At the 30th annual GLAAD Media Awards, Steven Universe received a groundbreaking recognition as the first animated series to receive an award in the Outstanding Kids & Family Programming category. Celebrating its sixth anniversary this may, the show has been acknowledged not only for its LGBTQIA+ themes but also its depiction of healthy interpersonal relationships. We…

Many of you already know Steve Kaplan. He worked at the Local between 2010 and 2015. He is also on the Animation Guild’s Executive Board, serves as a Trustee and participated in contract negotiations. What you may not know about him? That he is a zythophile (look it up!) and brews his own beer with…

Calling all Animators! TAG members Tom Riffel, Drew Newman and Crystal Stromer have joined forces to create an Animator’s Committee for Local 839 members. “We seek to raise awareness of the issues animators are facing in today’s climate and wish to explore the benefits of keeping more animation work in-house,” the trio says. “Our craft…

Up until recently, only your employer could pre-qualify you for training classes. That has changed! In the past, this process (of providing proof of 30 days worked in the past two years) was tied to registering for Skills Training. Now, TAG 839 members can prove eligibility for Skills Training through Contract Services even if they aren’t…

Did you miss the last Lunch & Learn? On Jan. 23, Brock Collins, the Senior Membership Development officer at First Entertainment, came to the Guild to help members understand their credit score better—what affects it and how you can improve your score. For those who couldn’t attend, here are a few highlights from his talk….

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…

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…

… today in Paris: Masked gunmen attacked the Paris offices of satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, killing 12 people before fleeing. French security forces launched a major manhunt in the capital after the gunmen fled the scene of the attack, The Guardian reported. Police are searching for two brothers from the Paris region…

I’m sorry, but I find this a bit odd. The key live-action title has gaining traction in the animation business after years of being seen as a largely live-action only task. This year the field of computer animation passed a milestone when Pixar’s Sharon Calahan became the first director of photography whose work has been…