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Becky Wangberg

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Becky Wangberg. I am the Executive Assistant to Butch Hartman on TUFF Puppy and The Fairly Odd Parents.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to be an Office Manager for a small production company that mainly does commercials and music videos. Before I got hired I was their intern, and my first weeks there I had to clean the garage and clean the BBQ. I also did the weekly grocery shopping, and even acted as a personal chef and valet driver.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I co-wrote a short film that combines live action, CG & 2D animation, and it just got accepted into its 50th film festival! I’m also currently developing a drama pilot with some friends that I’m really excited about.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Sacramento, CA and I got my degree in Screenwriting at Chapman University. When I was in school, I interned at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and loved the culture there. Though I actually interned in Live Action Development and Current Series, we were stationed at the Animation Studio, and it became my goal to Continue reading

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“Masks’s Battle”- Anima Mundi 2015 -Official Selection

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In a small town in the Brazil countryside, there is a folklore festival that explores the battles between christians and arabians people. Masks’s Battle show us the origins of this folk in Europe and how this travelled to Brazil, changing the life of many people that live today in Pirenópolis city and join this festival.
Official Selection 2015:
FILE Anima + РBrazil, Ṣo Paulo
Anima Mundi 2015 РInternational Festival of Animation of Brazil РṢo Paulo, Rio de Janeiro
River Film Festival – Padova, Italy
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Jean Ann Wright

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Jean Ann Wright, Animation Pre-Production Consultant/Author (“Animation Writing and Development”, Voice-Over for Animation” along with MJ Lallo, 6 chapters in “Write Your Way Into Animation and Games” by Christy Marx).
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Professional Dancer, Telephone Information Operator, Game Show Production Assistant, and (during a break in animation jobs) Buyer of all the cars and trucks on “The Price Is Right” game show.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
 “The Flintstones”, “The Jetsons”, “Scooby Doo”, “The Smurfs”
How did you become interested in animation?
I had been interested in writing and illustrating children’s books, but animation provided a full time job and my various somewhat unrelated skills could be used.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Canton, Ohio, (USA) but I grew up in Burbank, California (home of the Disney Studios) and grew up with kids whose fathers’ worked for Disney.  I had just finished an art major after returning to college when Continue reading

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Kidscreen Awards shortlist release

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 kidscreenawards 2016

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR ALL CATEGORIES!

Winners to be revealed at a gala event on February 9 during Kidscreen Summit 2016 in Miami

Toronto, November 24, 2015: Kidscreen, host of the global kids television industry’s leading awards for excellence, is delighted to announce the shortlisted entries that will be continuing in the competition through a final round of judging.

The nominees in the Programming Categories are:

PRESCHOOL

Best New Series

Hey Duggee (Studio AKA)

PJ Masks (Frog Box, Entertainment One UK, France Television, Disney Junior, CNC, Rhôdes-Alpes Region, Procirep, Angoa)

Puffin Rock (Cartoon Saloon, Dog Ears, Penguin Children’s Books)

Best Animated Series

Clangers (Coolabi/Sprout/CBeebies/Factory)

Peg + Cat (The Fred Rogers Company, 9 Story Entertainment)

Puffin Rock (Cartoon Saloon, Dog Ears, Penguin Children’s Books)

Best Non-Animated or Mixed Series

Dino Dan: Trek’s Adventures (Sinking Ship Entertainment)

Hi Opie! (marblemedia in association with TVO and The Jim Henson Company)
Sesame Street (Sesame Workshop)

Best One-Off, Special or TV Movie

Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots (Entertainment One, Astley Baker Davies)

Ruby’s Studio: The Siblings Show (The Mother Company)

Sesame Street: The Cookie Thief (Sesame Workshop)

KIDS

Best New Series

The Adventures of Puss in Boots (DreamWorks Animation Television, Netflix)

All Hail King Julien (DreamWorks Animation Television, Netflix)

We Bare Bears (Cartoon Network Studios)

Best Animated Series

All Hail King Julien (DreamWorks Animation Television, Netflix)

The New Adventures of Figaro Pho (Chocolate Liberation Front, Luma Toons)

Steven Universe (Cartoon Network Studios)

Best Non-Animated or Mixed Series

Hank Zipzer (Kindle Entertainment, DHX Media, Walker Productions, Screen Yorkshire)

Horrible Histories (Lion Television)
Odd Squad (The Fred Rogers Company, Sinking Ship Entertainment)

Best One-Off, Special or TV Movie

Monster Beach (Bogan Entertainment Solutions)

Monster High: Freaky Fusion (Mattel Playground Productions)

Ten Pieces (Somethin’ Else, BBC Music)

TWEENS/TEENS

Best New Series

Dragons: Race to the Edge (DreamWorks Animation Television, Netflix)

