Tag Archives: Nickelodeon

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Aminder Dhaliwal

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
 My name’s Aminder Dhaliwal and I’m a storyboard revisionist at Nickelodeon .
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I wish I could say I did something crazy like ‘My first job was digging graves’ or something, but I’d be lying. I’m lucky enough to have skipped working retail, while everyone around me was working at the mall in highschool I got into painting and designing murals, I’ve never even had the chance to checkout half the murals I designed, I had the chance to hand paint two of my creations. I hope they’re still around 🙂 or at the very least i hope the graffiti over them is funny!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My first job at Nickelodeon was on Robot and Monster – which was awesome, the crew was amazing and so supportive! Working on Fairly Odd Parents has been surreal, considering I used to watch it back when it first premiered! I’m also really proud to have interned in Beijing as an undergraduate on some commercials for the AniWow festival – that was an amazing experience.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 
I was born and raised in England, at 12 years old my family packed up and moved to Canada where I finished highschool and went to Sheridan College. After graduating from Sheridan I was lucky enough to Continue reading
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Three New Nick shorts up!

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Broats

Broats: A cute short about three anthropomorphic goats who live in a petting zoo created by Jack Cusumano who we interviewed last year. Loved the color palette in this short.

louis and georges

Louis and George: A short about a frog and alligator’s first day of school. LOVED the bgs in this one!

Matt and Gus

Matt and Gus: A short about two kids who want donuts in an grownup’s office. Especially enjoyed the character design.

All three shorts were cute, well designed and staged and they all told stories that made sense which is NOT an easy thing to do in 3 minutes. I particularly enjoyed the backgrounds in Louis and George which stood out for me. Still, I am left feeling that if the creators had been given a full 7 minutes to explore their world every one of these shorts could have been even better.

I wish Networks would realize that trying to cram an idea into three minutes is short-sighted. Give the damn idea time to breathe; especially if you intend to build a brand and make billions on that idea.What’s that old saying? “You have to spend money to make money.” Good advice and saving money shouldn’t be done during the development phase. I mean after all, you can make a show out of Popsicle sticks if the writing is good and the characters are solid, but it takes TIME to make us love them.

In the beginning, Disney and Warner Bros. didn’t make 2 minute shorts to try and quickly make a hit and Hanna Barbera many years later would still not change that model with their shows either.  Granted the seven minutes actually came from the fact that it was the maximum amount of film that could fit on a film spool that set that standard but that seven minutes was actually a good amount of time to sit and watch a story and it became the staple length in cartoons, which still survives to this day more or less.

Most of Cartoon Network’s successes came out of 7 minute shorts which allowed you to explore the world and learn why these characters were awesome. Dexter’s Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, The Regular Show, Adventure Time (granted that one was at Nick initially) and many many many MANY other hits ALL came from that business model. Even Nick had the Oh Yeah shorts program from which Fairly Odd Parents, Chalk Zone, and I believe even Sponge Bob came. Two of these Nick is STILL making new cartoons from. What does that tell you?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you can’t make a good cartoon in three minutes, I’m just saying you can make a BETTER cartoon in 7.

Let’s give creators time to breathe life into cartoons shall we? I think we’ll all benefit from it!

 

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James Nethery

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is James Nethery and I’m a freelance Flash/Toon Boom Harmony animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well, the craziest was probably working at the Magic Kingdom park in Orlando as a “Custodial Host” (aka a janitor in Disney Park-speak) for a few years. I could probably start a series of blog posts on all the crazy stuff that went down on that job… from “how the heck did it get on the ceiling??!” restroom cleaning stories, to rude/angry park guests, to employees getting fired for coming in drunk/high, to insane employee policies that parks put in place. That was a fun job (and the free park admission was a major perk) but it could certainly be tough sometimes.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Three words: Cyanide and Happiness. That show is a lot of fun to work on and it’s great working with the guys over at Lowbrow Studios and Explosm who are a really talented bunch. I love seeing how much I can get out of such simple designs. So far, I’ve worked on about 11 shorts, two of which haven’t been posted online yet. Some of I’m animated fully, so I’ve just helped out a bit on doing animation revisions and such.  I’m also working on another project right now that’s really cool that I can’t really talk about… all I can say is that its being animated in Toon Boom Harmony and that’s its based on another very popular web comic.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Orlando, Florida. I got into the freelance animation business basically by working my butt off on my demo reel and applying to every job I could. It was tough starting out, but Continue reading

