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 2015-2018 ANIMATION GUILD CONTRACT We are now twelve months into the latest Animation Guild contract, one of the best the Guild has negotiated in long time. 365 days ago: There are no rollbacks in wage minimums, and TAG negotiated higher contribution hours for storyboard artists working under “unit rates”, as well as improved hours…

Rough Draft Studios, Inc. and the Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE have reached agreement for a term contract covering animated features and television series created by the Glendale California studio. Rough Draft Studios (Glendale) is known for its work on “Futurama”, “The Simpsons Movie”, and a wide variety or animated television shows and commercials. Its…

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…

We continue to see increases in studio employees working under the Animation Guild’s jurisdiction in Southern California. As of today, there are 3,418 designers, animators, technical directors and writers at our contract studios. On the pension side of the ledger book, we have the same number of people enrolled in the Motion Picture Industry Individual…

The Animation Guild is happy to be attending the CTN Animation Expo this weekend at the Burbank Marriott Hotel. For the sixth year in a row, we look forward to speaking with animation professionals and enthusiasts, sharing how we strive to keep the benefits and workplace conditions in the animation industry the best they possibly…

This has been in the offing for some time: Waterman Entertainment has bought Film Roman — best known as the source animator for “The Simpsons” — for an undisclosed price from Starz Media. Waterman is headed by Steve Waterman, who has exec producer credits on “Stuart Little” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” Film Roman’s Dana…