Walsh to hear:

  • Bailey’s number one tip to master hand-drawn animation
  • How to go from animator to director
  • Behind the scenes of The Great Wolf Pack

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Watch The Great Wolf Pack: A Call to Adventure trailer:

Ibele, himself a stop-motion animator (see AWN’s Fresh Takes piece on his whimsical short, The Silly Duck Wizard, deftly digs into all manner of topics, encouraging interviewees to share insights and opinions on a wide range of topics like pitching shows, marketing your work online, key skills studios look for when they bring on talent in storyboarding, vizdev, character design, and animation.

In 2018, Ibele, who lives in Toronto, decided to quit his career as a Marketer and pursue his love for animation. Since then, he’s become well known for his viral animation productions, which include the previously mentioned Silly Duck Wizard, which is how AWN first came to know him and his work.

Learn more about Ibele’s work and podcast by visiting terryibele.com. You can find all The Animation Podcast episodes on his Soundcloud site: https://soundcloud.com/animation-podcast

Debbie Diamond Sarto's picture

Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.