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.

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

Is Social Media bad for Artists?

Before I begin I would like to inform the viewers of a few important things. I’m only going to speak about the benefits for artists when it comes to being on social media sites. NOT for people in general. You are free to roam social media every day. However, I do not recommend “all day” every day. Moderation is very important to one’s mind, body & soul. Thank you.

Let’s be positive first before I give you all my honest answers. Artists can benefit from social media in a couple of ways. You, artists, want to be productive yes? So consistently posting is key to gaining attention on social media sites like Instagram for example. Adding hashtags (Like this #) helps shows your posts to a wider audience.

When you post, people will leave positive comments/helpful feedback. It can be one person but it can also be 100 people. You slowly but surely grow an audience of people who love your work & are willing to support you. And of course, seeing/hearing works from other artists no matter how famous they are, can be a very helpful inspiration/motivation for you. The word “aspiring” is an illusion. The moment you put your pencil on that paper and draw an apple for example or a poem about apples, or make a rap song about apples, then congratulations, you’re an artist (regardless if you like apples or not). You’re inspired by others and you want to make things as good as them or better.

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.

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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Geoffrey A. Moore’s book Crossing the Chasm starts out by saying “If Bill Gates can be a Billionaire”.  Implying that so can you.  I remember in high school using similar logic while waiting to take my driving test, saying to myself, “if Wayne can pass the driving test, then so can I”.

For those of us who don’t remember, Crossing the Chasm takes us through stages of marketing and selling our business & products.  The book then points out the phenomena called “The Chasm”, and why businesses fail as they fall into this crevasse instead of crossing over it. COVID-19 has dramatically widened the chasm and small business owners see it as an impossible task to cross.  Forbes Magazine reported that more than ½ black owned business have permanently closed because of the pandemic.  The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report that said black-owned businesses were more than twice as likely to close than other businesses.    So, if you own a small business, what should we be doing?  Here is my opinion on what we should be thinking about. 

I started my first business back in 1992.  I was already working full-time as a software engineer so I guess that you can say this was my “side hustle”.   But it was much more than that.  The business model aimed at providing IT support for small businesses who cannot afford to have their own IT team.  But I quickly learned about “cross-selling” & “up-selling”, “channels” & “partnerships”.  Cross-selling and up-selling are textbook, so I won’t cover that here.  But channels & relationships are essential to growing your business organically.  All too often we forget that business and relationships go hand-in-hand.  And these relationships will open up other channels of revenue streams for you. 

Here is the framework I suggest that you follow.  Make a list of any and everyone associated with your business.  Create a category of “Know”, “Like”, Trust”.  Then label your relationship with these categories.   Consider this a living document that you visit and update regularly.  Deliberately and systematically communicate with everyone on this list 1:1. What you will find is that relationships that you have labeled as “Trust” will be your saving grace.    These are the folks that will stretch out their hands and pull you across “The Chasm!

Science Technology Engineering & Math (STEM) Impact on Jobs

June 25, 2018 – SpringBoard Team

Since the information technology (IT) boom in the 1990’s IT workers more than doubled between 1990 and 2000. The chart below from the U.S. Census shows the growth since 1970 and the diversity of jobs that are available to IT professionals.

From the chart above we can see that many different skill sets and job functions have been created from 1970 to 2014. The chart shows 3 categories in 1970 and 14 different categories in 2014. The industry has continued to grow and evolve from 2015 to 2018 and Big Data problems have given birth to a new set of job skills: Data Scientists, and Cloud Architects. Some of the key skills that Data Scientists possess include Python Programming, Statistical Analysis and Machine Learning.

STEM Impact on Salaries

As the information technology industry continues to evolve into 2020, new skill sets will be required to meet the demands of this expansion. Information Technology continues to be one of the highest paying professions in the U.S. The information provided by the United State Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the potential earnings for computer and information technology professionals by industry.

What is SpringBoard?  SpringBoard provides Technology Training & STEM Workshops for Youth and Adults.  We are also a Co-Working and Virtual Offices Spaces for startup companies as a way to reduce the overhead cost associated with creating a new business. We provide a modern facility with comfortable working stations and collaborative areas for team or customer meetings.   That is our core business.

SpringBoard is unique to other incubators because we also provide value add workshops that guides and teaches our SpringBoard startups’ a lean approach to creating and running a startup company.  Our approach puts the emphasis on creating value.  We will teach our entrepreneurs how to create and deliver that value at the point of use.  Where it is most needed.

The programming, events and workshops you can expect from SpringBoard will be focused on active building instead of passive lecturing.   We will emphasize creating prototypes and bring it to market over less agile or motionless models.

Why is our method better?  First starts with the understanding that we are living it the most ubiquitous era of Technology at any time in previous years.  It is pervasive, and omnipresent.   And the rate of change continues to accelerate to the point of surpassing Moore’s Law.  Therefore, if we are not capturing the power behind technology and using it as a vehicle to drive our business we will quickly become irrelevant.   Let’s be clear, consuming technology and leveraging technology are two different things.  It is part of a larger concept called Digital Transformation. You can think of Digital Transformation a profound and accelerating change of business activities, processes and business models for an organization.   Think of it as a systematic method that will new revenue streams globally.  Transformation

To summarize, SpringBoard is the answer to the questions: Where do good ideas come from?