Check Out Shawn Branden’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn Branden.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Cartoons have always been an important part of my life. As far back as I can remember some sort of cartoon-adjacent career has been on my mind. Growing up, I was a quiet kid with a loud voice in my head that I didn’t know how to express with words. I discovered pretty early on that I could make cartoons as means of expressing that loud voice. It wasn’t until senior year of high school that I started to get serious about finding a way to pursue “making cartoons” as a career. I didn’t apply to university right after high school and instead spent a couple of years going to Moorpark Community College. I took as many art classes as I was able to and really pushed myself to grow as an artist and start to find my voice. I applied for an internship program that set me up with Brainforest Digital, a company that made high-end animatics for live-action commercials. It was there I became familiar with Adobe After Effects, an animation program which would go on to be a constant in my professional career.

After honing my Illustration skills at Moorpark, I was accepted to California State University: Long Beach (CSULB). I was indecisive whether to pursue a degree in illustration or animation, so a school with a well-known illustration department that was experimenting with a new animation track seemed like a perfect fit to me. At CSULB I started to fall in love with creating characters and bringing them to life through animation. I had the honor of being the first student to finish a short film for the CSULB animation department. My film, “Snowhare” was about going through the stages of grief. Making the film was an integral part of my own grieving process after recently losing a close friend. I was among the first graduating class of the CSULB animation department, which has gone on to be well known for helping many young animators start their journeys. After graduation, I found an internship at the animation studio, Titmouse Inc and had my first experience working with a team of talented professionals that came together for the sole purpose of making great cartoons. I didn’t land any studio jobs right away, so I worked a day job and took art classes at Santa Monica City College and The Concept Design Academy while continuing to apply to work in the animation industry.

Eventually, a friend from school let me know the company she worked for, “Tadapix!” was hiring After Effects animators with strong illustration skills, so I jumped at the opportunity and spent the next 5 years working in all aspects of commercial animation production. I left Tadapix! in 2020 at the start of the global pandemic, in order to focus on finding work in TV animation. I worked on building a character design portfolio which got the attention of a former colleague from Titmouse who encouraged me to apply for a prop design position. I got the job and went on to design props for a couple of shows that aired on Netflix. Since then I’ve been continuing to build my portfolio while working as a freelance animator and doing design work on cartoon shows whenever I get the chance.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I wouldn’t rather do anything else with my life, but no it hasn’t been a smooth journey. Every step along the way has been hard won through experimentation, skill, and perseverance. It’s stressful to go into a career surrounded by so many amazing artists, most of which are as technically capable as you are. Finding what makes my work unique has been a struggle and it will be something that will continue to grow as long as I keep growing.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Most of my professional life has been spent creating 2d animated commercials and shorts. I love working this way because it gives me the freedom to take the creative helm on a project from start to finish. I visualize the project through storyboards and animatics, then I get to create the digital art that I bring into After Effects in order to animate the finished product. Working this way allows me to explore many different styles and discover which works best for each story. I always prefer to bring characters into the story to get the point across not only because characters do such a good job of catching the eye of the viewer, but also selfishly because I love character animation. The feeling that I get from designing a character that I can bring to life through animation is something that never gets old for me.

While a lot of my work has been around animation, design is an area of production that I really enjoy and have specialized in. A professional goal of mine is to work as a character designer, so I’ve been building a portfolio that I hope will help me along the path of accomplishing that goal. In my personal work, I enjoy visualizing characters from ideas that have been bouncing around in my head both from my own unique creations and from roleplaying games that I’ve been developing with friends. I’m a huge fan of horror movies so another creative outlet of mine has been combining some of my favorite horror franchises with some of my favorite cartoons and seeing what madness comes out of it.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
To be kind and respectful to the people in my life. Most of the opportunities that have gotten me where am today have been thanks to people that I’ve worked with or befriended that both enjoy my company and know I can be trusted to do everything in my power to make a great cartoon.

Contact Info:

• Website: shawnbranden.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shawnbranden/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Shawnbranden01
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-branden-5b164017/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gobigalzibar
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCIKFhN6FlTBPSVatOAPBDA

Image Credits
Shawn Branden