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Axel Ortiz

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Hello my name is Axel Ortiz…I am a Development Artist based in Los Angeles. I mainly do conceptual work not only in animation..also in video games, theme park and live action. I also work on my own projects as well.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
 Well, I wouldn’t say my past jobs were crazy….more like working with mentally nutty people. Worked Sears in the kids dept…dealt with crazy customers. I worked at a Pioneer Chicken for two weeks so I can make enough money to buy a comic book back issue. Before heading out to school to the Art Center….I worked at the airport down in the ramp…where I would get passengers’ luggages into the plane. In all of these places I worked with colorful characters…I would always be drawing in my sketchbooks during my breaks….or on the clock. 😛

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
There’s a few projects that I liked working on…like Big Guy and Rusty show from Sony Animation was very cool to work on…I’m a fan of the Geoff Darrow and Frank Miler book that the show is based on. I also liked working on developing characters for pitches for clients as well…getting the chance to create something new is always fun…I’ve done stuff for Nickelodeon, Bento Box, Midway, Activision, Animax and others. Lately I’m excited to be developing characters for two animated show ideas for two clients of mine. One will be pitched to Disney…let see how that goes?

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from the greater Los Angeles area of the South Bay….not far from the beach. I got into the animation just by chance…Sometime after I graduated from the Art Center College of Design…I was doing freelance jobs and working on my own project at the time…I got a call one afternoon from Continue reading

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Elana Pritchard

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Elana Pritchard, cartoonist/animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was an assistant in a hair salon, hostess in a restaurant, a cashier in a newsstand, I sorted mail, I was a nanny, an assistant preschool teacher, and an usher for the Big Apple Circus.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I worked as one of the animators on Ralph Bakshi’s upcoming film, Last Days of Coney Island. It was an amazing project to work on because all of the animation is hand drawn with a pencil, which is such a rare opportunity for a person my age right now. Plus, Continue reading

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Dave Thomas

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Dave Thomas, and I am a Producer and Director on Nickelodeon’s TUFF Puppy and The Fairly Oddparents.


What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I always had fun jobs. I worked in a comic book store, and a baseball card shop. But my best non animation job was as a waiter at Farrell’s Old Timey Ice Cream Parlor. We’d bang drums, sound sirens and run sundaes around the place. I was even there when a car smashed through the front of the building and into the candy shop. Some mother left her kid in the car with the engine running while she ran inside. The kid put the car in gear and WHAM! The crazy part is this happened all the time – twice while I worked there. And again after I left!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
There was a web cartoon Tod Polson and I collaborated on in the early days of the internet called “Mantelope.”Art: Tod Polson. We were working on a TV series for Wildbrain, who were also making internet cartoons for CartoonNetwork.Com. They more or less demanded we pitch something as a condition of continued employment. Since we were overwhelmed with the series, we intentionally pitched the stupidest thing we could think of, hoping they’d hate it and we wouldn’t have to do it. (“Half Man, Half Antelope – MANTELOPE!”)But Cartoon Network did like it, and Wildbrain gave us three weeks to ram the whole thing out! We had to move quick, but I have really fond memories of making it. And in the end we made something we’re all pretty proud of.I’m also really proud of El Tigre, (a show I was Supervising Producer/Director on.)We had an amazing collection of super talented artists and writers who all worked really hard to try to make something good. I’ve never seen so many talented people so happy to be working so hard.That’s all due to the creators, Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, who were absolutely the best. They created not only a great show, but a creative environment that inspired everyone to do their best work. And it paid off:In 2007 the crew of El Tigre brought home 4 Emmy awards – the most of any Nickelodeon show ever.

How did you become interested in animation?
It began with watching Warner Bros. cartoons on Saturday morning with my older sister. I idolized her, and loved anything she did. Since she loved cartoons, I loved cartoons. It was that simple.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from San Diego, and grew up surrounded by animation and comic books. The Spike and Mike Festival is based there, and then there’s Comic Con, which was enormous even then. I also lived near an animation gallery and got to meet Chuck Jones and a number of the Nine Old Men. All of that made me feel like this was a very real and attainable thing to do. My lucky break came when Continue reading