Noodlesoup Prods.’s production of The Venture Brothers shows that you don’t have to be on the shaky side of the U.S. to get TV deals. © Cartoon Network.

New York may never become an animation mecca to rival Los Angeles, but its homegrown cartoon industry has been enjoying a sustained growth spurt as of late. Established companies, recent startups and a growing pool of freelance talent are all benefiting from an increased demand for animation. Low cost desktop technology, new distribution platforms, New York-based ad agencies and cable channels have all contributed to the boom. Today a talented, well-networked animator can stay quite active, while one with a head for business can set up shop and cultivate an identity and a style that will attract clients.

“The last two years or so have been amazing. Animation has been a very busy business here in New York,” an upbeat Nathan Graf, Noodlesoup Productions’ ceo enthuses. As befits someone who specialized in ‘decision sciences’ at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining Noodlesoup, Graf is aware how short and long business cycles can affect a business. According to Graf, the early to mid 1990s were ‘the MTV years,’ the previous boom in New York animation. Once that scene cooled, “a lot of those things shuttered, at least temporarily. There was a general downward trend, a bit of a flight out west by the talent here. Then there was the Internet thing, which burst of course.”

Noodlesoup’s business strategy to protect itself from financial ups and downs has taken it in several directions. “We’re both a service shop and producers of original content,” according to Graf. The four-year-old company enjoyed its first success early on producing The Venture Brothers for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Since then, the studio has produced “a handful of pilots” on a service contract basis, including the Independent Film Channel’s first long-form animated project, the Bob Balaban-created Hopeless.

Graf says that New York-based clients like Spike, MTV and Comedy Central, “know having a production staff a couple blocks away versus 3,000 miles is good.” Noodlesoup has as of late, “spent a lot of our efforts focusing on the commercial world. If you’re going to justify working in and paying New York City rent, Madison Avenue work is one way. They also like walking down the block to a service house.” The company now has five on-staff and five ‘external’ directors it represents to advertising clients. “We’re trying to reinvent ourselves, partially. It’s the same core competency of telling a story, whether it’s 30 seconds or 30 minutes of animation.”

J.J. Sedelmaier’s work like Harvey Birdman has an irreverent feel that fights New York well. © Cartoon Network.

J.J. Sedelmaier’s advice to aspiring animation moguls is to, “stay small; you can ride out slow periods and not have to take work that will harm your reputation.” Thanks to Beavis and Butt-Head and Saturday Night Live‘s ‘TV Funhouse’ segments, J.J. may be one of America’s best-known independent animators. Based in White Plains, a half-hour north of Manhattan, Sedelmaier has actually pulled back from the SNL segments that put his studio’s name on the map. “They were grueling to produce. We worked on tight budgets and schedules and then people started thinking that’s all we did.”

Diversification has served Sedelmaier well. “Commercials are our bread & butter — that’s what we do best,” he explains from an office overflowing with pop-culture memorabilia. “But we have multiple existences: we’re also known for starting SNL cartoons & doing things like Beavis & Butt-Head and Harvey Birdman.” As befits an alumnus of R.O. Blechman’s legendary Ink Tank studio, Sedelmaier is also heavily involved in print and design/illustration work. (One of his specialties is adapting artists as diverse as Don Martin and Al Hirschfeld into animation.) “That’s what’s nice about being well known and doing distinctive work: [clients] want to work with you, and that’s ultimately where you want to be.”