Joe Murray

Infobox actor
name = Joseph Murray

---

birthdate = birth date and age|1961|5|3
birthplace = San Jose
occupation = Animator, Producer, Writer, Director
website = http://www.joemurraystudio.com/
imdb_id = 0615061
emmyawards = awd |award=Emmy|year=2007|title=Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More)|role=Producer|name=Camp Lazlo|award=Emmy|year2=2008|title2=Outstanding Special Class - Short-format Animated Programs|role2=Producer|name2=Camp Lazlo

:"For the British amateur boxer see Joe Murray"

Joe Murray (born May 3, 1961 in San Jose, California " [http://www.joemurraystudio.com/bio/bio.shtml Bio] ," "Joe Murray Studio"] ) is an animator, best known as the creator of "Rocko's Modern Life" and "Camp Lazlo".

Career

Early career

Raised in San Jose , Joe Murray said that he developed an interest in working as an artist as a career when he was three years old. According to Murray, his kindergarten teacher told his mother that he was the only student who drew zippers on trousers and breasts on women. Murray credits his high school art teacher Mark Briggs for teaching him "so much about my art." " [http://www.title14.com/rocko/contributors/murray.html Lisa (Kiczuk) Trainor interviews Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life] ," "The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ"] Since 16 he served as a full-time artist.

When he served as a political cartoonist for a newspaper in San Jose, he targeted Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States. On his website, in a 2007 entry he said that he admired Carter's post-presidential work. [" [http://www.joemurraystudio.com/journal/12-journal_11.08.07.shtml November 8, 2007] ," "Joe Murray Studio"]

As a young adult, he was hired as a designer at an agency. Murray invested his earnings from the company into independent animated films. At age 20, Murray founded his independent illustration company, Joe Murray Studios, in 1981 while still in university. His early attempts at animation date back to 1986 when he joined California Institute of the Arts. Murray created several short animated films, his most successful was made in 1987, which was a two minute animated short titled "The Chore," which focused on a harried husband who uses his cat as a novel solution while not wanting to do a chore for his wife. He drew the scenes on typing paper and shot the scenes with 16 mm film. For creating "The Chore" Murray earned the Student Academy Award two years later in 1989. cite web|url=http://www.joemurraystudio.com/indie/indie.shtml|title=Independent Filmwork|work=Joe Murray Studio|accessdate=2007-12-10] [cite web|url=http://www.turnerinfo.com/presskititem.aspx?P=CARTOON&CID01=33f6d3ea-59c4-42bc-8ecf-03f0f61b675e&CID02=a97e4cd3-7a0b-4b0c-b126-1a03a9c9ca06|title=Cartoon Network Pressroom, Joe Murray|accessdate=2007-12-10]

In 1988 he joined MTV as an animator for the MTV commercials, and left in 1991 in hopes of starting his own projects. One of the MTV eyecatches Murray created involved the future "Rocko's Modern Life" character Heffer Wolfe; the eyecatch featured the MTV logo branded onto Heffer's buttocks.

"My Dog Zero"

"My Dog Zero," released in 1992, was Murray's third independent film and first color film. Murray said that "My Dog Zero" was his "most gratifying" artistic project to date because of his own "stubbornness" in resolving the obstacles and issues involved in the production, such as lack of funding and lack of resources. With a grant he employed twelve people, mostly university students, to cel paint the film. According to Murray, when he finished the film, several distributors refused to air it. He appeared at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco with a copy of the film and persuaded the staff to air the film with the scheduled films. According to Murray, "My Dog Zero" received "good response."

To fund the film Murray initially tried to pre-sell the television show rights to "My Dog Zero" but instead created a separate television series called "Rocko's Modern Life".

"Rocko's Modern Life"

* "Main article: Rocko's Modern Life"Murray created and was the executive producer for the animated series "Rocko's Modern Life", which aired on Nickelodeon from 1993 to 1996.

Originally, the character Rocko appeared in an unpublished comic book titled "Travis". Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, but was never successful of getting it in production. Murray wanted funding for "My Dog Zero," so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. Murray presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon Studios, which afterwards became interested in buying and airing the show. After deciding that "My Dog Zero" would not work as a television series, Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on "My Dog Zero" when Linda Simensky informed Murray that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for "My Dog Zero."

The pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness" was completed and shown to Nickelodeon executives before any other episodes were produced.

In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 of "Rocko's Modern Life", Murray's first wife committed suicide. [" [http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=135 June 16, 2008] ." "Joe Murray Studio".] Murray felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles." Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." To his surprise Nickelodeon approved new seasons. After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4 and created "SpongeBob Squarepants" shortly after that; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. Murray said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. Murray said that he encouraged the network to continue production. Nickelodeon decided to cancel the series. Murray described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch" and that, in his view, the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume."

Post-"Rocko's Modern Life"

After completing 52 episodes of "Rocko's Modern Life", Murray took a break from the animation business and produced two children's books and illustrated two children's books" [http://joemurraystudio.com/art/books.shtml Children's Books] ," "Joe Murray Studio"] : "Who Asked the Moon to Dinner?" (1999)" [http://smallfellow.com/SM_Bk_Moon.htm Who Asked the Moon to Dinner?] ," "Smallfellow Press"] " [http://joemurraystudio.com/art/art.shtml Paintings Gallery One] ," "Joe Murray"] , "The Enormous Mister Schmupsle: An ABC Adventure" (2003)" [http://smallfellow.com/SM_bk_Schmupsle.htm The Enormous Mr. Schmupsle!] ," "Smallfellow Press"] , "Hugville" (written by Court Crandall) (2005)" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375824189 Hugville] ," "Amazon.com"] , and "Funny Cryptograms" (written by Shawn Kennedy).

