Animation Event: It’s Not Just a Cartoon!

Television Academy member Richard Honig is a production accountant for the animated Amazon original series Danger & Eggs. He’s also a recent graduate of the Second City improv troupe’s training center in Hollywood, and would like to break into animation character voiceover work.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in the Academy’s Saban Media Center lobby, Honig got a tantalizing taste of what voiceover work is like.

Standing at a microphone in a recording-studio set-up alongside Bob Bergen, a two-time Emmy nominee as the voice of Porky Pig in Cartoon Network’s The Looney Tunes Show, Honig enacted a scene as Petunia Pig, Porky’s girlfriend. He heard cues via headphones as the scene played out on a monitor. When he was finished, he received a flash-drive recording of his work.

“It was great!” Honig enthused afterward. “To have people who are tops in animation, and be able to stand at a microphone and read dialogue with them – it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

Thirteen-year-old Lindsey Sawyer, who’d been invited by her aunt, writer Deborah Amelon, also enjoyed the demo; she’d joined Maurice LaMarche, a two-time Emmy Award winner for Comedy Central’s Futurama, in a scene from the 1990s Cartoon Network series Pinky and the Brain, in which LaMarche had voiced the Brain.

“It was fun. I liked it,” said the aspiring actress, whose mother Kandi Amelon, also in attendance, is co-executive producer of the Animal Planet series Life at Vet U. “It’s really cool that all these television shows are here.”

The voiceover experience was one of several interactive offerings at the event, which was called “It’s Not Just a Cartoon!” Held November 12, the day’s roster featured three hours of demonstrations of the various elements of animation, plus drawing and face painting, food trucks and a mobile espresso bar.

An hour-long discussion by panelists working in animation, held in the media center’s Wolf Theatre, rounded out the afternoon.

“Animation and how it's done is a mystery to most people. We wanted to share a hands-on demonstration on how 2-D, Flash/Harmony, 3-D, stop-motion and virtual reality are created for TV animation,” explained Animation peer group co-governor Brian Sheesley, a director-producer-visual artist who has won two Primetime and three Daytime Emmy Awards.

“It's a very laborious and patient medium, and takes a large team of artists who each specialize in a unique discipline of the animation process.”

With the Academy’s activities committee searching for some “out of the box” ideas for events, the multifaceted presentation provided an ideal solution, one that Animation co-governor Jill Daniels had been lobbying for during her Academy service.

“I came into my position as a co-governor with a heart for really wanting to help Academy members understand more about the craft and art of television animation,” said Daniels, a visual development artist-art director and two-time Emmy Award winner. “I soon realized that creating a dynamic event is an exciting way to give members a chance to learn about each other's disciplines.

"Overall, it was a two-year process of envisioning and working with [various Academy entities], as well as with all the generous studios and animation artists who gave their time, talent and cool swag to make this a truly special day for Academy guests of all ages.” 

The swag included t-shirts, tote bags and a plastic bracelet-cum-stylus. The bracelet was provided by Bento Box Entertainment, the studio which produces the Fox series Bob’s Burgers. The company also sponsored a demonstration of the show’s virtual reality app, which provides a 3-D simulation of the show’s hamburger restaurant.

A different sort of 3-D animation demo came courtesy of The Simpsons – with a take-home bonus. A line of guests watched raptly as K.C. Johnson, re-take director for the long-running Fox show, drew characters upon request, including personalized touches such as a skateboard, her work displayed on a monitor; guests then were given their sketches.

Linda Chu, a guest of Academy member-compose Gary Kuo, noted that her kids had asked for drawings of Simpson siblings Lisa and Bart, which will probably be framed. “It’s really interesting,” she observed. “You find out it’s not that easy. One episode takes six to nine months!”

At a 3-D animation demo of Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, supervising producer Patrick Krebs sat at a monitor with a little girl whose face was bedecked with pink paint, guiding her stylus over an image of one of the Turtles.

“She’s been having a lot of fun,” her father, editor Rick Griffin, commented. “This is a lot of ‘behind the curtain’ stuff. It’s pretty amazing to see these experts work and interact with lay people like us.”

Participants at the Harmony/3-D demo by Comedy Central’s South Park could create their own avatars, ask questions of animation producer Jack Shih and watch as he showed guests how to replace the mouth on a character, changing the facial expression from sad to happy to other emotions in rapid succession.

Claudia Ann Reame, a member of the television executives peer group, had enjoyed devising her avatar. And she was enjoying the day. “I’m meeting fascinating people,” she said. “People have been so friendly and open – everyone’s talking to each other.”

There were three stations set up at the stop-motion demo by Bix Pix Entertainment and Amazon for Amazon Studios’ pre-school-age series Tumble Leaf.

Creator-director Drew Hodges and animation assistant Cami Kwan were two of those showing guests the workings of stop-motion animation; guests could guide miniature objects such as dinosaurs, farm animals and vehicles, see them on monitors and later view some of their work in a video on the Bix Pix website (the T-rex riding a truck cab was particularly whimsical).

A mother and her two sons wanted to know Kwan’s path to her career; she had studied film and animation, but had also minored in physics and philosophy. “Be friendly and nice to people,” Kwan advised the boys. “That’s the best way to make it in animation.”

Career advice was also a focus of the panel discussion held after the demonstrations.

Moderated by Tom Kenny, the voice of the title character of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, the panel drew Kelli Bixler, Bix Pix Entertainment founder and executive producer of Tumble Leaf; Loren Bouchard, executive producer of Bob’s Burgers; Ian Jones-Quartey, supervising director of Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe and Adventure Time; Aimee Steinberger, storyboard artist for Tarantula on TBS; Ellen Jin Over, art director at DreamWorks; Chris Battle, character designer for numerous shows including Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go!; Bill Flores, art director-background designer for Cartoon Network’s Uncle Grandpa; Kaz Aizawa, background painter at Disney Television Animation; and Teale Wang, color stylist at Nickelodeon.

For Bixler, the road to a successful animation career “is about relationships,” she said. ”Keep talking, keep meeting. It’s about letting people know you’re out there.” And keep track of people you meet when you’re starting out; they might just rise to a position of hiring power later.

Building a portfolio, whether in or out of school, is essential, Jin Over said. “That’s your weapon. I look for craftsmanship – drawing and painting skills are very important. I find many portfolios online, on Instagram and Blogspot.”

Animators must be organized enough to meet deadlines, and be creative on demand, without the luxury of artist’s block. But, as Jones-Quartey pointed out, “You’re surrounded by so many types of creative people, it’s hard to get bored.”

Flores at first resisted the transition to digital animation – “I hated the idea of spending my hours on the computer” – but has long since changed his mind. “I’m so excited about the new technology,” he said, “especially for the kids out there, the software that will be available to them.”

Indeed, there’s already software for people to create their own characters, storyboards and complete cartoons. “I recommend making your own,” Bouchard said. “It gives you an appreciation into the effort that goes into making animation.” And don’t save your ideas for some time in the nebulous future, panelists advised. Bring them to animated life and post them on YouTube.

Animation governors Sheesley and Daniels later pronounced the event a resounding success. “It really warmed our hearts, seeing the amount of people who came out and participated in all the day’s activities,” Sheesley said. “All of our hard work paid off, by seeing all the smiles and laughter.”

Participant Honig agreed. “It went above and beyond what I expected,” he said. “Those animation people really know how to have a good time.”