Sedelmaier Studios: Keeping Fresh the Old Spirit
I’m not good at doing stuff just out of my head. I can work off of something somebody said or wants, or something that somebody is having trouble solidifying and making into something. And that’s why finding those people that you have a rapport with is very important.
Working with JJ, I see that strive for perfection daily. His notes on layouts and designs are very pointed and clear. He will give you complete freedom to design a figure, but his notes might be to slim down the waist, or to bend a grotesque smile inwards instead of outwards. It begins very laissez-faire, and ends with him knowing exactly how to turn your raw drawing into something special.
JF:
So what job prepared you most for what you’re doing now?
JJS:
I worked at the Ink Tank from 1984 until 1990. Had I not worked there, I don’t know that things would have gelled like they wonderfully did. When I got there, they wanted to hire me as an in-betweener, and I told Bob [Blechman] no, I want to be an assistant. An assistant does much more input. So I assisted for a couple weeks, and then they had some Children’s Television Workshop stuff that I was able to animate. And then there were some revisions on a commercial that Tissa David had done that I made to modify when she wasn’t available.
After a while I found myself doing most of the talking to the clients, and the studio decided I was going to be the producer, since I was talking about the work, and I was making people feel comfortable.
JF: How does one make clients feel comfortable?