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Podcast EP 168: ‘Cantastoria’ - How 11 Students Created a StopMo Film Remotely During the Pandemic

Animators Stephen Belford, Anna Harestad, Heather Little, and Tawny Therrien discuss the challenges they overcame creating a stop-motion animated film during the pandemic while working remotely.

Check out Terry Ibele’s Animation Industry Podcast, featuring a new podcast every week focusing on the stories of today’s animation professionals - how they got to where they are, and what they learned along the way. Now home to 168 episodes, the podcasts cover all areas of the industry, including storyboarding, writing, animating, directing, visual development, and game design.

Guests have included Aaron Augenblick, the notorious JJ Villard, Spike & Mike’s Spike Decker, Disney Director John Musker, Sony Lead Animator Humberto Rosa, Cuphead’s Tina Nowracki, Frederator’s Fred Seibert, Tumble Leaf’s Scarlet Nelson, and many others from major animation studios all over the world.

His most recent interview is Episode 168: Cantastoria - How 11 Students Created a StopMo Film Remotely During the Pandemic

This episode features four stop-motion animators, Stephen Belford, Anna Harestad, Heather Little, and Tawny Therrien, who were part of the 11-person team who created Cantastoria, an award-winning stop-motion film produced at Sheridan College during the pandemic. Together, they share the challenges of producing a stop-motion film remotely (during a pandemic!) and some of the unique solutions they came up with to complete it.

Tune in to Ibele and the stop-motion team to hear:

  • Why the group chose to create a stop-motion film as a team from a predominantly 2D animation school.
  • How they used the story to make a remote pipeline work more cohesively.
  • Tips on creating a stop-motion studio space in your bedroom

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Ibele, himself a stop-motion animator (see AWN’s Fresh Takes piece on his whimsical short, The Silly Duck Wizard, deftly digs into all manner of topics, encouraging interviewees to share insights and opinions on a wide range of topics like pitching shows, marketing your work online, key skills studios look for when they bring on talent in storyboarding, vizdev, character design, and animation.

In 2018, Ibele, who lives in Toronto, decided to quit his career as a Marketer and pursue his love for animation. Since then, he’s become well known for his viral animation productions, which include the previously mentioned Silly Duck Wizard, which is how AWN first came to know him and his work.

Learn more about Ibele’s work and podcast by visiting terryibele.com. You can find all The Animation Podcast episodes on his Soundcloud site: https://soundcloud.com/animation-podcast.

Debbie Diamond Sarto's picture

Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.