The first Virtual TAG Drink & Draw hosted by engaged TAG members including Erica Smith  was held on October 28th at 7 p.m. Here Erica, who is also a WB Shop Steward and Co-Chair of the Testing Committee, shares her experience at the event. We had about 25 members show up for the event and…

The Animation Guild’s officer elections have been taking place by mail since October 11th. On Saturday, November 12th, the ballots for Business Representative, Sergeant-At-Arms, and eleven executive board seats were counted. Here are the results. … NEW ANIMATION GUILD OFFICERS BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE Jason MacLeod SERGEANT AT ARMS Robert St. Pierre EXECUTIVE BOARD Bronwen Barry Jeanette…

The Animation Guild’s officer elections is ongoing, with competitive races for Business Representative, Sergeant-At Arms, and Executive Board Members. Ballots were mailed to members on October 11th; ballots will be counted on November 12th, 2016 by the American Arbitration Association. All ballots from active members in good standing must be received no later than November…

… gender-wise. The Animation Guild now has 3,794 artists, writers and technicians working under its jurisdiction at studios in and around Los Angeles. Of these, slightly more than 23% are women. The female/male breakdowns at the Animation Guild’s larger signator studios are as follows: … EMPLOYMENT BY STUDIO — WOMEN — (TOTAL EMPLOYEES) Cartoon Network…

The Guild has been holding craft meetings over the past five weeks. Below find the notes for all meetings that have taken place in the upstairs meeting hall at 1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, California: Craft Meeting #1 — Board Artists and Revisionists One year into the 2015-2018 contract, there are 3750 people at signator…

As is our occasional habit, we present to you the number of people employed at our larger* signator studios. TOTAL EMPLOYEES BY STUDIO Bento Box — 89 Cartoon Network — 300 Disney Television Animation — 382 DreamWorks Animation — 584 Dr4eamWorks Animation TV — 309 Fox Animation — 243 Marvel Animation — 66 Nickelodeon Cartoon…

As many know, the Animation Guild covers just about every kind of artistic and technical job related to animation: writers, board artists, animators, designers, background artists, and technical directors. (The Guild doesn’t cover production people). As we come to the end of the first year of the 2015-2018 contract, the board’s officers and board decided…

The term “new media” refers to live-action and animated product produced by studios for delivery over the internet. This usually refers to “Subscription Video On Demand” (SVOD). The one-offs and series produced for that new age pipeline by signator studios are covered by the Animation Guild Contract under “Sideletter N” … “Productions Made For New…

A veteran board artist writes: I’ve been doing TV storyboards for 25 years and this deadline thing is really getting ridiculous. It was insane when they moved the deadline for 11 minutes of board from 6 to 5 weeks but 4 weeks for a finished board is NUTS. I am assuming that this squeezing of…

As I write, this minute, the Animation Guild has 3.467 people working under its jurisdiction. This is a long way from the 700 artists, writers and technicians who were employed under a contract in 1989, but hey. Twenty-seven years ago, animation was the ugly, beaten step-child of the movie and television industry. Now it is…

I’ll be racing around doing 401(k) enrollment meetings for the next month or two, so kindly note this: … The median household approaching retirement has a nest egg of between $10,000 and $20,000. This number is drawn down significantly because 41% of these households have no retirement savings whatsoever. … That doesn’t necessarily mean these…

At Tuesday night’s General Membership Meeting, there was a lengthy back-and-forth on storyboard artists, their current pressures and current schedules. Show schedules are too short. Production people want way more panels than a “Bill Peet” style board. You have to almost animate the action for the animatic. In features, they throw out part of a…