If you’ve been following the animation business for a long time, chances are you’ll have seen the work of Tim Hodge; a veteran animator and storyboard artist who has worked the lines behind-the-scenes of your favorite animated feature films, from the 1980s to today. Having contributed storyboards to fan-favorites like Mulan and Brother Bear, Tim now operates as a freelancer as well as a teacher of storyboarding and drawing. Tim’s latest contribution to the industry: an online course targeted at storyboarders on animated TV shows. The course focuses on Storyboard Pro and provides insights to le ..read more

Animator and story artist Mike Morris has had a career that’s been… well, storied. Having spent most of his youth in California, it was a quick move for him to Los Angeles. In the City of Angels, he has developed a thriving career and is best known for his work on television series like Fox’s The Simpsons, Disney XD’s Future-Worm! and Disney’s DuckTales reboot.  Though the studios and shows may change, one thing always remains: his use of Toon Boom Storyboard Pro for preproduction, animatics and storyboarding. As a lifelong artist, Morris was naturally drawn to the software’s drawing tool ..read more

The end. Innumerable creators throughout history have been inspired by death and loss, from painter Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sorrowing Old Man (At Eternity’s Gate)” to author Joan Didion’s heartbreaking —and warming— “The Year of Magical Thinking”, written after the consecutive passings of her daughter and husband. Miranda Javid’s 2D animated short Smoke’s Last Thought taps into this same energy: one that is less about emphasizing morbidity and more an empathetic exploration of mortality. Smoke’s Last Thought opens on an elderly Californian man, Gill, taking a bath and comes to focus on the happily ..read more

While many animation studios may find the thought of switching from Flash to Toon Boom Harmony daunting, Ludo Studio and 12field Animation’s latest children’s series The Strange Chores proves there’s nothing to be afraid of — and plenty to gain.  With Ludo Studio based in Brisbane and 12field Animation in Melbourne, in partnership with Media World Pictures, the Aussie studios are helping to drive an animation boom Down Under. The former is behind the massively popular cartoon Bluey, though it decided to aim at an older audience (8 to 12 years old) with The Strange Chores.  Premieri ..read more

Blizzard Entertainment took the gaming world by storm in the 1990s, plugging a cohort of first-time PC owners into worlds of orcs, demons and battles on faraway planets. Over two decades later, the California-based company remains on top. Its franchises Warcraft (and the associated MMORPG, World of Warcraft), StarCraft, Diablo and Overwatch are still globally popular, from everyday players to esports tournaments to the evolving realm of mobile gaming.  In the age of social media and Comic-Con trailers, one way Blizzard has kept excitement high is through cinematics that add weight to the ..read more

As the animation industry embraces worldwide collaborations, studios may transition from physical to digital spaces entirely — particularly given the effort and expense of moving artists to different cities or countries. Knights of the Light Table (KOTLT) is one such pioneering production company, with a team spread across North America, Europe and Asia. Based on their recent work on TWRP’s Starlight Brigade, they are proof the model can rival traditional animation studios. Knights of the Light Table was founded in August 2018 by Patrick Stannard, a supervising animator at Powerhouse Animatio ..read more

One of the benefits of the animation industry becoming increasingly global is the stories it tells are more and more diverse. The most prominent example is Pixar’s Coco; based on the Mexican Day of the Dead, it was the first nine-figure film with an all-Latino cast and won the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2017. Centred on Lucha Libre wrestling, Sol Naciente captures another element of Hispanic culture and throws a new form of visual storytelling into the ring: animated graphic novels. Raymundo Mendoza Landa is the visionary behind Sol Naciente, with the 50-page animated graphic novel being t ..read more

With Game of Thrones coming to an end this month, fantasy fans need something to fill the void in their television habits. If you count yourself among them, turn your gaze from Westeros to Western Canada where Vancouver-based studio Bardel Entertainment is animating  Netflix’s The Dragon Prince. While decidedly less violent than HBO’s bloodbath, the series conjures up darker subject matter than most would expect from a youth series alongside vivid hand-drawn effects brought to life (or, sometimes, death) in Toon Boom Harmony.  The Dragon Prince is set on a fantastical continent kno ..read more

Mark Simon is an Atlanta-based entrepreneur and president of Storyboards & Animatics, Inc. who is celebrating 30 years of storyboarding this month. His storied career (pardon the pun) has included being a story artist, producer and director for both live-action and animated projects, as well as authoring 10 popular industry texts and writing for major trade publications. Having worked on nearly 5,000 productions, from Woody Woodpecker to The Walking Dead, and won over 200 international awards, Simon has earned a reputation as a masterful visual storyteller. Over his three-decade career, he ..read more

With the $270 billion global animation industry booming, artists have never had more choice in terms of the work they can do. Thanks to improvements in software, many 2D animators are increasingly applying their creative talents to video games. Among them is Simon Paquette, CEO and creative director of Reptoid Games. Prior to co-founding Reptoid with business partner Ryan Miller, Paquette had over a decade of 2D animation experience in some of Canada’s most renowned studios working on series for Nickelodeon, Netflix, DisneyXD and more. So how did he go from directing shows like Wild Kratts and ..read more