2008 Woodie Awards
Storyboarding Success Story 30 Minutes Away
Nickelodeon, Disney storyboard artists call Manitowoc home
Brian Moser
Issue date: 2/19/04 Section: Features
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Carson Kugler greeted us at the door with a warm smile, holding his one year old son, Lucian, who had green eyes and a goofy look on his face. Carson welcomed us to his spacious house with a "come on in guys." It had a homely aura to it; the perfect atmosphere for a family.
We sat in his living room, which had a hardwood floor. There was a black rug under a coffee table, which was empty, except for a child's educational game. We chatted for a minute about our time at Lakeland before being joined by his wife Tina, also a story board artist. This was the perfect setting for the interview.
Carson and Tina are artists for many popular cartoon shows such as "Hey Arnold," "CatDog," "SpongeBob SquarePants," and even "Dora the Explorer."
They are both originally from Milwaukee, but Carson moved to Manitowoc just before high school. Both also enrolled in UW-Milwaukee where they sought slightly different majors.
Carson majored in Fine Arts, which consisted of classes that dealt with drawing, painting, and film. Tina went for a Film Major, which consisted of drawing and film classes. The couple met in a stop motion class. This is where the two learned about how the business of animation worked.
Animation isn't done all at once. It takes planning with the use of storyboards. Storyboards are the rough sketches of the scenes of a show that plan how the entire episode will be drawn.
They met the stop motion artists who have done "The Nightmare before Christmas" and "Andre the Giant," which helped them with their understanding of the business.
Right after college graduation, the couple packed up and went to Los Angeles to find careers in animation. They chose to live in a small suburb of L.A. called Glendale. Oddly enough, the couple said that no animation is done in L.A., but they did numerous storyboards.
The couple took on secondary jobs to make ends meet while they added to their profiles. Carson worked in a bookstore, while Tina worked in the mall. This occurred for about five months, until Carson got his big break.
We sat in his living room, which had a hardwood floor. There was a black rug under a coffee table, which was empty, except for a child's educational game. We chatted for a minute about our time at Lakeland before being joined by his wife Tina, also a story board artist. This was the perfect setting for the interview.
Carson and Tina are artists for many popular cartoon shows such as "Hey Arnold," "CatDog," "SpongeBob SquarePants," and even "Dora the Explorer."
They are both originally from Milwaukee, but Carson moved to Manitowoc just before high school. Both also enrolled in UW-Milwaukee where they sought slightly different majors.
Carson majored in Fine Arts, which consisted of classes that dealt with drawing, painting, and film. Tina went for a Film Major, which consisted of drawing and film classes. The couple met in a stop motion class. This is where the two learned about how the business of animation worked.
Animation isn't done all at once. It takes planning with the use of storyboards. Storyboards are the rough sketches of the scenes of a show that plan how the entire episode will be drawn.
They met the stop motion artists who have done "The Nightmare before Christmas" and "Andre the Giant," which helped them with their understanding of the business.
Right after college graduation, the couple packed up and went to Los Angeles to find careers in animation. They chose to live in a small suburb of L.A. called Glendale. Oddly enough, the couple said that no animation is done in L.A., but they did numerous storyboards.
The couple took on secondary jobs to make ends meet while they added to their profiles. Carson worked in a bookstore, while Tina worked in the mall. This occurred for about five months, until Carson got his big break.