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Chris Neuhahn (born January 5, 1972) is an American animator, author and producer [1] from San Diego, California. He is best known for his key roles in bringing the penguin characters from DreamWorks Animation's two Madagascar movies into cable TV series format for Nickelodeon. He has won three Telly Awards for public service announcements that he directed and animated. Chris describes himself as a "burning mass of heaving animation energy."
Chris was one of four brothers who grew up in the eastern county area of San Diego. His father was a US Air Force veteran and later a bus driver for the city of San Diego while his mother developed a real-estate business operating in greater San Diego. Chris worked across a vast spectrum of employment opportunities while he was growing up, including fast-food restaurants and automotive performance equipment manufacturing and rebuilding. He attended El Capitan High School in Lakeside and Granite Hills High School in El Cajon. Popular movies developed into a passion while still in his teens and coincided with his work at a Continental Graphics where he worked on Part Catalogs for the Boeing 747-400 and Air Force One. Exposure to computer-automated design ignited his interest in computer graphics and he started using commercial software packages to develop his production and narrative storytelling abilities. Chris' burgeoning skills led to work with Legal Arts and teaching classes and seminars for Autodesk. Chris also worked at Presto Studios where he worked on popular computer games like Myst III Exile. He also maintained a freelance work regimen working with Artemis and Autocannon
Chris moved to Los Angeles in 2002 and worked for Brain Zoo Studios on Activision's Pitfall Harry game re-release in 2003. Other work projects included the SciFi Channel's Tripping the Rift series at Film Roman and Nickelodeon Animation Studios' Tak .
In 2006 DreamWorks Animation Studios chose Nickelodeon to produce a series for TV based on the penguin characters from the Madagascar movies. Chris helped outline the production processes and methods that permit expansive and lush computer-rendered imagery based upon tight and minimal television budgets. Chris helps direct story content while supervising the visual aspects of the production across a team of eighty-five staff artists. As of June 2009, The Penguins of Madagascar was the highest-rated animated television show playing on American cable networks.
Chris is the author of two books on narrative storytelling through computer graphics, The Maya 6 Handbook and Professional Short Films with Autodesk 3ds Max.
Chris pursues activities of animation with focus equal to his work with computer graphics. He is a certified private pilot and owns a Grumman Tiger A5-B that he flies for fun over greater Los Angeles. And he is an Advanced Open Water SCUBA diver.
Conrad Vernon is an American voice actor, director, producer, writer, and storyboard artist best known for his work on the DreamWorks animated film series Shrek as well as other films such as Monsters vs. Aliens, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and Penguins of Madagascar. He also co-directed non-DreamWorks animated films such as Sony Pictures' Sausage Party and MGM’s The Addams Family.
Nicktoons is a collective name used by Nickelodeon for their original animated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company in their copyright bylines.
Autodesk Animator is a 2D computer animation and painting program published in 1989 for MS-DOS. It was considered groundbreaking when initially released.
Squigglevision is a method of computer animation in which the outlines of shapes are made to wiggle and undulate, emulating the effect of sketchily hand-drawn animation. Tom Snyder of Tom Snyder Productions invented the technique, which his animation studio Soup2Nuts subsequently used in Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist in 1995, and in Dick and Paula Celebrity Special, Home Movies, O'Grady, and Science Court.
Pacific Data Images (PDI) was an American computer animation and visual effects production company based in Redwood City, California, that was bought by DreamWorks SKG in 2000. It was renamed PDI/DreamWorks and was owned by DreamWorks Animation.
Games Productions, Inc., d/b/a Nickelodeon Animation Studio, is an American animation studio owned by Paramount Global through the Nickelodeon Group. It has created many original animated television programs for Nickelodeon, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Loud House, among various others. Since the 2010s, the studio has also produced its own series based on preexisting IP purchased by Paramount Global, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Winx Club. In November 2019, Nickelodeon Animation Studio signed a multiple-year output deal for Netflix, which will include producing content, in both new and preexisting IP, for the streaming platform.
Robert Frank Camp is an American animator, writer, cartoonist, comic book artist, storyboard artist, director, and producer. He has been nominated for two Emmys, a CableACE Award, and an Annie Award for his work on The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Chris Landreth is an American animator working in Canada, best known for his work on the 2004 film Ryan. He has made many animated films since the mid-1990s, including The End, Bingo, The Listener, Caustic Sky: A Portrait of Regional Acid Deposition, and Data Driven The Story Of Franz K.
