We’ve partnered with animation all-star Mike Morris to bring you a reality show-type mini-series about the process, pitfalls and breakthroughs of making cartoons, all in the course of one week. Two teams of four student animators will be selected to take on the task of creating an animated short with the guidance of professional mentors. The prompt: create a cartoon that depicts what creative collaborations will look like in the future.
Watch the Episodes
Meet our mentors
Jeff Ranjo is a 26 year veteran of the animation industry where he’s created storyboards and character designs for films such as Emperor’s New Groove, Surf’s Up, Frozen and Moana. He’s lent his story talents to Disney Feature Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, Warner Animation Group and just wrapped up as Head of Story on “Maya and the Three” for Netflix. Jeff is now working on several top secret projects at Netflix. He taught character design for 6 years at CalArts and believes character is the basis for every story. His favorite film is Aliens and he likes the color blue.
Luciano Herrera is a Los Angeles-based Argentinian production designer, illustrator and art director with over seven years’ experience in the animation industry. His practice ranges from art direction and visual development to illustration and comics. He has worked with studios such as Disney TV Animation, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Warner Brothers, and Titmouse.
Travis Blaise was first hired at Disney through their summer internship program and thus began his 14 year career there, bringing to life characters such as Frollo, Shan Yu, the Huns, Stitch, Koda, Goofy and many others. He then left Disney to continue his career in the industry wearing several different hats in the production pipeline including director and animator for Cartoon Network, story artist for Disney and Rough Draft Studios, and character designer for Nickelodeon. In recent years, Travis has grown into the role of a mentor and educator for up and coming artists in the industry. As the founder of Sketch to Animate, he is pursuing his passion for developing new and original stories and teaching everyone exactly why he believes cartoons are so awesome.
Animation Workshops: Learn alongside our student animators
Three-part animation workshop series:
Storytelling for Animation with Jeff Ranjo
Animation Production Design with Luciano Herrera
Live Production Animation Demonstration with Travis Blaise
Shout out to our sponsors
Thank you to Annex Pro, B&H, Staples Canada and Toon Boom Animation for joining in on the Cartoon Crunch fun! Tune in to score amazing promotions from our sponsors.
So grab your tablets and notebooks and kick off the school year with the ultimate animation assignment: Cartoon Crunch!
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