Hetty Feather (CBBC In-House Productions)

Wild But True (Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, Beyond Screen Productions)

Best Animated Series

Dragons: Race to the Edge (DreamWorks Animation Television, Netflix)

Bob’s Burgers (Bento Box Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Television)

Best Non-Animated or Mixed Series

4 O’Clock Club Series 4 (CBBC In-House Productions)

Nowhere Boys Series 2 (Matchbox Pictures)
Trio: Cybergold (Nordicstories, Fabelaktiv)

Best One-Off, Special or TV Movie

Lost Treasure Hunt (Argosy Film Group)

Pirate’s Passage (Mahon Pictures)

These shortlisted entries will be reviewed and assessed by a fresh panel of judges, including the following execs: Andy Yeatman (Netflix), Emily Hart (Disney Junior), Tara Sorensen (Amazon Studios), Jamie Piekarz (Corus Kids), Jennifer Dodge (Nickelodeon), Alison Stewart (BBC Children’s), Andrew Thomas (Hulu) and Deirdre Brennan (ABC Australia).
The nominees in the Broadcasting Categories are:

Channel of the Year

Cartoon Network (US)

Gulli

PBS KIDS

Best Channel Design
Boomerang
PBS KIDS

Best Programming Block
Sunny Side Up (Sprout)

Gulli Good (Gulli)

Best Channel Website
Channel One News (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

PBS KIDS

Tiny Pop (CSC Media Group, part of Sony Pictures Television)
Best On-Air Host or Hosting Team
Louis-Philippe Deslauriers, Alexandra Janvier and Josée Leblanc (Groupe Média TFO)

Channel One News—Azia Celestino, Tom Hanson, Arielle Hixson Keith Kocinski, Demetrius Pipkin and Maggie Rulli (Houghton Miffin Harcourt)

 

Kidscreen‘s readers will now be invited to review these shortlisted entries, and vote for their favorite in each category. Their votes will determine the final winners

The nominees in the Digital Categories are:

PRESCHOOL

Best eBook
Disney Story Central (Disney Publishing Worldwide)

Little Emily (Ever After Tales)

My Little Pony: Twilight’s Kingdom Storybook Deluxe (PlayDate Digital)

Best Game App—Smartphone

Monkey See Monkey Dance (Smartoonz Entertainment)

Sesame Street Video Maker (Sesame Workshop, IDEO Toy Lab)

Best Game App—Tablet

My Very Hungry Caterpillar (StoryToys)

Peppa Pig: Golden Boots (Entertainment One and Kids Industries)

Sesame Street Art Maker (Sesame Workshop)

Best Learning App—Smartphone

Blaze and the Monster Machines (Nickelodeon Digital/CHEWY)

Sesame Street—Let’s Get Ready! (Sesame Workshop)

Sunny’s Hootenanny (Loudcrow Interactive/Twofold Films)

Best Learning App—Tablet

Elmo’s Animals: A Sesame Street S’More App (Sesame Workshop)

Mickey’s Magical Math World by Disney Imagicademy (Disney Publishing Worldwide)

Tiggly Tales (Tiggly)

Best Streaming Video Platform

Hopster (Hopster)

Nick Jr. (Nickelodeon Digital)

PlayKids (Movile)

Best Web/App Series 

The Adventures of Annie & Ben (HooplaKidz)

Fanny Foozle (Aether Entertainment, Cosmic Toast Studios)

Lalaloopsy Kitchen (MGA Entertainment)

Best Website 

ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy (Age of Learning)

Nickjr.com (Nickelodeon Digital)

Peep and the Big Wide World/El Mundo Divertido de Peep (WGBH Educational Foundation)

KIDS

Best Game App—Smartphone

Adventure Time: Magic Man’s Head Games (Cartoon Network Digital)

Crayola Color Alive! (DAQRI)

Mix+Smash: Marvel Super Hero Mashers (Disney Publishing Worldwide)

Best Game App—Tablet

Adventure Time Game Wizard (Cartoon Network Digital)

Toca Life: City (Toca Boca)

Weirdwood Manor (All Play, No Work)

Best Learning App—Smartphone

The Centsables Dash for Cash (DNA Creative)

Plum’s Creaturizer (WGBH)

Safari Tales (Kuato Studios)

Best Learning App—Tablet

The Foos Coding 5+ (codeSpark)

Weirdwood Manor (All Play, No Work)

Zoombinis (TERC and FableVision Studios)

Best Streaming Video Platform

Cartoon Network app (Cartoon Network Digital)

Nick.com (Nickelodeon Digital)

Toon Goggles (Toon Goggles)

Best Web/App Series

Life Hacks for Kids (DreamWorksTV)

