Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1532153
Angela Mueller, Character Layout Artist/Character Designer Angela Mueller was already at Nickelodeon when she heard rumblings of a buzzy new series in development on the same floor. Given Mueller's animation layout experience and interest in anime, her then-boyfriend (now-husband), Josh Hamilton, had already joined the Avatar crew as a Writer's Assistant, and he submitted her name for consideration to join the artistic staff. She was hired as a Character Layout Artist, and midway through the first season joined the character design team reporting to Konietzko. "I had worked in primetime and some other shows that were more cartoony, but my [personal] style was always more action adventure, more realistic proportions, more anime-focused," says Mueller. "So it was such a fun opportunity to try to do that for a series for the first time." Mueller feels the anime of Avatar embodied a Westernized style, less cartoony and with more realistic proportions than its Asian counterparts. Over time, she would learn to emulate the specifics of Konietzko's drawing style, reaching the point where the clean-up notes would be minimal "knuckles and nostrils," as she liked to joke. Mueller grew up watching fare like Batman, Gargoyles, and G. I. Joe, which she found "too kiddy, but that's all I had." Even as she was working on Avatar, Mueller sensed that the series was breaking new ground for kids TV both visually and in storytelling. "I would see the storyboards and the animatics–I'd get the scripts and start to do the designs and dive in a little bit more– and it was like, 'Wow there's a lot going on,'" says Mueller. "The visuals, too. I go back and look at some of the shows [from] the mid-90s that I thought were beautiful and amazing, and they're a little hard to watch." But when she looks back on the anima- tion sequences, choreography, and quality of Avatar, she believes it holds up. Just four years later, on The Legend of Korra, everything about how Mueller worked had changed. She remembers pulling out her big box of supplies. She was around some younger artists, and one took out the eraser brush and asked, "What's this for?" She had to explain it was for brushing away eraser shavings. She was given her own computer station and worked on a Cintiq— a big leap from Avatar when she was drawing by hand with mechanical pencils, cleaning up right on the paper, and scanning paper images to be digitized. While she likes how technology has made her work faster and more efficient, Mueller marvels at what Avatar accomplished in that pre-digital age. Ethan Spaulding, Storyboard Artist/Director Like Mueller, Ethan Spaulding was attracted by the buzz sur- rounding the new project at Nickelodeon. A colleague from The Simpsons was joining the team, and she shared a videotape of a short that DiMartino and Konietzko had made. The quality of the short–which included moss on the rocks and boulders in the background–blew Spaulding away. "I'm like, okay, these guys are paying attention to [Studio] Ghibli," Spaulding says. "I was a lifelong fan of anime, and I always wanted to try my hand at doing action stuff. Mike and Bryan liked my test, and it went from there. I lucked out." Having spent 10 years as a Character Layout Artist on The Simpsons, the opportunity to work on Avatar gave Spaulding his first professional experience as a Storyboard Artist and, in season two, as a director. In both cases, he followed the leads of DiMartino and Konietzko. "Mike and Bryan had a clear vision of what they wanted, and it was a chance for me just to go wild," he says. For opportunities to grow, Spaulding cites the realistic drama and philosophical elements that are sprinkled throughout the series. A cerebral character like Aang, who thinks before he leaps, is unusual for the genre. "The characters had more real- life grounded aspects to them than your standard animation at that time," he says. "It was something to sink your teeth into as a board artist. You can really make those characters act and emote. It's not just happy, sad, or angry emotions. Everything about that series was chock-full of gray moments." Spaulding, who would later go on to direct on the Batman, Mortal Kombat, and Scooby-Doo franchises, made his directing debut in Avatar's second season on the "Return to Omashu" episode. "It was exciting," he says. "You're trying to balance the story, and you have your storyboard team. You're dealing with the producers and writers. We actually over-boarded." The 22-minute episode ended up around 32 minutes, meaning a lot had to be cut. "Back then I was very scared to edit stuff, [but] as a rookie director, you've got to learn the main part of the story that you need to keep. Visualizing the script as best you can and telling an entertaining story was my main goal. Hopefully we did that." "THE CHARACTERS HAD MORE REAL-LIFE GROUNDED ASPECTS TO THEM THAN YOUR STANDARD ANIMATION AT THAT TIME. " —ETHAN SPAULDING SPRING 2025 21