Tag Archives: Story Artist

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Josh Zinman

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
Josh Zinman, Freelance Story Artist
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
 I used to smuggle ferrets from Arizona into California and sell them on the black market for a hefty mark-up.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
Robot and Monster at Nickelodeon was the most awesome production I have ever worked on. Amazing people, brilliant show, and lots of cake!
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 

I grew up on a cattle ranch in Paso Robles, CA. I really liked to draw so I figured I would Continue reading

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Ashlyn Anstee

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Ashlyn Anstee, and I’m a story artist at JibJab Media in Venice, California!

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
A few memorable summers, I worked at the Lost Kids center at an amusement park in Vancouver, BC. Basically, we would be on the lookout for kids that parents had lost (usually involving a lot of crying parents), or taking care of kids who wanted to find their parents. The latter were the tough ones, because usually they’d be with us for a while, because the parents wouldn’t want to come find them. Once, we had a kid with us for four hours, and he bit someone. We finally found his parents, but then an hour later, his identical twin brother walked into our center. We flipped out.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve done a lot of work for JibJab’s new StoryBots project- lots of fun videos, and most particularly, a line of books for the iPad. I’ve had the chance to illustrate and write a few books, and it’s been amazing. I’ve grown in leaps and bounds- there are so many strong artists here. It’s fun to be a part of a new project too. It’s like a big blue sky and we can create what’s in it.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Vancouver, BC, Canada, and of course, went to school at Sheridan College just outside of Toronto. I’ve actually always just loved stories. I read a lot as a kid, and wanted to Continue reading

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Jack Cusumano

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jack Cusumano. I’m currently working at Titmouse painting backgrounds for a show called Randy Cunningham, 9th Grade Ninja.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Probably the weirdest job I’ve had was working in the immunizations department of my university’s health center. I had to answer angry phone calls from incoming students who didn’t have proof of their MMR immunizations. At the same time I was also doing graphic design for the campus health center, which occasionally involved designing posters about sexually transmitted diseases.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Randy’s my favorite show to have worked on, and I’m really excited for people to see it once it’s released. Beyond that, I love working on RAD RAZ, my weekly webcomic for Dumm Comics. I’ve been reading the site and following the other Dumm artists since 2008, so by the time I was asked to come on board in 2010 I was honored to join the team. Tiny Jackie Talk Show, a short I created recently, was another highlight to me. It allowed me to work with some of my favorite voice actors and animation artists: Thurop Van Orman, Penn Ward, Jackie Buscarino, Eric Bauza and Justin Roiland. It was also a treat working with Abed Gheith. People might not be as familiar with him, but I’m a fan of his countless contributions to Channel 101 over the years, and don’t think Tiny Jackie would have worked without his hilarious performance.


How did you become interested in animation? 
I’ve always loved animation, but I spent some of my younger childhood in Italy, where we only got a handful of Continue reading

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Warren Leonhardt

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Warren Leonhardt, story artist at Blue Sky Studios

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Worked as a logger, prep cook at a truck stop, janitor at a hospital and a shoe repairman for a day. I thought about going into amateur kickboxing in 1993 or 94 after being invited by my coach to train in Thailand, but I’m too darn lazy when it comes right down to it.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
It’s not so much the gig as the folks I’ve been lucky enough to work with. I’ve been on great crews such as the one we had at Red Rover studios up in Toronto in the early ’00s. We had a blast making Puma, Mexican Gerber commercials, and concert videos for R. Kelly when he was just on the cusp of going completely bonkers. I had to draw his recently deceased mother as an angel who talked to him, which was awkward, to say the least. As far as movies or recognizable credits go, I’d have to say those guys at Sony who made ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ were really awesome for the short time I was on that movie. Still pals with a few of em. But there were fun crews in Ottawa, Copenhagen, LA, or Toronto that I’d like to gather together in a room again anytime, regardless of the job.  Of course I have high hopes for the movie that I’m working on right now. The crew at Blue Sky has some really bright and eccentric people here, which is always awesome to be around. Makes for good comedy bits.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
Same as anyone else, I guess. Television reruns of classic Looney Tunes and Disney shorts, mostly. There was one Disney special every Sunday evening when I was a kid. I was also a “Saturday Morning” kid, but I really liked waking up really early weekday mornings and watching original Tom & Jerry cartoons, Looney Tunes on Saturday morning and these Disney specials on Sundays. On one of those behind the scenes things, Walt Disney revealed that real live people made these cartoons with pencils and paper! I decided to try to become one of those guys even if it meant I had to figure it out myself. I’d have made a crappy chemical analyst anyway. My dad’s job was not for me. I got my hands on Preston Blair’s book and copied stuff from that and comic books.  And there was this other thing, too Continue reading
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Sam Ellis

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Sam Ellis, Creative Director at Never Say Die Studios LLC.  I also teach Animation, Story Art, and Concept Design to college students, 2 days a week at the Art Institute of Washington.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a supervisor at a quick service chicken restaurant, a Mormon missionary in Arizona, a house framer in historic Williamsburg, a pizza delivery driver, a burger cashier, I built curbs all over Virginia Beach, an off-ice hockey linesman, as well as quite a few more freelance art jobs.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Well, the one project that really helped launch my career and that is going into its 5th season is Archer. I was Lead Designer on Archer Season one and left at the end to go work on personal projects, but we were wrapping up an episode of the short lived Xtacles on adult swim and Adam Reed was getting ready to pitch a new show around called Duchess, Neal Holman was too busy with his other duties so Matt Thompson passed off the majority of the work over to me and Chad Hurd. I was to draw Duchess (later to be known as Archer), his mother, and his father, while Chad drew Archer’s love interest, his foil, and his car.  After his pitch was successful and a pilot was green-lit, I got to do quite a bit more designing, Chad and I were pretty delighted to start making some changes to the designs when we got hold of them, there was some great stuff already done by Neal Holman and Eric Simms, but with Neal working on creating backgrounds before we found Trinity Animation and Eric taking some heavy animation duties, Chad and I were like kids in a candy shoppe. We had a blast on that first episode, it came together real fast and we came up with some interesting solutions.  Even though I left Archer I still love the crew and am tickled when I see some of the art I did show up all the time, also I get a kick out of seeing my son every time I see young Archer as he was the model for it, Although he has never seen or probably will see Archer.  Outside of Archer I have been able to work on Cory Edward’s Krogzilla with the fine folks at GreenShoe Animation, Jason Shwartz’s company–man totally forgot, working with those guys let me work with Disney and Marvel I am heck’a proud of that I also got to foray into gaming and got to do some designs for that Avengers ultimate alliance game–that was fun.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I currently live in Spotsylvania VA, and I grew up on the east coast, most of my life was spent in Virginia Beach, VA.  I always wanted to be an animator and a comic artist, I love telling stories and find that using pictures and being able to draw was another great skill set in being able to Continue reading

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Robert Burrows

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name’s Robert Burrows and I’m a comic illustrator and story artist.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a courier for a while, being on the road 10 hours a day you tend to develop a pretty zen approach to traffic. You also see a lot of carnage. I also worked at an ahem… adult shop. I call this my “character building” phase.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
The two graphic novels I’ve illustrated:Something Animal, which is a gritty look at a man losing his grip after witnessing a terrible attack on his sister and Beatrice Is Dead which is the first story in a set of short horror/dark fantasy volumes about Beat, a sixteen year-old girl coming of age in the afterlife. Both are fully painted the old fashioned way using acrylic, gouache and gallons of india ink.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born and raised in the southeast of England, then I lived in Detroit for most of my grown up life. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Continue reading