Talking Tom and Friends: The Animated Series (Outfit7 Limited, arx anima Animation Studio)

Wonder Quest (Maker Studios)

Best Website

Design Squad (WGBH Educational Foundation)

The Next Step: Make a Scene (Secret Location/DHX Media/Temple Street Productions/Bell Fund)

Nick.com (Nickelodeon Digital)

These shortlisted entries will now be reviewed and assessed by panels of professional judges, including the following execs: Rachel Bardel (CBeebies Interactive), Sara Berliner (Night & Day Studios), Noemie Dupuy (Budge Studios), Matthew Evans (Nickelodeon), Robin Raskin (Living in Digital Times), Josephine Tsay (GlassLab Games), Amy Kraft (Monkey Bar Collective) and Anne Richards (Cracking Wise Interactive).     

All Kidscreen Awards winners will be announced and celebrated at a special presentation event and after-party during Kidscreen Summit, on the evening of Tuesday, February 9. Kidscreen Summit delegates are invited to attend as part of their event registration, and tickets for just the Kidscreen Awards evening can be purchased for US$150 by contacting Kidscreen Events Sales Manager Joel Pinto (416-408-2300 x650 or jpinto@brunico.com).

Additional details about the Kidscreen Awards, including categories, eligibility, judging and entry process, can be found at awards.kidscreen.com.

For further information, please contact:

Janet Balmforth at DDA Blueprint PR

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8868 0511  EMail: janet@ddablueprint.com

Notes to editors:

Kidscreen Summit 2016, which takes place from February 8 to 11 at the InterContinental Miami, offers an unparalleled opportunity to keep abreast of important issues and trends in the fast-moving international kids entertainment industry, generate business and revenue opportunities, and network with leading decision-makers.

Last year, Kidscreen Summit welcomed more than 1,700 attendees, representing 1,000+ companies from 54 countries around the world. And more than 450 buyers and investors were at the event looking for new content and partners. More information about Kidscreen Summit 2016 is available at summit.kidscreen.com.

 

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Ivan Pinzon

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Ivan Pinzon, Principal Engineer, SketchBook Dev Lead.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked for Imaginova Corp, developing an Astronomy App called “Starry Night”.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My current project, SketchBook for iOS and for desktop and Starry Night
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Bogota, Colombia and 14 years ago I moved to Canada. I got involved with the digital artist world when I joined Autodesk to work in SketchBook.

 

What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
It’s a combination of different things: code, debug, investigate and learn, plan and schedule future releases and a bit of customer support.
What part of your job do you like best? Why?
I really like to investigate and play with new concepts and ideas, try to find something that is going to be useful for our users.I also enjoy optimizing code. Faster is better.

What part of your job do you like least? Why?
Finding / reproducing bugs that caused our users to lose work. It’s frustrating to get these complains and more frustrating sometimes to not be able to reproduce these issues.

What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis, how has technology changed in the last few years in your field and how has that impacted you in your job?
My main development machine is a Mac and developing for iOS requires to have some iPads, iPhones and iPods. It’s incredible how technology has evolved. The latest iPhone/iPad are more powerful than the computer I had a few years ago. This has allowed us to push for unbelievable features for a mobile device. Something that a few years ago was just crazy to even imagine. The current trend were mobile is getting closer to desktop is very interesting. Seems that these 2 will eventually merge.

What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
Keeping up-to-date with all the technology changes and being able to take advantage of them in a short period of time. It’s both challenging but at the same time motivating.

If you could change the way the business works and is run how would you do it?
I would like to spend more time investigating to find new innovative tools. But, work has to be done so finding a good balance is never easy.
In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
I’ve had the chance to watch and listen to a few amazing guys, from sketching artists to animation professionals from studios like Pixar and Marvel. Different techniques and tools.  This has given me a chance to understand what artists need and with this I try to find a fun, simple and effective way to expose this in our software.

Describe a tough situation you had in life.
Leaving my family and my past in my home country and starting from scratch again in Canada while keeping my wife and kids afloat
Any side projects you’re working on that you’d like to share details of?
All I can say is that I’m working in some interesting technologies/features that I hope eventually are going to see the light of day.
Any unusual talents or hobbies like tying a cherry stem with your tongue or metallurgy?
I love airplanes. I have a private pilot license although I haven’t flown in a few years and I like to build and fly aerobatics model airplanes.  I’m lucky to have my son Nicolas as my partner and we compete in Canada and the US.  I also like to play the piano.

Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?Although I’m not an artist, I’ve had contact with many that have started from zero and have been persistent enough to develop a clear style and technique that differentiates them from the rest, finally becoming successful and recognized. Take advantage from the social networks: Deviant Art, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, …