Straight Ahead Animation Podcast

Kayse Villalba shares her experience wearing hats in both 2D animation and storyboarding positions. We chat a lot about workflow and expectations when working in rigged animation, grabbing fun shots while working for Studio Yotta, and how animation can differ wildly per production. Kayse also shares insights into how her experiences have informed each other art job she's had, from awareness of...

Yanna Casey is a Black artist working as a production coordinator in Atlanta, Georgia! We talk about their position as a PC outside of Los Angeles, and the ID she did for Adult Swim before deciding she didn't want to pursue an art role professionally. We also learn about Yanna's background in music production, and how they incorporate that into their personal art. We also talk about gettin...

Cynthia Furey is a hapa-vietnamese-italian-irish writer and currently a staff writer for Nickelodeon! Follow her journey of building connections through Sesame Workshop, Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, and the CBS writer's program. We chat about her experiences on The Ghost and Molly McGee , Hello Jack! , and Tiny Chef . But before her career in screenwriting, she worked as a foo...

This week we are honored to spotlight Rise Up Animation, an organization that offers mentorship and portfolio reviews to burgeoning BIPOC talent. (fun fact: the idea for Straight Ahead was inspired by Rise Up!) To tell us all about this wonderful organization is co-founder and 16-year industry veteran: Frank Abney. We have such a great time chatting with Frank and listening to his wealth of insigh...

This week we are proud to host Black Card Members' founder Celeste C. Black Card Members is a space meant for empowering creatives of color from all backgrounds. They are an online, international-friendly community that provides a safe space for creatives to grow and bond while providing prompts and events to nurture that creativity. Cel chats with us about her background as an event organizer...

This week we are spotlighting Asian Queens in Animation: an organization dedicated to fostering a community of Asians of underrepresented genders in the animation space. We have the pleasure of talking with co-founders Maansi Sunkara and Shrav Yalsangikar, along with one of their admins, Sanisha Agarwal. We talk about the inception of AQIA, how their built their brand as an organization, and their...

This week we are joined by the amazing Jim Mortensen (founder of SFA) and Tristan Cabral (Admin of SFA) as we learn all about their amazing program: Story For All! Volunteer-run and completely free to join, SFA is a mentorship program focused on 1:1 mentorship between industry professionals and budding storyboard artists. The organization helps mentors onboard, guide them on how to touch base with...

Kicking off our August Special Speaker series with one of the co-founders of Diverse Toons: Jade Seaberry! Diverse Toons is a East-Coast (USA) based organization and resource dedicated to uplifting diversity in the animation industry. Jade shares the story of how she and Monique Henry-Hudson created Diverse Toons, and how they wanted to foster a community outside of the West coast. We learn more a...

Joel Zamudio is a Location Designer for Disney TVA! We chat about his "first three starts" in animation: working on the Sony Animation's Mitú project, then as a freelance character designer for Shadow Machine, and then again for Disney TVA. Why so many "starts"? Well, we talk about the clarity of losing your ego after graduation, and continuing your education after school t...

Zharia B Rahn is an African-American artist working as a Model Designer for Disney TVA! This means she works on both props and characters, and she shares her workflow with us and how she makes and meets her own work quotas. She also tells about the multi-platform work she and her team does, and how this emerging department has evolved into this fast-paced age of social media. We also chat about he...

Isabella Martinez Luna is a Colombian artist working as an Associate Artist at Blizzard. Join us as we learn about the world of 3D Modeling and why Bella enjoyed learning the technical side of Animation. She has worked in a variety of different 3D pipelines at a variety of different studios, from small indy studios like Ignite Animation Studios to big studios like Blizzard Entertainment. We hope y...

WE ARE CELEBRATING 100 EPISODES! Thank you to everyone who has been following our podcast and giving us a platform to spotlight BIPOC voices. We are so honored to have hit this huge milestone! To celebrate our 100th episode we brought back previous guest that we have had on the podcast. Join us as we catch up with Trilina Mai, Li Cree, Joon Chung, and Rebecca Chan! Also don't forget to support...

Ash Tahilan is a fil-am artist who grew-up in the melting pot of Hawaii. She shares with us her journey of bumping to a few different studios, each time as a revisionist to ease on to the production before promoting into boards. We chat about her incomparable time on Craig of the Creek, the culture of the production, and her foray into writing a fan-comic for a property she worked on. Ash also has...

We are joined by young Sean Yeung, a member of the Riot Games champion skins team. He shares his experience going from intern to full-time employee, and the expectations within those positions. He shares his process in developing game animations for work by creating pose sheets, a standard practice in the industry. He also talks about going to Worlds 2022 in San Francisco, and how that really put...

Our guest this week is Devin Yang, a Chinese-American Concept Artist currently working in games. After graduating college Devin found a corporate job as a motion graphic artist. However, after two years he decided to take the leap of faith and jump into freelancing before landing a full-time position in video games! Devin credits twitter and his personal project The Witching Hour which garnered hi...

Thy Võ is a 2D Animator staffed at Primal Screen. While working on a senior film in school, and despite feeling like her quality of work wasn't the best, her attitude and ability to take critique left an impression on her upperclassman, which lead to a recommendation on her first job. For those of you working on your own films, Thy also talks at length about her team's process on their sen...

Yusra Shahid is a Background Designer and Painter, who holds her Indian heritage in high respect. Yusra shares her experiences working for A24 on the upcoming "#1 Happy Family USA", and the connection between her South East Asian and Muslim peers on the production. We go back through her time working on a variety of styles, from the child-like "Frog and Toad", to the more moder...

Joining us this week is Elliot Salgado a Mexican Assistant Animatic Editor currently working on Big Nate at Nickelodeon! Elliot entered the world of animation as an Intern at Nickelodeon not fully knowing what specfically in animation he wanted to do. His journey then took him to becoming a Production Assistant at DreamWorks where he got the chance to be a part of every part of the pipeline. It wa...

Amie Sanchez is a Latina Storyboard Artist working at Nickelodeon. Straight out of school, Amie's first job was actually a full-time storyboard artist. We talk about her lucky break in 2D boarding, and the changes that came with the shift to boarding for a 3D show, Rugrats (2021). We have a candid conversation about having gaps in your education, and ways to fill them when your school doesn&#3...

This week's guest is Michelle Lam, story artist and now, graphic novelist! She shares her experiences on so many different productions, and reflects especially fondly upon her time as an Assistant Episodic Director for Tonko House's Oni: a Thunder God's Tale. We also chat at length about her experiences at Cal Arts, how she found her voice, and how that also lead to her many different...

Najja Porter is a half-black, half-white artist working as a supervising director on Craig of the Creek. We talk about her time on a long-running project like Craig (4 years!) and the highs and lows that come with such a unique production. Najja also tells us the whirlwind tale of how she began moving from Tampa, Florida all the way to Los Angeles, California without even a job secured! She tells...

Meet Eddie Clark, an African American Storyboard Revisionist currently working on The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder! After graduating from SJSU Eddie felt burnt out from school and decided to take a step back from animation. Outside of animation Eddie was heavily involved in theatre and started acting more. His love for acting really strengthened his skills as an animator and story artist. Even...

Meet Harron Atkins, a black writer currently working freelance. Harron is also an alumni of the Sesame Street Writers Workshop and raves how much that experience helped him in his animation career. One of Harron's most recent gigs was being a Staff Writer for Craig of the Creek! That experience helped him gain a greater appreciation for artist and has helped take the artist into consideration when...

Meet Corinth Boone, a black artist from New Jersey who works as a Prop Designer for Cartoon Network! Although she lives in Los Angeles now, Corinth originally had to turn down CN's first offer since she wasn't ready to relocate. That opportunity would have been lost if Corinth didn't follow the #1 rule of job hunting: Always Follow-Up! During her time at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA...

Our guest this week is Jaylen Tate-Lucas a black storyboard artist currently working at Warner Bros. Animation. We talk about what it is like storyboarding on a show like Teen Titans Go! Jaylen also talks about his love for the Horror Genre and how it is inspiring him for his own personal project. We hope you enjoy this episode and find it insightful. Instagram: @j_t_lucas Twitter: @jtealucas Port...