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Cheyenne Curtis

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Cheyenne Curtis and im currently working for Disney Television Animation.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
In Montreal i once worked at this really shady linen store that had no bathrooms. Since i worked alone all day, i used to have to call friends to come over and watch the store for me while i ran to the bathroom! The good part of that story is working alone all day meant some nice sketching time when the store was empty.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve had so much fun doing character designs, rotations and special posing for the Disney TV pilot i’m working on. Daron Nefcy and Dave Wasson are so amazing to work with!

How did you become interested in animation?
Originally i had no idea that animation could be a career! I was in Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal and i remember feeling like i didn’t quite belong, even though everyone was interested in art. Luckily one of my friends suggested Sheridan Institute in Oakville, and i applied and got in! I had never done animation before, and i was in a class surrounded by these incredibly talented artists who had already made short films before! I really felt Continue reading

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The New BEN 10 to Debut This Fall on Cartoon Network

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Cartoon Network’s newest take on BEN 10, the animated phenomenon that had kids all over the world wanting to transform into their favorite alien, begins its global premiere this fall with Europe, the Middle East and AFRICA (EMEA), and the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), and will continue into 2017 with NORTH AMERICA and Latin America (LATAM). A new generation of fans can expect all the high-energy action and fantasy, along with the heart and humor that made it an international sensation when it originally premiered in 2006.

Building on the highly successful franchise about kid hero Ben Tennyson, Ben 10 will introduce a re-imagined Ben, his cousin Gwen, and Grandpa Max, as they travel the country during summer vacation. When Ben finds the Omnitrix, a mysterious watch that transforms him into 10 different friendly aliens, a world of extraterrestrial superpowers opens up to him. The series is produced by Cartoon Network Studios and created and executive produced by Man of Action Entertainment (Big Hero 6, Generator Rex), with John Fang (Mixels, Generator Rex) on board as supervising producer.

The popularity of the show launched three additional animated series (Ben 10 Alien Force, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben 10: Omniverse); two animated movies (Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix, Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens); and two live-action movies (Ben 10: Race Against Time, Ben 10: Alien Swarm).

A proven success for Cartoon Network, Ben 10 is an established sales sensation led by top-selling toys, interactive and home entertainment franchises generating more than $4.5 billion in global retail sales to date. Playmates Toys serves as the worldwide master toy partner for the new Ben 10 with a full line of toys based on the series and will include a range of figures, playsets, and role-play items set to launch at retail globally next fall.

About Cartoon Network: Cartoon Network is Turner’s #1 U.S. ad-supported cable network with kids 6-11. Seen in 192 countries and over 370 million homes, it is an industry leader with a global offering of the best in award-winning animated entertainment for kids and families, known for putting its fans at the center of everything by applying creative thinking and innovation across multiple platforms. Home to the original hit series Adventure Time, Steven Universe, WE BARE BEARS and The Amazing World of Gumball, Cartoon Network also takes its responsibilities to its audience seriously by addressing issues affecting families with the Stop Bullying: Speak Upcampaign and bypromoting education and creative development through its commitment to STEAM enterprises and an integral involvement in Computer Science for All, the White House initiative empowering young people to generate skills to thrive in our digital world.

Cartoon Network is part of Turner, a Time Warner company that creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult multi-platform content for consumers around the world. Turner brands and businesses include CNN/U.S., HLN, CNNInternational and CNN.com, TBS, TNT, TCM, truTV, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim, Turner Sports, Bleacher Report, iStreamPlanet and ELEAGUE.

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Animated Spider-Man Movie Has Secured a Director

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Collider is reporting that Sony picks first-time director Bob Persichetti to helm the untitled animated Spidey movie which is due for 2018 release. Wait, what? I wasn’t even aware this existed! I imagine it’s 3d but still pretty cool if it’s a decent story.

Details on this new Spider-Man film are under wraps, but recently rumors have swirled that it may be the first movie to focus on someone other than Peter Parker in the title role—namely Miles Morales, the first non-white Spider-Man. This would not only allow this film to further distance itself from the Marvel/Sony live-action reboot, but offer a unique story opportunity in presenting a Spider-Man whose origin audiences haven’t already had ingrained into their heads. It’s a win-win!

