My Internship at Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Throughout the duration of my internship at Nickelodeon Animation Studio I completed 3 main projects, and many smaller projects. The smaller projects/daily activities included:

• Imaging and setting up computers for new users
• Calibrating the Xerox (splash) color printers
• Installing software for users (with given admin rights)
• Moving and hooking up computers when employees change office or cubicle
• Neatly storing equipment in cabinets
• Researching solutions for different problems
• Attending and completing homework assignments for “Nickelodeon University’s” storyboarding, character design, and figure drawing classes.
• Meeting with different productions and “shadowing” various artists (networking!)
• On spare time: drawing in Photoshop using a Cintiq and iMac combo in order to get experience with a Mac computer and practice drawing on a Wacom Cintiq.

The 3 main projects that I completed were:

1. An intern experience binder/guide for IS&T (you’re reading it now!)
2. Creating artwork of any kind for the intern gallery which was publicly displayed and (had the opportunity to be) sold during the month of August.

• For this particular project, I sewed four different purses as you can see below. I also decorated the display to make it more colorful and attractive. I did this by hanging artificial flowers and abstract photographs of the purses, which I had shot simply for display purposes. I sold 1 purse! J

Below are the four photographs which I put together, shot and enhanced in Photoshop:

Nick University

Nickelodeon Animation Studio offers a variety of classes to their employees and interns via the Nick University program which was established by the Senior Vice President and GM Mark Taylor. If you are looking for an opportunity to enhance your artistic skills and create some solid pieces for your portfolio, then I HIGHLY encourage you to take advantage of ALL of the classes that Nick University has to offer.

During my internship, I took a storyboarding class with Tuck Tucker from the SpongeBob crew and a character design class with Joel Fajnor, the Design Supervisor from Kung Fu Panda. This was an excellent opportunity to learn and receive critiques from very experienced artists. I also attended a figure drawing class which Nickelodeon offers for free to ALL of its employees. In addition to these three courses, my intern class was treated to a variety of one-day classes which usually took place on Fridays during lunch time. Interns gained much knowledge and wisdom in these classes which went over all aspects of the entertainment industry. These classes included:

• Lunch with Mark Taylor: Sr. VP and GM
• Post Production led by instructor Jason Stiff
• Resumania and Networking for the Networks Led by Josilin Torrano and Jeff DeGrandis
• Production Overview led by Rich Magallanes
• Lunch with Dave Pressler: Creator of Robot and Monster

Below are samples of the work I produced while in Storyboarding, Character Design, and Figure Drawing!

STORYBOARDING

For this class, we were shown an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants in which the last minute of the show was cut off. We were then asked to storyboard our own ending to the episode. In this episode, SpongeBob was living in the Krusty Krab restaurant. When his mess got out of hand, Mr. Krabs kicked him out: “Pack your bags boy, you’re moving out!” was the last line before the cut-off. This was my ending:

CHARACTER DESIGN

FIGURE DRAWING:

PRACTICE ON CINTIQ: