Category Animation

Animation Studios in Long Island Part 2

I’ve said in my previous blog that “Art/Animation is a medium I have the utmost respect for.” And I still stand by that. I am writing a 2nd part to this blog because I will make it my mission to convince you the viewer and the populace to open various animation studios on Long Island and give animators & storyboarding artists young & old job opportunities.

If you didn’t read it yet, here is Part 1 of the previous blog: Animation Studios in Long Island

There is plenty of empty buildings to rent out, next to a local barber shop or a convenience store. And when you do find the right building to open your animation studio, you’ll need a layout of how the office SHOULD look.

I am by no means an architect and it depends on how big or small the building itself is. But when first starting out, it’s important to keep the layout of the office simple. Even if it means having 2-4 cubicles, computers, drawing tablets, etc.

This image is from Santa Monica Animation Studio based in California Keep in mind that there are some things. Santa Monica Animation studio has been around for a long time and has significant changes to their office layouts. I know I said, it’s important to keep it simple but I used this as an example to give you an idea of how an animation office should look. But you are free to customize it to your likeness.

I would like to use another animation studio office layout as an example. This one is based in Tokyo Japan. Eastern offices have a completely different layout than in the west. But after taking a glimpse of the inside of Studio Mappa’s office, you could surely sprout ideas to your liking.

I’m showing you these examples because it’s important to be presentable. You’re not just showing off your office to animators & storyboarding artists who are trying to look for a job, you’re presenting your studio and its employees to inverters, and publishing companies who wish to do business with you & to see if your studio can meet their standards.

The company known as Disney is filled to the brim with investors. They currently own the rights to four currently running animation studios such as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm. When making your own animation studio, you have to essentially “sell” your studio to a publishing company so they may invest in it. The publishing company(sometimes multiple depending on the project) will give your studio projects to work on and they’ll give you the necessary resources to do so.

The word “outsource” means to “obtain (goods or a service) from an outside or foreign supplier, especially in place of an internal source”. It’s far more common than you think. Office spaces, website structures, and advertisements in general. Even your favorite cartoons from early the 2000s were outsourced to studios in eastern countries such as Korea & China. Western countries do this frequently and vice versa in eastern countries. Japanese animation studios outsource their work to western studios time after time. You even see the name of certain studios in the credits of a show.

Some studios don’t outsource at all. Even the most work may be overwhelming to them. But even small studios with limited resources can make a difference in the work they produce. So don’t be discouraged when making a studio yourself and don’t be afraid of doing it alone. Try to work with others and they’ll work with you. “Teamwork” is key to success.

We at Springboard Incubators are opening a small animation studio ourselves and are in need of a handful of animators & storyboarding artists. Here’s our contact information:

We are also hiring teachers to teach students of all ages how to be an animator and to work with art programs such as Moho, Adobe Animate & Toon Boom Harmony.

Thank you for reading.

Becoming an Animation Producer!

To be an animation producer you should know what animation producers are. They have the responsibility to oversee the production of animation (short, series, and movie). It’s a matter of starting your own business and that is a separate kind of education and finances. You will hire & gather workers such as directors, animators, writers & so on. When I said “responsibility” I meant that you have to give insight to your employees on what they need to do to make the animation.

For example. Ramsey Naito is the current president of Nickelodeon studios. However, in the past, she has worked on many shows & movies such as The Spongebob Squarepants movie & The Baby Boss as an executive producer. The difference between these two is that while all employees report to him/her for everything an executive producer doesn’t get too involved in a production. It’s like being the king/queen of the castle in a way.

For more information, click here: Ramsey Ann Naito | Wiki , Nickelodeon Animation Studio | Wiki

Both Producers and Executive Producers usually have connections to more than one studio in both the U.S and other countries. But there have been instances where an American animation studio has collaborated with anime producers. One, in particular, is a studio based in Texas called Tonari Animation. They have a web-based studio, meaning they mostly function online. They have hired animators & layout artists via social media websites to work on Japanese-based productions. They have collaborated with various Japanese animation studios such as Toei Animation & Studio Perriot in previous years.

The CEO of the studio is Jarrett Martin. As I said before, the role of a producer is to manage the employees on their work, but Mr. Martin is also an animator himself who has contributed directly into said projects. Mr. Martin has very much enjoyed working with anime creators over the past few years & will continue to do so.

While they have been very successful in their work, they’re still looking for new recruits as the animation industry continues to grow. Please visit their website for more information.

Learning media production will take a few college courses. But we at Springboard have connections to various producers who can help educate you at half the price. And if you are an animation producer reading this, we would really appreciate you contacting us to help us teach the youth about animation production.

To join his studio as either an animator, layout artist, or both, send him your portfolio. His contact information is here.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: (516) 414-2000

I encourage you the viewer to consider becoming an animation producer you will be doing a huge favor for not just yourself but many animators, writers, directors & storyboard artists as well. Thank you for reading.

The animation industry truly began it’s “revolution” in the late 1960s when more and more animated films were produced and released in the public. You’d think it would be the “Walt-Era” when Disney films were being released as the years went by but so many other companies besides Disney were keeping up as well. Regardless, many people found opportunity to find jobs in the animation industry.

June 22^nd 1935 in Santa Barbara, California was the day the first African-American animator was born. His name is Floyd Norman. Currently 86 years old but still very active in the animation industry. What made him join the industry was him watching old Disney movie classics such as Bambi & Dumbo. Early in his career he started as an inbetweener or also known as“Tweenening” animator. This means when an animator adds frames so the final animation is more “smooth” and fluid. Eventually he moved on to work as key animator for notable motion pictures such as Disney’s Sleeping Beauty & Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians. He may have been an animator of color but he like many others had to start somewhere in the early and every growing industry.

Another few examples of African Americans in the animation industry are Frank Braxton who has done key animation for a handful of Charlie brown TV specials and LeSean Thomas who at first started off as an animator, in later years has opened his own animation studio in the eastern countries and created/produced & directed a handful of original anime series such as Cannon Busters & Yasuke. These men of African American decent have made their mark on the animation industry no matter the genre.

To learn more of these men, I will provide the link to their respective Wikipedia pages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_American_animation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Norman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Braxton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeSean_Thomas

Although this country has a history of discrimination of races, these men did not falter to achieve their careers in animation and till this day continued to produced more works. I encourage the younger generation to study these gentlemen to become an animator and maybe eventually produce original animation works. Springboard Incubators can help.

We are hiring animators/art teachers with extensive experience in the animation industry to teach those who want to join in it. As for students, all ages can sign up for classes, one on one or groups. Please contact us at at [email protected] or 516.414.2000. Our Business hours are 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Thanks for reading.

By Brandon Lindo

I live in a suburban area in New York. I drive of course but most of the time I walk around the streets to my local pharmacy to pick up some essentials. As I do my afternoon cardio, I noticed around me empty buildings with signs that say “Rent” and a phone number displayed underneath. Next to the pharmacy, I take a small peak from the window, just to get a good look inside. I can’t help but think “You can definitely open an animation studio in there.”

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