134 Straight Ahead w/ Harley Knife: Comfort, Transformation, and Moving Forward

Kevin Casas is a Latinx production coordinator and writer working at Nickelodeon studios! He studied Graphic Design in undergrad, and had no idea that production existed in the animation industry. As a graphic designer Kevin built skills in pitch packaging and communication, both of which translated into his role as a production coordinator. Kevin shares what duties are expected of production on CG shows like Max & the Midknights and Star Trek: Prodigy. Kevin strives to join the development team someday, and shares his passion for storytelling and advocating for the stories that people want to tell. http://kevinjcasas.com/ IG: @heyokjc X: @heyokjc If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/straightaheadap⁠⁠!

Karolyn Schenewark-Moses is a Mexican-American artists working in Development at Nickelodeon. From intern to Production Coordinator, Karolyn tells us about what it's like to work in development, and what crucial role this department does in an animation company. Having been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, we talk about how her disability has affected her life and goals, but also about how the diagnosis gave her closure and outlets for how to manage it. Karolyn's original industry goals were to be a color designer, but after having much freelancing success, her ideal artistic outlet has evolved into something else. Nowadays she happily enjoys the stability of her role in development while being able to focus on illustrations and working towards creating children's books. karolynmoses.com IG: @prismakitty If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/straightaheadap⁠!

Meet Harley Knife, a First Nations (Cree) artist who has been animating for over 11 years. He shares his start going from intern to full-time at YetiFarm Creative (now called Artists Animation Studio). He candidly shares his experience living with depression and grief, and how it has affected his work in the past. We touch on his hopes for the future: to inspire the next generation of Indigenous kids to explore careers in the tech industry (animation, development, or coding). IG: @thetinyrobotdoesart Twitch: @thetinyrobotlives Linkedin: Harley Knife If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/straightaheadap!

Making his way to the ring we have Rajkamal Singh a Punjabi-American Character Designer who is currently working as a Storyboard Revisionist. How does something like this happen you might ask yourself? Well tune in and find out how it all started by attend D23! Portfolio: https://www.rajkamalsinghart.com IG: @ruberduckyboi Twitter: @ruberduckyboi Cara: @ruberduckyboi If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Joining us this week is Nina Robinson, a black background artist! We talk about how she got her start and how she took any role that came her way and learned and she went. Ultimately she just want to make art for the gorls and we love to see it! Portfolio: https://www.neens-world.com/ IG: @nii.naa.bean If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Today we have Maritza Louis a Syilx & Secwépemc Character Modeler working in the animation industry! Maritza has experience that spans across Feature Animation, Game, VFX and Cinematics! With all this experience she has been using her knowledge to help mentor fellow native and other BIPOC artist break into the animation industry! Portfolio: https://maritzalouis.com/ IG: @_punchy_ Linktr.ee If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Vanessa Guvele shares her experience being fully remote for the Pixar 2020 internships, juggling Youtube freelance work, and how she made the most of what seemed to be a fleeting dream... that is, until she was offered the story residency! But first, she had to complete her schooling to fulfill the dreams of her immigrant mother. Learn how Vanessa deftly navigated all these things, and got to play DnD along the way. IG: @van_guv Youtube: VanGuv https://www.vanguv.com/ Edited by Ashley Itliong If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi⁠⁠⁠⁠!

This week, we are proud to spotlight the Superhero Project: an organization dedicated to empowering youth impacted by serious illnesses, disabilities, community trauma, and other complex mental health or medical need. They interview these youths, and then design a superhero poster of them. We have the opportunity to speak with Taryn Cozzy, a creative director who also shares invaluable experience from her creative career; as well as Maria Jimenez, one of the many volunteers that make the magic happen. https://www.superheroprojectkids.org/ If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Ricardo Scioville is a Latino character designer, story artist, and creator of Cazadores De Estrellas/Star Chasers. He shares his experience creating a pilot in collaboration with Cartoon Network Latin America, and the project's spontaneous creation. Ricardo chats about his time on Rey Mysterio vs. La Oscuridad, shares some emotional motivations about his inner-child, and we get to try out a new icebreaker game... Portfolio: https://www.behance.net/Rslle IG: @richiscioville Twitter: @RichiScioville Cazadores de Estrellas Pilot If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠⁠ko-fi⁠⁠⁠!

From storyboarding to making their own comics, Chinook Cartoonist Quinne Larsen is telling their own stories! Tune is as we talk about their graphic novel with First Second Publishing and how that came about. We also chat about their love for storyboarding musical sequences. Did we mention they're also in a band? IG: @quinnecl Portfolio: quinnelarsen.net Edited by Edgar Arellano If you enjoy our podcast, please share it and rate us on Apple Podcast & Spotify. We want to expand our platform and amplify these BIPOC voices! If you'd like to support us directly, we have a tip jar open at ⁠⁠ko-fi⁠⁠!