Murray was working on a web-based cartoon named "The Family Pop", which was produced in Flash and was in the middle of negotiations for this cartoon just prior to the onset of "Camp Lazlo".cite book|last=Murray|first=Joe|title=Crafting A Cartoon|publisher=Garden Box Media Group|date=2008|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?page_id=346] On September 30, 2008, Murray added a new feature to his website, The Tin Box, where Murray posts some of his independent work. The first work posted was Where’s Poppa, a short episode of "The Family Pop".cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=466|title=Joe Murray's Journal September 30, 2008|publisher=Joe Murray Studios|accessdate=2008-10-01]

"Camp Lazlo"

* "Main article: Camp Lazlo"Murray decided to return to television cartooning, this time selling his work to Cartoon Network Studios. In 2005 , he produced a pilot for the cartoon "Camp Lazlo", which was picked-up for a 13 episode first season and ran for five seasons, with production ending in November 2007. [cite web|url=http://www.turnerinfo.com/presskititem.aspx?P=CARTOON&CID01=a97e4cd3-7a0b-4b0c-b126-1a03a9c9ca06&CID02=a97e4cd3-7a0b-4b0c-b126-1a03a9c9ca06|title=Cartoon Network pressroom, Camp Lazlo|accessdate=2007-12-10] [cite web|url=http://www.joemurraystudio.com/journal/15-journal_12.04.07.shtml|title=Joe Murray Studio's Journal entry regarding post-production of Camp Lazlo|accessdate=2007-12-10] On September 8, 2007, the TV movie "Where's Lazlo?" won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For an hour or more). Emmy winner for 2007 - http://www.emmys.tv/awards/2007pt/nominations.php?action=search_db]

Post-"Camp Lazlo"

Once production finished for "Camp Lazlo", and the final episodes were delivered, Murray developed a new television series. [cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=138|title=Joe Murray Studio's Journal for June 23, 2008|accessdate=2008-06-24] While he is working out details about production and distribution, he has started work on his next independent film project, "Fish head", and publishing "Crafting A Cartoon", a book on creating and producing an animated TV series, cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?page_id=346|title=Joe Murray's Journal: Crafting A Cartoon|publisher=Joe Murray Studios|accessdate=2008-09-13] and working on producing a new short series.

Character creation process

On his personal website, Murray describes his character creation process [" [http://joemurraystudio.com/tv/museum.shtml Character Museum] ," "Joe Murray Studio"] as "sometimes like playing Frankenstein."
* He starts with the personality. He shapes the conditions that make the character "tick," the character's imperfections, and the appeal. He asks himself, "Why would I want to tell stories about them?"
* If he is working with an anthropomorphic series or book with varying animals, he chooses an animal that, in his eyes, match the created personality. According to Murray, this resulted in a social caricature in "Rocko's Modern Life". " [http://turnerinfo.turner.com/presskititem.aspx?P=CARTOON&CID01=98376fcf-3e6c-44a0-aae0-9e41e16079ef&CID02=a97e4cd3-7a0b-4b0c-b126-1a03a9c9ca06 Q & A with Joe Murray] ," "Cartoon Network Pressroom"]
* If he is working with an anthropomorphic series or book using one animal, he alters the specific character design to match the personality.
* Murray likes to use vary eyeballs by size and color. He also varies nostrils. Murray believes that inconsistencies "make it more interesting"
* Murray then selects colors that, in his view, "feels right." He believes that yellow and bright colors "match a mood." If a character is "negative," he will pick a color that, in his opinion, matches the character.
* If he has to teach a crew of artists how to draw the character, he creates a model sheet for the character.

Murray says that one of the interesting aspects of character creation is the evolution of the personalities over time. In a one-time movie, the characters will have a static personality, but for a television series, the characters will change from season to season, developing new relationships, and even changing from mere background characters into a main character. [cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=113|title=Joe Murray's Journal, May 27, 2008]

Television series

* "Rocko's Modern Life" (In production from 1993 to 1996 [" [http://www.joemurraystudio.com/tv/rocko.shtml Rocko's Modern Life] ," "Joe Murray Studio"] )
* "Camp Lazlo" (In production from 2004 to 2007 [" [http://www.joemurraystudio.com/tv/camp_lazlo.shtml Camp Lazlo] ," "Joe Murray Studio"] )

Books

Written and illustrated

* "Who Asked the Moon to Dinner?" (December 31, 1999) [" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0967606187 Who Asked the Moon to Dinner? (Hardcover)] ," "Amazon.com"] (Published in English and Korean)
* "The Enormous Mr. Schmupsle!" (August 2003) [" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1931290539 The Enormous Mister Schmupsle: An ABC Adventure (Hardcover)] ," "Amazon.com"]
* "Crafting A Cartoon"cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=275|title=Joe Murray's Journal August 30, 2008|work=Joe Murray Studios|accessdate=2008-09-04] September 12, 2008. [cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=285|title=Joe Murray's Journal September 3, 2008|publisher=Joe Murray Studios|accessdate=2008-09-04]

Illustrated

* "Funny Cryptograms" (May 28, 2003) [" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/140270139X Funny Cryptograms] ," "Amazon.com"]
* "Hugville" (December 27, 2005)

Independent films

* "The Chore"
* '"My Dog Zero" (1992) (Murray's third independent film)
* "The Affair" (2002) [cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=110|title=Joe Murray's Journal entry for May 22, 2008]
* "Fishing"
* "Fish Head" (in production) cite web|url=http://joemurraystudio.com/indie/new_projects.shtml|title=New Projects|work=Joe Murray Studio|accessdate=2008-05-28]

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0615061|name=Joe Murray
* [http://www.joemurraystudio.com/ Joe Murray Studio website]