Cartoon evolution.TINY RENEGADE ANIMATION Renegade Animation is an animation studio that specializes in Macromedia Flash animation. It was founded by former Walt Disney Studios animator Darrell Van Citters and his business partner Ashley Postelwaite in 1992, to produce internet cartoons. OF BURBANK HAS GOTTEN NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR ITS TV COMMERCIALS, AND NOW HAS ITS SIGHTS SET ON DOING ANIMATED TV SHOWS AND FEATURE-LENGTH MOVIES Darrell Van Citters Darrell Van Citters is an American animator, best-known for directing the animated television series Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. He was partnered with Ashley Postelwaite of Renegade Animation. He studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts. certainly has enjoyed the national attention he and his Burbank animation boutique have attracted for their creation of a burger-swallowing tattoo that runs around on the body of basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman. The tattoo, featured in a Carl's Jr. television commercial, has brought Van Citters' Renegade Animation Inc. one step closer to its ultimate goal - creating its own characters and doing animated television shows and feature films. "When we started the company we felt that commercials would be the best place to break in and make a name for Renegade," said Ashley Quinn, who handles the business side. Commercials are fine for now, but it's the lengthier and more prestigious animation projects that Renegade is after. And while no feature film jobs have been locked in yet, Quinn said she is optimistic. Even though Renegade is still small, employing just two full-time animators in addition to Van Citters and Quinn, it is well established. During peak work loads, as many as 65 freelance artists are employed, and so far this fiscal year, which ends in October, it has generated revenues of $2.2 million. The firm has even produced the Rolls Royce Rolls Royce the millionaire’s vehicle. [Trademarks: Brewer Dictionary, 928] See : Luxury of commercial animation projects - a Super Bowl TV ad for Nike. The 90-second spot featured basketball superstar Michael Jordan This article is about the former basketball player. For other uses, see Michael Jordan (disambiguation). Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. and Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros., one of which, 1958's Knighty Knight Bugs traveling to Mars in a tiny space rocket to recover Nike shoes stolen by Marvin the Martian This page is about the cartoon character. See Marv The Marsh for the English rapper. Marvin the Martian (or Marvin Martian) is a fictional character appearing in the Looney Tunes cartoons. . "That kind of put us on the map," said Van Citters, who was director of Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . Classic Animation Department and began his career at Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co. The Super Bowl spot was actually a sequel to a commercial Van Citters had created while at Warner Bros. "I'd done the first Michael Jordan-Bugs Bunny commercial at Warner Bros. It seemed like a good time to leave, to get some mileage out of that spot." The timing was good. The company brought in almost $1 million when it started in 1993, and has grown steadily since then. Van Citters says the growth has been a welcome change from the relative stagnation Stagnation A period of little or no growth in the economy. Economic growth of less than 2-3% is considered stagnation. Sometimes used to describe low trading volume or inactive trading in securities. Notes: A good example of stagnation was the U.S. economy in the 1970s. he felt while at Warner Bros. "Working for Warner Bros. was just getting kind of old," he said. "It was a very limited market because we could only use the Warner Bros. characters for commercials. I had staff to keep busy, and I didn't see howl could keep them busy with just Warner Bros. work." So he resigned and with his former assistant. Quinn, opened up shop in the garage of his Burbank home in July 1992. Quinn set up the business end of the company in the guest bedroom of her Silver Lake home. "I would take care of the business as much as I could out of my home," said Quinn. "About 30 percent of the time was spent in the garage." The garage was Renegade's headquarters for about a year and half. "Luckily in the first time period, most of our clients were in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ," Quinn said. The only frequent visitors were freelance animators, who were picking up and dropping off their work. Renegade has since moved to nicer digs. It leased a studio in Burbank that sits adjacent to a Blockbuster Video parking lot. Brightly colored cells of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as , Marvin the Martian and others line the walls of the shop. The deep-red carpeting, lightgray walls and black borders are designed to make studio occupants feel they are themselves immersed in a picture frame. Besides its upgraded physical facility, the company has also grown professionally. Since its breakthrough Nike spot, Renegade has produced animated commercials for Kraft General Foods, Kellogg Co., Apple Computer Inc., Mattel Inc. and Pepsico Inc. Renegade has also created animation for DreamWorks and Disney CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). games. "Their work is fantastic," said client Michelle Strank, referring to a recent Trix yogurt commercial, where Renegade again incorporated live action with animation. The commercial begins as black-and-white live action of two children, who dip spoons into the yogurt and use them like paintbrushes paintbrushes see castilleja. to transform their surroundings into brilliantly colored animation. "(Renegade's) animators brought our story to life," said Strank, a TV commercial producer with Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising in New York. Such satisfied customers go a long way toward helping develop a reputation. But an overemphasis o·ver·em·pha·size tr. & intr.v. o·ver·em·pha·sized, o·ver·em·pha·siz·ing, o·ver·em·pha·siz·es To place too much emphasis on or employ too much emphasis. on producing top-quality work without minding the bottom line can be a problem. Renegade learned that lesson the hard way a few years back when it underbid a cereal commercial. "That one hurt," recalls Van Citters, explaining that his company actually lost $8,000 on the job. Quinn, being the one in charge of the business side, also remembers. "The client wanted a ton of changes. They didn't like the way some things were looking," she recalls. "At that point, to keep the client happy and keep your reputation as a company that does good work, you just keep going. We learned a lot by doing that." Spotlight Renegade Animation Inc. Year founded: 1992 Core business: Animated TV commercials Top executives: Darrell Van Citters and Ashley Quinn Revenues in 1992: $947,800 Revenues in 1996: $1.8 million Employees in 1992: 2 Employees in 1997: 4 Goal: To produce animated feature films and TV shows and develop new characters Driving force: Strong demand by TV advertisers for more animated commercials, and for coupling animation with live action |
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