Animation closing in!

[Charles]

To underscore the activity that's happening on the local industry scene here in Burbank...

A renowned sound design/editing company moved out of the building where AN and The Animation Academy are headquartered. They occupied a large area of the top floor of our building.

Within a matter of a few days of their leaving...

An animation studio moves in!

Our next door neighbors are Cosmic Toast! They're a Burbank based studio that's expanding. They've been banging flooring and carpeting into place and fixing the space at a round the clock pace for production. I just walked in to see the renovated area when I discovered a whole crew of Flash animators already working there! About 10 artists I'd say. Maybe more.

We're sharing walls!

What's more, I just hooked up with an animator who I used to work with at Filmation in the 1980s on He-Man and She-Ra! Haven't seen him since and he's animating next door!

Man, what a world and what a time we're living in with our industry!

Good times!

Keep creating!

[Charles]

Animation is indeed closing in. Actually it can't get any closer. Not just as far as the proximity of the new studio right next door, but especially for the animation artists working there.

With all the space they have the animators are huddled in one room. Not a very big room at that.

What's the rest of the office area reserved for?

You guessed it.

Execs and writers with some space for post production and editing.

Oh well. The artists are taking it in stride but to me it's the same ol same ol. The heart of what they do is animation and they squeeze it out of the artists with these working conditions.

It's good to have a job and be active in the industry, but if you really wanna improve things for yourself you need to do it for yourself.

Anyway, good luck and good wishes for the success of the creative team.