Blues Clues and You | Seasons 3 - 5

2023-11-01

Lead Animator - Brown Bag Films

I started this show in a Senior Animator, but was quickly promoted when I began identifying areas where things could be improved and then executing those improvements on a regular basis.

I created a workflow for perfecting the timing on dance sequences (of which there were many, and through which the team had been universally struggling), I overhauled the animation reuse library to raise the overall quality and to ensure that all the entries would comply with the technical needs of the show (the team had been using a number of workarounds before), I wrote and maintained documentation (animation manuals, databases on song tempos, etc) and I mentored less experienced animators to help them get the most out of their work. I also animated the most complex shots myself so that other artists wouldn’t have to worry about missing deadlines or blowing quotas.

When the market turn-down caused our 5th season to be cut short, it hit everyone like a tonne of bricks. So when our final episode came along with its wonderful script, I said to our depressed team, “What if we made it so they cancelled an Emmy Winning show? Let’s be sad later. Right now, let’s make it clear what happened here.” You really do have to meet the team where they’re at.

I was the Lead Animator on the episode we delivered for consideration, which meant that a significant portion of that episode had my fingerprints on it. Besides that, my work was sitting next to work done by a wonderful team that I resourced, mentored and through no small effort, had to keep motivated through a very difficult season. It was a journey.

But we won that Emmy in the end.