8 Comments »   posted in Business, Chris Prynoski, Titmouse

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Animation video sharing website Aniboom has announced they’re launching a “virtual animation studio.” They’re unclear about how their business model works, but as I understand it, Aniboom intends to create productions for corporate clients by cherry-picking crew members from the large pool of animators who have uploaded videos to their site. On one of their pages, they advertise to potential clients that the 9,500 artists who have uploaded videos are ready to create animation of high-quality in a fast and cost efficient manner.

How can they do high-quality, fast AND cheap? A clue can be found in this section where they describe how animators who participate in their virtual productions will be compensated with “a variety of potential monetary benefits that include revenue share, employment offers and payment for series development with Aniboom.” Note that their ideas of compensation do not include any of those pesky line items that other studios have to contend with like salaries, health insurance, vacation time, retirement benefits, maternity leave, and learning and development opportunities.

Aniboom has been indoctrinating young artists for years through a savvy and systematic use of contests that encourages users to create work for corporations on spec and without any expectation of pay. We’ve warned readers about these contests on mutiple occasions. Now they appear to be pushing the exploitation of young artists to an entirely new (and more profitable) level, and for a company with millions of dollars in venture capital backing, that’s exactly what we’ve always expected them to do.

UPDATE: Aniboom’s rep has told us that everybody who works for them will be paid and they have updated their website, which now says, “We offer creators around the world the attractive opportunity to work from home, on their own schedule and get paid directly via PayPal or Payoneer.”

How much do they pay? Not much according to a couple readers in our comments. The most detailed comment is from Mike who quoted this response from Aniboom:

“Thank you for your response to our call for illustrators. We are gearing up to start production of the second season of a popular animated series for television. It’s a comedy-action show for children based on five heroes who travel to strange fantasy worlds, and fight innumerable foes to try and save their kingdom. We’re looking for character illustrators and background illustrators.

The major production will begin in September, but we’re starting in about 2 weeks to produce the assets and several sequences. Are you interested, and would you be available to work with us starting in around 2 weeks time?

We’re paying:

· $90 an average per sequence.

· $250 for a full character package with all positions and facial lipsync

· $100 for a character with only basic positions.

· $100 for background art

(Thanks, Chris Sokalofsky)

37 Comments »   posted in Business, Internet/Blogs, AniBoom

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Arrested: Disney and Bluth Animator Jeffrey Varab

August 17, 2010 9:45 pm

Jeff Varab, a veteran character animator with credits on The Fox and the Hound, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Balto, Mulan and Titan A.E., was arrested in Florida on thirteen counts of fraud. The story is reported on the Orlando Sentinel website. Apparently, it all stems from his faith-based animation studio Genesis, and a film he made, Tugger: The Jeep 4 x 4 Who Wanted to Fly. We first reported the sordid story of Tugger back in September 2006 and it appears that the situation was never resolved. The comments section of this post on the Animation Guild blog also help fill in pieces of Varab’s life.

27 Comments »   posted in Business, Jeffrey Varab

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Scott Dikkers Launches Animation Website

August 16, 2010 5:28 pm

Scott Dikkers, who helped found The Onion and was its longest-serving editor-in-chief, also happens to be a cartoonist, and he’s launched a new Brooklyn-based animation company Dikkers Animation company. The company website offers three shorts—Tycoon Tykes, Ape Trouble and Bright Lights Big Steam. The hand-drawn cartoons are refreshingly simple family-oriented cartoons with nice little messages worked into each one. They’re paced a bit slow for my taste, but I imagine they’d do well with a younger audience. And isn’t it a refreshing change of pace to see a new animation company promote itself with storytelling-oriented pieces instead of visual prowess?