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Tony Craig

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What is your name?
Tony Craig
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“The animation project I’m most proud of is the DVD video Bobs Gannaway, Jess Winfield and I did to wrap up the Lilo and Stitch tv series.  I know that it is relatively unknown, and I won’t get into the reasons for why I think the release of it was handled inappropriately, but the name of it is “”Leroy and Stitch””.  The reason I am proudest of it has to do with how it all turned out.  Usually, as a director, you have in your head what you think it should look like, and then when your show comes back from being animated overseas, it is not even close.  Then you get used to what you do have, and start molding it into the final show.  This project was the closest to what I had in my head.  I know that it is not feature quality, but when you consider the time and the budget we were given to do it (1/4 the time the Disneytoons folks got for Stitch has a glitch, and probably 1/8 or less of what they spent), well, I’m proud of what we pulled off.
The storyline is good too.  Bobs and Jess did a great job with the script and the transitions of emotion from scene to scene, action sequence to quiet sequence, musical parts, score…all of it came together.
House of Mouse was another fun one, because we were able to utilize any character from the history of Disney animation.  We were pulling the most obscure characters from old Silly Symphony cartoons and sticking them in the show, just for fun.
A personal project that I enjoyed doing was photographing old country and general stores across the state of North Carolina and compiling them into a book, “”Country Stores in North Carolina”.
How did you become interested in animation?
“I remember an evening at my grandparents’ house with my parents. I was still in a high chair, and I know this memory wasn’t based on photos or anything like that.  We went to see Disney’s “Pinocchio” that evening.  I fell asleep through most of it, but what I saw must have made an impression, or clicked in at that developmental stage of my infant mind. There was a copy of Christopher Finch’s book, “The Art of Walt Disney” in the reference section of our library.  Every family trip to the library, I would be at the end of that row, poring over the artwork.  I worked in the yard, saved my nickels, dimes, and quarters, until I had the $35 to buy my very own copy of that book, and I copied the pictures out of it regularly.
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Sketchbook Pro custom brush sets

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If you’re a fan of Sketchbook Pro like I am you know it’s an amazing program. I would argue it’s the easiest program to use digitally out of the box bar none. No other program is intelligently designed enough to allow a 5-year-old to use it yet create broadcast or print quality work as well. You can draw, paint, and even animate with it and it is available on most platforms including OSX, Windows XP through Windows 10, and even your favorite Android tablet or iOs device as well! In short it’s an extremely versatile program all for $185! Not bad! They even have subscription for $4.99 a month which allows you to get the latest builds as they upgrade the software.

 

In short, pretty damn amazing if you ask me!

PLUS, it has a small footprint, which means it will work on old tablet PCs like the Motion Computing LE 1700 which you can get for a song these days on eBay and other places. Of course you can also use it with a Surface Pro or iPad Pro as well.

The latest version Sketchbook 8 has redesigned it’s brushes so you can really get some interesting details you can mix colors and blend them as well. Oil paint, watercolors, ink and chalk are some of the default choices but there are many others to choose from as well. Lately Sketchbook.com has been posting free custom brushes for download, and this week a buddy of mine was feature on the blog. Keith Cowan creates some truly amazing pieces of work and you owe it to yourself to check his work out.

Below is Keith‘s custom art brushes as well as other Sketchbook Brush download sets to get you started!

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If you’re NOT familiar with Sketchbook Pro yet, below is a list of some of the things it can do right out of the box…

Distort transform

SketchBook Pro distort transform tool adjusting orientation of dragon sketch

Advanced perspective guides

SketchBook Pro advanced perspective guides being used to draw skyscrapers

Synthetic and blending brush types

SketchBook Pro synthentic and blending brushes blending several ink colors

Enhanced selection

SketchBook Pro enhanced selection tool being used to select pant color on sketch of Women

Dynamic gradient fill

SketchBook Pro dynamic gradient being applied to sketch of drill

Flipbook animation

Several frames of baseball player swinging using SketchBook Pro Flipbook animation

Custom canvas size up to 64 MPX

SketchBook Pro canvas UI that can be as large as 64MPX

Copic Color Library

SketchBook Pro Copic Color Library UI

Create and customize your own brushes

SketchBook Pro Customizable brush UI displaying all customization options

Brush Library

SketchBook Pro Brush library UI with wide variety of pre-made brushes to choose from

Advanced layer functionality

SketchBook Pro Layer group UI showing layers being organized by group

Blending modes

SketchBook Pro Blending mode UI showing all blend modes available

Now go out there and make some amazing content!

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LeSean Thomas

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My Name is LeSean Thomas. I’m a TV animation producer/director currently back and forth between Hollywood and Seoul, South Korea.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I think working in-house as production staff for South Korean animation studio, JM Animation in Seoul for a year & and half. I was the only foreigner there. Many American artists/animators have gone to South Korea to work and oversee projects, but they’ve always been represented by giant, corporate funded network studios who funded their trips and stays, but my situation was the reverse. I sought out, hounded Korean presidents and quit my job at Warner Bros Animation to be the first, independent hire by a Korean Studio to be plucked from the states specifically & move to Korea to work there as permanent staff at the time. It was a wild ride and it took me forever to learn, navigate and figure things out. Thank you, JM Animation, haha.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I would say Adult Swim’s ” The Boondocks” (Co-Director/Supervising Character Designer) & NIckelodeon’s “The Legend of Korra” (Storyboard artist/Animation production) . For one, The Boondocks, because it was the first, black-created prime-time animated tv show to blend our hip hop culture and love of anime aesthetic with a political satire approach. Absolute genius. And it won a Peabody Award! Makes me very proud. Secondly, The Legend of Korra, because it was the first project i worked on living in Seoul South Korea. Working alongside the korean animators for long, we were like family. I was their little brother. It was a great experience & what we helped make in 2010/2011 was nothing short of magical and groundbreaking> And aside from Continue reading