Happy Trails Animation LLC, is an American animation studio specializing in feature films, commercials, music videos, broadcast graphics and short films. It is owned by Andy and Amy Collen and is located in Portland, Oregon. The company has two divisions, one for digital content and the other for commercial work such as advertisements and music or corporate videos. Happy Trails Animation has received 11 Telly Awards, 1 Crystal Heart Award, 3 Davey Awards, and numerous international film festival acknowledgments from its short films over the past 18 years.
History The studio, known for mixed media films and commercials, was started by husband and wife animators in Portland Oregon 1991. Both Andy and Amy Collen had been freelance animators in the Portland area for Will Vinton Studios during the early 1990s. Over the years Happy Trails Animation has worked on projects ranging from short films like "Rip & Glide" for MTV's Cartoon Sushi to stereoscopic 3D corporate logos for companies like Jupiter 9 Productions for their new Sci-fi feature Quantum Quest to be released through IMAX theaters around the world in late 2009.
Films Over the years Happy Trails Animation has traveled the world of Film Festivals with their short films. Each film is in a different style of animation. The studio is known for exploring with new mediums with their short films. Many of these films have won awards. A few of their films are:
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Marv Newland is an American-Canadian filmmaker, specialized in animation.
Studio 4°C Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio founded by Eiko Tanaka and Kōji Morimoto in 1986. The name comes from the temperature at which water is most dense.
Bob Kurtz, founder of Kurtz & Friends Animation, is a director, producer, artist, and designer who primarily works in films and TV commercials. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute. He has taught at the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts.
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Joanna Priestley is an American contemporary film director, producer, animator and teacher. Her films are in the collections of the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Priestley has had retrospectives at the British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art and Hiroshima International Animation Festival in Japan. Bill Plympton calls her the "Queen of independent animation". Priestley lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
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Method Animation is a French company which produces CGI and 2D animated shows. It originally used stop-motion back in the days. It came together in 2014 as the culmination of a merger of Dimitri Rassam's Chapter 2 and Alexis Vonarb's Onyx Films. Method Animation is the parent company of media conglomerate Mediawan. Paris-based ON Entertainment, headed by Rassam, is one of its divisions. In 2018, Mediawan hold 53.53% stake in Method Animation through its acquisition of ON Kids & Family and ON Entertainment, thus bringing it under the same ownership with Storia Television which was derived from the former French television division of Luc Besson's EuropaCorp.
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