Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
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multiple different versions of the portrait showing the child's progression from start to finished product. "The fun part is trying to draw like a child," says Carlos. "That's very difficult because we're trained artists that have to go back and create [child-like] illustrations for kids to relate to." SETTING THE STAGE Kindergarten: The Musical is set in a classroom, which presented its own unique set of challenges. Because the show is confined to school grounds, the design team had to be strategic about creating opportunities for variety in the set design. Mini "stages" were spread throughout the classroom to create space for interesting plot points to happen. "We had to make it so that even though we're in the same space, it doesn't feel boring and there is always something fun and interesting happening," says Warburton. Stylistic choices like dimming the lights and spotlighting key characters are some ways the design team would signal the introduction of a song or dramatic scene. "No one ever says, 'I feel a song coming on!'" says Warburton. "Our teacher Ms. Moreno might say, 'We're going to pick our student of the week,' and then the kids would break into a 'Who's it going to be?' song." "It's a natural progression," explains 2D Supervising Director Mallory Coronado. Each story features at least one song animated in 2D that enables exploration of fantastical worlds outside of the classroom: outer space, under sea, back in time. "We get to explore reality while also taking a sidestep into the imaginary," she says. On the boarding side, Storyboard Artist Rebecca Snowden and her team made sure to lead into songs with increasingly dramatic shots or movement that could 34 KEYFRAME F E AT U R E Creating art on behalf of the characters required drawing the world from a child's point of view. 2D art (right) is used to delineate between the students' real world and their fantasy worlds.