Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, many animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets, or clay figures.
The Ren & Stimpy Show, commonly referred to as simply Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. Originally produced by Spümcø, the series aired from August 11, 1991, to December 16, 1995, with a total of five seasons and 52 episodes. The series follows the adventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstable and psychopathic chihuahua dog; and Stimpy, a good-natured and dimwitted manx cat. It is the third of Nickelodeon's original animated series—known as "Nicktoons"—alongside Rugrats and Doug—and is considered to be one of the progenitor series of the brand.
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animation is closely related to filmmaking and like filmmaking is extremely labor-intensive, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators. The methods of creating the images or frames for an animation piece depend on the animators' artistic styles and their field.
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the visual and performing arts. It offers Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees through its six schools: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater.
Klasky-Csupo, Inc. is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó in a spare room of their apartment and grew to 550 artists, creative workers and staff in an animation facility in Hollywood.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is an American animated television series developed by Klasky Csupo for Nickelodeon. The show focuses on three young monsters—Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm—who attend a school for monsters under a city dump and learn to frighten humans. Many of the episodes revolve around them making it to the surface in order to perform "scares" as class assignments.
Traditional animation is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation.
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.
Peter Chung is a Korean American animator. He is best known for his unique style of animation, as the creator and director of Æon Flux and Reign: The Conqueror .
In visual arts, a model sheet, also known as a character board, character sheet, character study or simply a study, is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of a character in arts such as animation, comics, and video games.
Gábor Csupó is a Hungarian-American animator, writer, director, producer and graphic designer. He is co-founder of the animation studio Klasky Csupo, which has produced shows like Rugrats, Duckman, Stressed Eric, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.
Arlene Phyllis Klasky is an American animator, graphic designer, producer and co-founder of Klasky Csupo with Gábor Csupó. In 1999, she was named one of the "Top 25 Women in Animation" by Animation Magazine. She is most known for her work with Nickelodeon in the 1990s and 2000s. She, along with her ex-husband Gábor Csupó and Paul Germain, co-created the animated series Rugrats as well as the 2021 revival series of the same name.
Nickelodeon Animation Studio is an American animation studio owned by Paramount Global. It has created many original television programs for Nickelodeon, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats and Avatar: The Last Airbender, 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.
S4 Studios, LLC is a multidisciplinary broadcast design, animation and visual effects studio, founded in 1999 by Geoffrey Kater and Dale Hendrickson, augmented two years later by Larry Le Francis. The company is named after a highly sensitive and purportedly extraterrestrial alien research complex located within the super-secret U.S. government base Area 51. Kater, a futurist designer, came from Saban Entertainment. Le Francis was an animation series producer at Klasky Csupo, Inc. and Nickelodeon. Hendrickson designed some 2,000 characters for Fox TV’s The Simpsons during his seven years as the series’ Character Design Supervisor. He left S4 Studios in 2006. Originally located in Van Nuys, California, the company relocated to Hollywood, California in 2004.
Phil Ortiz an American animator. He has worked for more than 30 years as a professional artist, ranging from daily newspaper comic strips to animated cartoons.
"Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" is the second episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 2, 2011. The episode was the first to feature Superintendent Chalmers as the central character and Chalmers' flashbacks references the films The Breakfast Club and Fight Club. In the episode, Principal Skinner challenges Superintendent Chalmers to take over Bart's education after one of his pranks. Chalmers accepts and starts teaching Bart about Theodore Roosevelt and manliness. After he takes Bart and his friends on an unauthorized field trip which results in one of the children breaking an arm, Chalmers is fired. Bart and his friends then take over the school in an effort to save his job.
Gregory Tiernan is an Irish-born, Canadian-based animator, director and voice artist. Along with his wife Nicole Stinn, he founded Nitrogen Studios Canada, Inc. in 2003, through which he introduced CGI to the Thomas & Friends series. Prior to this, Tiernan collaborated on various projects with filmmaker Don Bluth, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Klasky Csupo, Inc. Nitrogen Studios was purchased by Cinesite and he now works for them.
Christy C. Karacas is an American musician, animator, voice actor, director and writer, known for creating Superjail! and Ballmastrz: 9009 for Adult Swim and directing the Cartoon Network series Robotomy.
Igor Adolfovich Kovalyov is a Ukrainian-born Russian animator, director and educator, co-founder of Pilot — the first private animation studio in the Soviet Union. From 1991 to 2005 he worked at Klasky Csupo where he co-created Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and co-directed The Rugrats Movie. He currently serves as a creative producer at Soyuzmultfilm. Kovalyov is also known for his auteur films for which received multiple international awards, including three Grand Prizes at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
