Animation Invasion

In the first official episode of Animation Invasion, we talk with Victoria Ying, an author and illustrator who spent a number of years working for Disney Animation Studios. Her film credits include the recent hit Moana, as well as Big Hero 6, Wreck It Ralph, Tangled, Frozen, and the brilliant animated short, Paperman. She also spent a year as a visual development artist at Sony Pictures Animation. Victoria moonlights as an instructor who teaches art classes online at Brit.co, through the roving animation training academy Schoolism, and at Art Center College of Design. Outside of animation, Victoria provided the artwork for the tabletop game Bargain Quest, which just successfully funded on Kickstarter.

In this interview from the Nerd For A Living archive, we talk with Linda Ballantyne, a Canadian voice over artist who’s been working professionally in animation since the late 90s. She’s best known to fans of cartoons and anime as the voice of Sailor Moon, from the latter half of that series run in 2000. You can also hear her work in Avengers: United They Stand, Mia and Me, Toot & Puddle, Yin! Yang! Yo!, and the Care Bears. Linda currently balances a full slate of voice work in the busy Toronto media scene with convention appearances alongside several of her former Sailor Moon cast-mates.

In this episode, we revisit a Nerd For A Living interview with illustrator and animation artist Sarah Marino. Sarah currently works at Nickelodeon Animation Studios as a color supervisor on the Nick Jr series, Shimmer and Shine. She has also been a character designer and background painter on Shimmer and Shine, which is now in its third season. Before moving to Nickelodeon, Sarah was a visual development artist on the stunning animated feature film The Book of Life, from Reel FX. Sarah’s painted art appears both in the film and a number of the promotional materials and product tie-ins. We talk about Sarah’s education and artistic background, and how she transitioned from an early production coordinator gig into an artistic career.

Do you dream of a career bringing dynamic, imaginative stories to life through animated media? Do you want to infiltrate the cartoon industry, to invade that special realm where the fantastic overlaps with real life, to tell your stories, create your art, lend your voice? Or are you just interested in the creation process, and want to know more about what it takes to create the animated worlds you love? This is Animation Invasion - a podcast about careers in cartoons. Hosted by Adron Buske. Presented by Nerd For A Living.