Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535742
SUMMER 2025 7 EVAN HENERSON ("The Evolution of CG Animation") is a lifestyle and entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in L.A. Parent, TV Guide, Orange Coast Magazine, and the Los Angeles Daily News where he was a features writer and critic for nine years. ROMA MURPHY ("Performance Art") is a comedy writer living in Los Angeles and missing her hometown of New York. She is a proud member of TAG and has worked across studios like Disney and DreamWorks. In her free time she likes to cook and have long conversations with her cat. Freelance writer and author KAREN BRINER ("Sketch Appeal") grew up in Cape Town, South Africa where her garden was home to wild chameleons. Her most recent novel is Starry, Starry Heist. WHITNEY FRIEDLANDER ("Leader of the Pak") is an entertainment journalist who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, daughter, and infamously ornery cat. A former staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and Variety, she has also written for Esquire, Marie Claire, and The Washington Post, and currently contributes to CNN. After spending more than 50 years in the animation industry, DAVE BRAIN has a lot of stories to tell. In "Comic Relief," he writes about how he once created a comic strip to share his take on the industry. Despite their creative visions, it's doubtful that Blackton or Cohl could have imagined how dramatically animation would change in just over 100 years. Artists developed new techniques far beyond the chalk drawings of moving facial expressions, and each newly developed technology brought exponential advances. In this issue of Keyframe, we shine the light on a few moments in this journey. Retired TAG member Dave Brain shares a comic strip he created in the 1980s, a time capsule for aspects of the industry that no longer exist (p. 46). And in our cover story on CG (p.34), we reach back into the past to explore not only the evolution of CG technology in animated films, but also how that technology enriched films' emotional resonance and storytelling potential. It seems that no matter what phase of animation we choose to explore, TAG members are there, contributing to the bigger picture with their unique talents. In our article about TAG's winners of Emmys for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation (p.22), each one was recognized for the singular talent they brought to team efforts on the show they were working on. From Tomas Pajdlhauser, whose travel sketchbooks inform his work as a Production Designer (p.16), to 88-year-old Glenn Vilppu, whose classic drawing classes have been popular with animation artists for more than half a century (p.10), there is one thing, though, that doesn't change—human artistic vision is irreplaceable. It's also fascinating to watch how animation continues to find new story homes. Two productions this season remind us that it is constantly expanding its borders. The kids' series Wylde Pak takes viewers into the home of a multigenerational Korean American household (p.13), and the feature film K-Pop: Demon Hunters tackles a global phenomenon (p.28), proving once again how animation can take anything from stick figures to international music idols and elevate it to a new level. Kim Fay editor@tag839.org ANIMATED FILMS HAVE BEEN EVOLVING EVER SINCE J. STUART BLACKTON RELEASED THE RUDIMENTARY HUMOROUS PHASES OF FUNNY FACES IN 1906 AND FRENCH ARTIST ÉMILE COHL CREATED FANTASMAGORIE, A TWO-MINUTE STICK FIGURE MOVIE IN 1908. CONTRIBUTORS FORWARD MOTION E D I T O R ' S N O T E