16 Comments »   posted in Business, Shorts, Scott Dikkers

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Animation Collective’s Larry Schwarz Sends Us Cease and Desist

July 28, 2010 2:20 am

Animation studio owner Larry Schwarz (pictured above in the sombrero) wasn’t pleased with our story from a couple days ago that reported about a lawsuit against his company Animation Collective. His lawyers sent us a cease and desist letter. Here’s the letter:

(click for larger version; the reason for the black bar is that they sent the letter to the wrong email address)

(click for larger version)

This was Cartoon Brew’s response:

Dear Mr Feldman,

We are using the photo of Larry Schwarz and the republication of information from the Wall Street Journal in the context of news reporting and critical commentary, which are uses that may not be authorized by your client, but which serve the public interest. For this, and other reasons, we believe our use is fair. We further do not accept that we have broken any criminal laws in publishing it, and in any event, there are multiple inaccuracies in your complaint. For example, the image of Larry Schwarz was not private; it was posted in a public, unsecured website and made accessible to everybody.

We therefore believe that we are entirely within our rights to publish the photo and the news, and as such we cannot comply with your removal request.

Sincerely,

Amid Amidi
Owner, Cartoon Brew LLC

64 Comments »   posted in Business, Animation Collective, Kelly Denato, Larry Schwarz

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Animation Collective Gets Sued by Artist Over “Ellen’s Acres”

July 26, 2010 4:21 pm

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Brooklyn-based animation artist Kelly Denato (above left), is suing the New York studio Animation Collective. Denato claims that they have profited from her design of Ellen’s Acres and have not paid her contractual share of the royalties based on an agreement she signed in 2002 when she developed the character.

According to Denato, she had an agreement to receive 25% of all revenues stemming from animated versions of the character and merchandising. Afterwards, when the show was sold to Cartoon Network and other outlets, Animation Collective “flat out said, ‘You shouldn’t have been given that contract—it was a mistake,’” and attempted to renegotiate a less favorable deal. In addition to Animation Collective, her suit also names Animation Collective’s chief executive, Larry Schwarz (above right, riding on top); Animation Collective affiliate Kanonen & Bestreichen, Inc.; and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. It remains to be seen how this will play out in court, but Animation Collective’s poor reputation amongst artists and its shady history of how it treats employees lends credence to Denato’s suit.

38 Comments »   posted in Business, Animation Collective, Kelly Denato, Larry Schwarz

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Lifestyles of Animation Executives

July 2, 2010 12:30 pm

Continuing our lifestyles of animation executives thread, here’s some news about Cartoon Network v-p Adina Pitt and her recent purchase of a four-bedroom condo on the Upper East Side for $1.33 million. As somebody who follows the real estate market closely, that amount is hardly extravagant, but it bears pointing out that few animation artists living in New York City could afford to buy a place in that neighborhood or price bracket. And certainly none of the artists who earn salaries on New York-based Cartoon Network series like Superjail! or Robotomy. In animation, as in most other fields, it pays NOT to be creative.

(Thanks, Aaron Bynum)

35 Comments »   posted in Business, Real Estate

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Matt Williames on Working at Disney

June 22, 2010 12:10 pm

If you read just one blog post this week, make sure it’s this one by animator Matt Williames describing his experience working on Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. He states upfront that the piece comes from “a heart that wants to see change” and “My ONLY desire to see Disney recognize how far they have fallen because quite honestly I think we all care quite a lot about the studio that a guy named Walt started don’t we?”

He then goes on to write one of the most courageous things I’ve seen written by a contemporary animator: an honest appraisal of working at an animation studio. Matt’s thesis is that a feature animation studio should offer at least three things:

- A place with amazing films that challenge and inspire their artists.
- An environment of camaraderie (with the crew) where people are challenged and inspired to grow.
- An environment of active education and study.

According to him, Disney failed on all three counts. Watching The Princess and the Frog makes it clear enough that there are serious institutional problems at that studio, but Matt’s post adds a unique perspective to the situation. If anything, he shows that it’s just as difficult for the artists working on Disney’s current crop of films as it is for the audiences who are expected to watch and be entertained by them.

UPDATE: Matt removed the post from his blog.

(via Mark Mayerson)

80 Comments »   posted in Business, Disney

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