Teresa Cheng is an animation producer specifically skilled in computer graphics and most famously known for her work on Shrek Forever After, Madagascar, Batman & Robin, and True Lies. She has worked with major agencies such as Warner Brothers Studios, DreamWorks, assumed the role of general manager for Lucasfilm Animation, and most recently has become chair of the John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
The Penguins of Madagascar is an American animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation and co-produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It stars nine characters from DreamWorks' animated film Madagascar: the penguins Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private ; the lemurs King Julien, Maurice, and Mort ; and the chimpanzees Mason and Phil. Characters new to the series include the otter Marlene and a zookeeper named Alice. It is the first Nicktoon co-produced with DreamWorks Animation. The series was executive-produced by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, who were the creators of the animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Disney Channel's Kim Possible.
Mark A.Z. Dippé is a Japanese-born American film director and visual effects supervisor. He made his directorial debut in 1997 with Spawn.
Simon James Smith is a British animator, film director, and voice actor. He is best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation. Smith came to PDI/DreamWorks in 1997 as head of layout for the company's feature film division. A CG animation veteran with nearly 35 years of experience, Smith supervised the layout department on PDI/DreamWorks' first animated feature Antz, serving as the Head of Layout in Shrek. He then directed the Universal Studios Theatre experience Shrek 4-D, followed by the short Far Far Away Idol. His first feature film as a director was in 2007, with Bee Movie. He then directed another DVD short, Megamind: The Button of Doom, before co-directing, with Eric Darnell, the comedy/spy action spin-off from the Madagascar series, Penguins of Madagascar, the mini series "Baymax Dreams" for Disney, and is executive producer "Batwheels" for Warner Bros.
The history of computer animation began as early as the 1940s and 1950s, when people began to experiment with computer graphics – most notably by John Whitney. It was only by the early 1960s when digital computers had become widely established, that new avenues for innovative computer graphics blossomed. Initially, uses were mainly for scientific, engineering and other research purposes, but artistic experimentation began to make its appearance by the mid-1960s – most notably by Dr. Thomas Calvert. By the mid-1970s, many such efforts were beginning to enter into public media. Much computer graphics at this time involved 2-D imagery, though increasingly as computer power improved, efforts to achieve 3-D realism became the emphasis. By the late 1980s, photo-realistic 3-D was beginning to appear in film movies, and by mid-1990s had developed to the point where 3-D animation could be used for entire feature film production.
Nickelodeon Digital, often shortened to Nick Digital and originally known as Nickelodeon Creative Labs, is an American animation studio based in New York City which opened in 1994. It is a division of Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Nickelodeon Digital produces some of Nickelodeon's animated series and creates digital content and motion graphics for the Nickelodeon Group. The company's Burbank, California branch creates CGI and visual effects for Nickelodeon's animated series.
The 39th Annual Annie Awards honoring the best in animation of 2011 were held on February 4, 2012, at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California.
Steven "Spaz" Williams is a Canadian special effects artist, animator and director.
Jerry Beck is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer.
Olivier Staphylas is a French animator, known for his work at DreamWorks Animation and for his award-winning student film, Le Building. He joined DreamWorks in 2006 and, within a few years, attained the role of supervising animator on How to Train Your Dragon. His work on 2011's Puss in Boots, supervising the titular character's animation, earned him nominations for an Annie Award and a Visual Effects Society Award. He then served as head of character animation on Penguins of Madagascar. Starting in 2014, he served in that position at Oriental DreamWorks. Staphylas has since left DreamWorks and worked on 2021's Wish Dragon alongside Base FX and Sony Pictures Animation.
Ramsey Ann Naito is an American producer of animated films who currently serves as the president of Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation. She is best known for her 2017 production The Boss Baby; it earned her several awards and nominations including an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. Her mother was a painter and her Japanese father came from a long line of haiku artists.
Andrew Huebner is an American television producer with Nickelodeon Animation Studios. In that capacity, he has received one Primetime Emmy Award and three Daytime Emmy Awards.