Straight Ahead Animation Podcast

The optimistic Ruby Wang is a Visual Development artist at Skydance Animation. Ruby shares her experience growing-up in Taiwan, absorbing both Japanese and American animation and storytelling. At Flight School Studio she was designing for VR, AR, XR, and MR; and what those different media were like to work on. Ray and Ruby reminisce on their time at Tonko House, and how Dice Tsusumi and Robert Kondo's mentorship changed their art fundamentally. Ruby really gets into the different visas you can have in the USA, the pitfalls therein, and how the shift in our industry as a gig-based economy has made the status of an international worker that much more difficult. Through her preserverance, she has also come to a place where she can work on feature film and children's books like she has always dreamed of.

Rounding out our Special Speaker Series is Karissa Valencia: Executive Producer and Showrunner on Netflix Animation’s “Spirit Rangers”. Karissa shares what it's like being a show-runner for a children's series, how she gathered her all-indigenous writer's room, and the inspiration behind "Spirit Rangers". We also talk about how Karissa's past experience as a production intern led to her being a more mindful writer and well-rounded director. Karissa also takes us through her cultural experience as a multi-cultural Chumash-Mexican, how she connected with fellow native peoples in animation, and how they all brought their unique perspectives to broaden the idea of a modern indigenous family and reclaim the indigenous image from Hollywood. All this and so much more, so plug in to this very succinct and well-spoken episode featuring Karissa Valencia!

Servan Castillo got his big break in 2013 as an intern for Titmouse Animation. Dive back with us into Servan's career as an animator, from working on Superjail and the Midnight Gospel, and how he saw the role of the animator evolve in the past decade. We talk about his shifted from animator to storyboard artist, and how even though he has such a rich history in this industry, how he feels green in this new role. We talk about his lucky break working on Vox Machina and Castlevania, and how he overcame that shift. Servan's positive attitude has given him a competitive edge in tackling new challenges like learning 3D programs to aid in storyboarding. So join us as we explore Servan's journey, and all the changes that come with experience.

Continuing on our Special Speaker Series, Grace Han is a Korean-American working in Montreal, Canada as a rigging artist for the VFX industry. While the VFX and Animation industries are very closely related, and if you rig for 3D animation you can jump between both, we also talk about what's more often expected in VFX vs. Animation for a rigger. From Spiderman to octopi, we talk about what can be more interesting for a rigging artist to tackle, and how artistic flare can be brought into such a technical process. Grace originally went to the Savannah College of Art and Design wanting to do Animation and Storyboarding, but a required rigging class changed that. With a professor's sage words about how stable rigging jobs are, Grace turned to her current profession. We talk about her year break after graduating, and then how she took off another year between jobs without having to worry about her next gig! This and so much more on today's episode of Straight Ahead.

Starting out strong on our August Speaker series with Jalysa Leva: creator of the PBS kids show Jelly, Ben, and Pogo! We ask Jalysa how JBP first developed, and her journey leading-up to the opportunity for her to pitch a show. Jalysa values community and kindness, backed with her experience as an animation director, hear how she applied these to the production and what seemed to work to benefit the show. We talk about struggling with perfectionism, finding your own cultural connection, and strengthening your voice through art. Outside of animation, Jalysa also shares a bit about her brand, Toto-O, a celebration of fil-am culture, and what a positive impact having media made for your community can be. Please don't miss out on this week's episode as we make it Super Duper!

From Muppet babies to Murder hobos on Harley Quinn, Jennifer shares her experience working in production at Warner Bros. Animation. We chat about how Jennifer brings her experience earning her BFA in Animation to production. Then how after graduation, she persevered for 2 years against the catch 22 of our industry: needing experience on the job to get the job before you have the job. Ray and Jennifer also share their experiences on a show suddenly being cancelled mid-production, and how that perspective differs from artist to production positions. Despite all this, we also talk about the great fortune Jennifer's had once landing her jobs, and the wonderful crews she's worked with along the way.

Kick back and listen in to this knock-out episode with Kimmie King! First we dive into her latest job as a retake animator for Rick & Morty, and all the duties and expectations that come with it. Learn about the indie animation scene through Kimmie's experience working on Battu and Helluva Boss. Then jump into the world of Spongebob 360 through the eyes of an animator. Hear her story on how she became the director for the opening of Ziwe's late night show on Black Entertainment Television (BET). Kimmie jumps back just a few years to her graduation during the pandemic, how she jump-started her career during lockdown, what sparked her love of kickboxing, and the struggles of her final film. To top it all-off, Kimmie is a Toonboom Ambassador! Crazy? Well Kimmie tells us how that might not be as an unreachable title as one might think.

Meet Shannon Parayil, an Indian-American Visual Development artist. Currently working at Sony Animation, Shannon has also worked for a variety of studios including Nickelodeon, Disney, Warner Bros, and Netflix. We discuss what it's like being on such short contracts with studios, and where she was recruited for those projects in such a short time. We dive a lot into Shannon's experience as a student, and how putting aside her own art goals to fill production roles paused her growth as an artist. However, the same mindset lead to her love of color-design, and she talks about how she pulled herself up to create the portfolio she needed. On a more serious topic, both Shannon and Ray have recently experienced being on projects that were suddenly dissolved, and we talk a bit about their experiences receiving such news and the events that followed. Be uplifted by Shannon's journey, as we explore the highs and lows of such a wonderful artist.

This week is a bit of a special episode, as we were reached-out to by Women in Animaton to feature their new initiative: Stories x Women ("Stories by Women"). We talk with Marge Dean, President of WIA; Heather Kenyon, a mentor for the program; and Benoit Ginisty, Chief representative of FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations). We dive back into our animation roots with how WIA was first established, first-hand from Marge and Heather. We learn about how programs like Stories x Women come about in collaboration with organizations like FIAPF, and how this initiative is meant to empower international animation by BIPOC women and other underrepresented genders.