Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541699
e referre coming u it te ieas. "And still," he says, "I'm pretty bad at raing caracters on moes. at Im good at is coming up with absurd scenarios tat i oefuy mae you aug. He transferred to California Institute for the Arts to study character animation, an e sent seera monts with the Moscow animation studio oyumutm oring for te is program Prostokvashino. is a ee im iscoer tat is minset as etter suite for storyoar artistry. I ou muc rater sen e minutes on a singe storyoar ane an moe on to the next thing, and churn out a oen or to oen ieas in a ay, an ten see at ors, e says. eensiy escries te sos tat insire im as aing umor ase on cartoon logic, exaggerated acting ioence, an sime staging. ese included Ren & Stimpy, SpongeBob SquarePants, Looney Tunes, and The Angry Beavers. ut as e continue studying films and other artists, he says his tastes and ambitions eeoe I ecame more intereste in steing out of te comfort one and further exploring the potential of our meium of animation. It is ery fun to comine te ie an umor of a classic cartoon with modern tools an et of a moern animate fim. s e gre as an artist, eensiy also honed his knack for dark humor an aut storyteing. e mae shorts like Getaway Granny, about a grandmother who spends her birthday helping her granddaughter pull off a bank heist when all she wants to do is go to ennys. noter one, Pissed, is about a little boy who wakes up his older sister on a camping trip because he's too scared to use the woods as a atroom in te mie of te nigt. ese ae e to os ie toryoar Artist for Matt Groening's fantasy series Disenchantment and the sci-fi series WondLa from TAG member Bobs annaay. es currenty oring as a toryoar rtist on is first feature film, an as-yet-to-be-titled project about Jack and the Beanstalk at yance for anoter arts alum and TAG member, Director ic oore. toug eensiys on tastes may steer toward the weird and mature, e eiees e can e ersatie creatiey. n an animate project, " the sum is equal to the parts," he says, sounding like the ci of matematicians tat e is. ou nee eoe o are ery goo it emotiona stuff. n you nee people who used to work on The Simpsons or SpongeBob to end up with any gags. "I b r it sg u • •h• c• - €n a f…†•‡† e‰Š‹-ŒnŽ •h• p•'Œa" • u m•–— • aŒ˜™Œo. I œ•rž u' Ÿ c•¡ •h• œb n¢ h… • a c"£¤¥ c¦†•• w¨ m• t•Ÿ‹¥ n¢ dŠ•‡ • a m• aŒ˜™d ªl—." As for the part of the sum he brings to the table, he says: "One might not think of Russians as particularly funny people, but that couldn't be further from the trut. ussians exerience a ne oitica crisis retty muc eery ecae e ay Russians cope is in many ways through humor… It really is no surprise then that I seciaie in comey as an artist. Im ae to fin umor ere fe oters can. —Whitney Friedlander WINTER 2025 17 T H E C L I M B