Straight Ahead Animation Podcast

Meet the real life Sparkle Cadet, a character from Craig of the Creek whose story is directly pulled from writer Shakira Pressley's life. Kira takes us through her incredible journey from what inspired her writing as a child, how she dropped out of college and taught herself to write professionally, and how an unlikely series of events led to her first freelance working for Man of Action. This episode is absolutely packed with information on writing in the animation pipeline from pitch, freelance, staff, and even her experience as a lead Story Editor. We go in-depth to her experience working on My Dad the Bounty Hunter, and how having representation behind the screen, in major leadership, deeply affects how a show is made.

Roxy Simons is a black writer working for both live action and animated content! We go over the differences between a writer's room for live action and animation. Roxy even talks about her experience on a show with live-action puppets, and the challenges that come with that medium. Before her career really took off, she also attended the Sesame Street fellowship: a writer's program with the intent of diversifying children's content by giving those minorities the skills to enter the industry. Easygoing and bubbly, Roxy has no problem packing this episode with insights and tips that should help anyone interested in the writing process for entertainment!

Website: https://www.roxysimons.com/

If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices!

Marisa Torres is a Cuban-American artist working for Nickelodeon! We dive into her day-to-day working as a background painter for Santiago of the Seas. Marisa works in 2d to ideate, design, and paint how the assets will look before they reach that 3D stage. Before that, she was selected for the Nick Artist's program. She talks about how even with no self-confidence, she built herself up to continue forward through the application process. An auspicious meeting with Adrienne Norman, and a persistent attitude, led to Marisa's work on a children's book for Disney Publishing.

Website: https://www.marisatorresart.com/

If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices!

WE MADE IT TO EPISODE 50! Okay we know hit episode 50 a while ago so this is little late with this, but better late than never. Thank you to everyone who joined us live for our 50th Straight Ahead Episode Celebration Stream! We also want to thank our audience who have supported the podcast and has helped us create a platform to spotlight these rising BIPOC voices. In this episode we reflect back on how we started, what we have learned, and what the future holds. Learn some behind the scene inner-workings of how we run the podcast as well as how Ray's and Yuki's friendship developed over these 50 episodes.

From board artist to supervising director, Jersey to California, listen in as Dashawn illustrates how his career took off. Learn about his time at OddBot, and afterwards his transition from revisionist to board artist at Cartoon Network. We even get to touch on Valorous Tales, a comic he drew for fun on his own that ultimately helped land him his first story job! Speaking of comics, Dashawn reveals more about his current project, The Brother's Boom. He also shares what it's like being a supervising director for Jessica's Little Big World, and the experience of working on a spinoff of Craig of the Creek, with characters he's very familiar with. If you're dreaming of moving past story and into directing, then look forward to what insights Dashawn has to say.

Website: artofdashawnmahone.blogspot.com

This week we have the incredibly wonderful Angela Entzminger, a black artist who is currently working as a Story Artist and Writer. Everyone journey into animation is different and Angela is proof. Her animated journey took 15 years before landing her first job as a Pixar Development Intern. Since then Angela has worked on Nickelodeon's Santiago of the Seas as a Storyboard Artist and for Warner Bros. Animation's My Adventures with Superman as a Writer. She is just a wealth of amazing knowledge who is still so eager to keep learning and sharing what she has learned with others. She created and hosted two podcasted entitled The Animated Journey and Glitch Techs Rewatch Podcast, she is also currently a Rise Up Animation Mentor. We could honestly go on and on, but there is so much waiting for you in this jammed packed episode!

Instagram: @sketchysoul

If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices!

Aaron Cobb is a cool and collected individual, and a background painter at Wild Canary. Already in his brief career, Aaron has worked for television, feature, and VR games in a variety of roles from Background Paint to freelance Character Design. Speaking of, we touch on the differences between Background Designers and Background Painters (small distinction we haven't really discussed before). Peer into Aaron's student days as we reminisce on his hands-on internship at Linden Labs, and how his positive thinking that made school work for him. Let Aaron's good energy start of your day, and carry that good vibe with you into your art.

Instagram: @king__cobb

Black 'N Animated is an organization that is focused on the empowerment of Black students and professionals in the animation industry. But before that, it was simply a podcast crated by Breana Williams and Waymond Singleton. On top of all the information revolving around BNA, we are also able to touch on Bre's own journey, and her aspirations to move from Production to Storyboarding. We talk about the auspicious meeting that made the podcast a reality, and how it was sparked by the anxiety that both Bre and Way felt as students not knowing about Black folks currently working in animation. We discuss some of the challenges BNA has faced, how preparedness has benefitted their membership, and also the victories and lessons from those tough times. Listen in, and support both the BNA podcast and their organization as they work to create diversity on screen and behind the scenes! 

Black 'N Animated

No your eyes are not playing tricks on you, this week we have the wonderful other half of our whole host Yuki Okamura-Wong! If you don't know already, she is an Asian-American 2D Animator currently working at Global Mechanic. In this non-stop thrill ride of an episode, we dive into Yuki's career working as 2D animator for both adult and kids shows and how these experiences differed from one another. She also explains how she became a fully realized human being in her transition from community college to university. Yuki also shares how she never really knew what she wanted to do but how she just kept following her interest until she found the path the was right for her. Finally in this episode we uncover the origin story of Yuki's online username Chuudles. All of this is just scratches the surface of this amazing and we hope you all enjoy it!

If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcasts. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices!

We're kicking off season 2 with a name you may find familiar: Ray Mendoza Landa! A story artist at Warner Bros. Animation and one of the co-hosts of Straight Ahead! Although Ray has only just started his career, he has a plethora of experiences: story artist on a 3D show with a blender-integrated pipeline, interning at Pixar, acting as President for the Shrunken Headman Club, and heading the ambitious animated graphic novel, Sol Naciente. We may have touched on these topics in the past, but Ray is able to go in-depth in a way we normally don't get the chance to when interviewing a guest. We also go into Ray's path into animation, how he was always more into theatre than art, and how his interest in his own culture as a Mexican-American has grown. Of course, we answer the most important question: would you rather attain power through hard work in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragonball Z or by instantly seeing the secret of the Universe like in Full Metal Alchemist? Find out in this episode... of Straight Ahead AP!