Growing up on a dairy farm in Denmark, Brian Leif Hansen
assumed he’d spend his life living near where he grew up,
perhaps a farmer himself, but the universe had other ideas for
him.

While a love for puppets and animation was always with him,
that didn’t seem like a viable option for a career so he did
the next best thing and trained to be a chef. While he didn’t
realize it then, that early training prepared him for the life
of an animator: building stamina, and cultivating an eye for
precision and detail.

Leaving behind a successful career in the kitchen, at 24
Brian took a leap and enrolled in a program at the
world-renowned Animation Workshop and the rest, as they say,
is history.

In our conversation, Brian shares memories of growing up on a
farm and takes us through his whirlwind, if short-lived,
career in the culinary arts. He then shares his animation path
and how he applied lessons learned throughout his career to
tackle his biggest challenge: Guillermo del Toro’s
Pinocchio.

Episode Links

• Website


• IMDb


• LinkedIn

Host: Marina Antunes

Opening & Closing Credits by: Michael Edlund

Produced & Edited by: Joshua Peterman

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MEGABYTE: Animal Logic · Capilano University · Netflix.

KILOBYTE: Atomic Cartoons · Bardel Entertainment · Doberman Pictures · DNEG · Image Engine · Industrial Light & Magic · The Little Dev Shop · Mainframe Studios · Sony Pictures Imageworks · WildBrain Studios.

BYTE: Animasia BC · CMPA BC · Digi BC · NOX VFX · Rotomaker · Scanline VFX · Vancouver Film School · Versatile Media · Walt Disney Animation Studios · Wētā FX.

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ORGANIZERS: Spark CG Society · Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH.