Straight Ahead Animation Podcast

Ray and Yuki are back with Season 3 of the Straight Ahead Animation Podcast! We reflect back on Season 2 by talking about the most played episodes. We also talk about our past 3 years working in the Animation Industry. We finally wrap up by talking about what you should expect in Season 3 of the podcast! Thank you so much for your continued support and if you enjoy our podcast, please share it and...

Our guest this week is Da-Hee Im, a Korean-American Cinematic Animator currently working at Bungie. Learn what gravitated Da-Hee towards working in the games industry over the animation industry. Learn about the ins and outs between Cinematic Animation for games and Gameplay animation. We also discuss how you should consider every opportunity that comes you way because you never know where it may...

This week we have Ren Bernal a Colombian artist currently working as a Character Designer! His journey has taken him back and forth between Character Design and Storyboards! His most notable projects has been storyboarding the Music Video Electric by Katy Perry for Pokémon's 25th Anniversary. Ren is also currently leading a team in creating an independently produced animated series titled Bit Wars...

Nessa Tweneboah is a Black artist working for 6-point harness painting backgrounds! Nessa explains the different roles of the background pipeline including design, paint, and the collaboration that can happen therein. They also talk about their mentorship with Valerie Schwarz, and how that lead to their first break into the industry. We continue on with their work from home experience based in Ohi...

Cecilia Gutierrez is a Mexican-Guatemalan artist, color designer, and former nursing student. Come with us as we explore Cesilia's career so far, and how everything went wrong during her interview. Because of her family's financial situation, she couldn't afford art school or university, but didn't let that hold her back. Learn why she abandoned her track to the medical industry, and all the regre...

Diego & Sebastián Ramírez Jacinto, AKA the Awesombrosos, are Mexican twins and freelance Vis Dev artists! They share their experience dropping out of college, and changing their mindset from being a student to being unemployed to professional. Find out what motivated them to start creating, how their workflow evolved into a mini pipeline, and how they negotiate being a package deal. Despite t...

Hispanic Heritage Month continues with Daniela Rodriguez de la Peña, a Hispanic Artist currently working as a Storyboard Artist at Nickelodeon! She didn't realize she wanted to do story until her final year of college. From there she honed her craft until she got her first break at Nickelodeon as a Revisionist and has been there ever since! Not too long after being a Revisionist, Daniela was promo...

Joining us today straight out of Colombia is Juan Montoya! Juan applied and applied to several job postings until he finally got his start at Awesome Incorporated. We also dive deep on the inner workings of the H-1B Visa and how residency could be achieved. Juan also shares what he enjoys about being a background artist and the little easter eggs he leaves when given the chance. Hope you enjoy as...

Happy Hispanic Heritage month! We're starting out with the powerful Angélica Agélviz: a story artist from Puerto Rico. Her passion shines through everything she does, as she takes us through what it's like working on bumpers and boards. Angé has had such a full career in a short time: from animating for Adult Swim, to storyboarding for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, to directing the short film "...

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 Kon...

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 mo...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 Jenni...

This week we have Michael Rodriguez a Dominican-American writer currently working in animation! Michael has worked for a verity of different studios such as Nickelodeon, Disney and Warner Bros. He is also currently in development with Disney for an original animated series! Learn more about how you bring authenticity to your work and the stories you want to tell! Also learn more about to Tag POC W...

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 sh...

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 stude...

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...

Aishwarya Chandramohan is a story revisionist lead at Wild Brain studios. We discuss her role directing and mentoring her revisionist team, and her experience working with Canadian and Australian studios. Originally from Dubai, Aishwarya talks about going to school in America, completing her master's degree in character design for games, and all the twists that came with being an international stu...

Ferrari Duanghathai Sotthisaowaphak & Tanta Vorawatanakul who are Thai Concept Artist who recently got married to one another! They talk about how they met and why they decided to pursue a masters degree at Academy of Art. We dive into what it is like to be in a relationship with a fellow artist and how they support one another. They also talk about some of the pitfalls of being a relationship wit...

Curie Lu is a Chinese-American, who is a Freelance Animator. She has not only worked as an animator for Powerhouse Animation's Castlevania but has also animated for Toei Animation's One Piece! In her off time, Curie is working on her own personal film Yaoguai where she talks a lot of inspiration from her own cultural background. Curie also talks about dropping out of CalArts and how she came to th...

Jeremy Vicentina is an Asian-American 3D generalist working for Grover Gaming: an expansive studio that makes games for casinos. Jeremy talks about his many duties as a Generalist, the test and interview getting there, and why he chose to accept the position. There are many benefits in going into a less-mainstream facet of animation, such as job security, relocation funding, and learning on the jo...

Meet Joon Chung, script coordinator and absolute sweetheart. From the Sesame Workshop to his job at Nickelodeon, Joon is able to talk about his position as a Script Coordinator on the East coast of the US, and how that differs from the same position held in Los Angeles. Various other things have also helped Joon grow before breaking-in, like the Staten Island Art Grant, and the projects that can b...

We're kicking off our AAPI heritage month celebration with Asians in Animation! Alisha Syed (External Relations Chair) and Katie Dizon (External Relations Director) talk about the organization, its goals and accomplishments, and about its founding with a small quote from Lexie Chu. Meant as a safe-space, Animasians provides resources and events for its members, but the true strength of AIA is its...