Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Anthony.
Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am originally from Toronto, Canada, where I grew up and was always into Art and Animation as a kid. Fast forward some years, I continued that pursuit and took a 4-year degree program at Sheridan College, where I studied Animation. I was mainly interested in Visual Development and Design when it came to a specific area of expertise in Animation. Putting my focus there, I pushed towards those types of jobs after graduating college. After graduating, I worked for various studios in the city. A few of my favorite studios being House of Cool and Arc Productions. Here, I gained my first industry experience in Visual Development, working on CG productions such as Lego Marvel and Ice Age. To further my growth as an artist, I took various online classes while maintaining a job in order to gain more knowledge that I could directly apply to my day-to-day work. Another memorable project along my journey was Hotel Transylvania 3, where I was tasked to paint story moments based on the director’s storyboards.
In 2017 I moved to the west coast (Vancouver Canada) for work and worked on a few development projects and feature film: DC’s League of Super-Pets. From there, I continued to work on my art on the side, doing various personal works and studying online. In 2019 I started working for Netflix Animation on Inside Job and in 2021 I moved down to Los Angeles to work as Lead Background Painter on a kids series Storybots: Answer Time. I have been here since working in animation and currently work at Nickelodeon as Color Supervisor on an upcoming series, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road as growth tend to always come with hard work and sacrifice. Artist skill progression is a slow process that requires patience and hard work to see improvements as years go by. Setting yourself apart from another artist often times can be tough when searching for a job, so I had to figure out ways to be more employable when particular jobs weren’t available. With the animation industry mainly being contract-based, it is also difficult to find the long-term stability other jobs may provide, so it’s always important to find different avenues of income. The animation industry is saturated with a lot of talent often times creates a lot of competition when looking for new roles.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Visual Development Artist and Background painter for Animated features and Series. I currently work as a Color/Design Supervisor at Nickelodeon on an upcoming series, “Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” In this role, I oversee the majority of color for the show as well as paint key backgrounds for production, create style frames, and address retakes, to name a few tasks. I also manage a very talented team of artist all working towards a common goal to produce an amazing show. Within the industry, I specialize in painting backgrounds for 2D productions and visual development for 3D productions. My Visual Development jobs have ranged from Set Design and prop design to moment paintings, where a combination of environment design, character design, and cinematics have to be taken into consideration to produce a painting that gives an impression of a final frame in a movie. This probably would be my favorite task/job, along with creating style frames that are similar to moment paintings but a bit more direct in 2D productions.
Aside from industry work, on social media, I am known for painting various street scenes around LA. I mainly do this as a pastime/brand development project for myself for long-term growth outside of Animation. LA offers a rich variety of urban landscapes mixed with old and new which often interests me in capturing in my own style. I also enjoy the variety of foliage within urban landscapes found throughout Los Angeles. The landscape itself inspires me to create.
I am most proud of being a recent judge for the 2023 Emmys. It was a great experience to be able to judge such amazing talent in the industry and see all the variety in various shows currently airing on TV. Being able to judge work with other industry peers was also an amazing experience as we each got to discuss with one another how we felt about particular works and what motivated us about their submissions.
What sets me apart from others, I think, would be the ability to wear different hats within the industry. The animation industry can be very focused and require artists to be specialist in one area. I feel as an artist it’s important to be able to market myself to take on different roles and wear different hats within my main skill set. Sometimes a particular job may not be available or someone else may have been chosen for the role. Being able to work in different roles gives me the ability to broaden my chances of getting a job or stay employed a studio longer by being able to jump into different roles. It also allows me to broaden my knowledge in specific areas and learn new things I can apply throughout my skillset as a whole.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The animation industry is a fast-paced industry which is always changing. In the next 5-10 years, I can see the need to learn new tools and adapt to new technologies within the industry. AI is a controversial topic at the moment within Animation, but it is predicted it will disrupt the industry in some way within the next 5 years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://markanthonyvisdev.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oomarkanthony
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-anthony-5267037b
