The Cartoon Recruit Blog

By popular demand, Cartoon Recruit is hosting an animation jam from November 1st to November 24th with a mystery theme. The purpose of the jam is to encourage artists to collaborate (in teams of three) on 20-second portfolio pieces. Participants are intended to work on their projects over any seven days during the event. You can find details about how to register for the event in our portfolio jam announcement.

Since it wouldn’t be an animation jam without a bit of healthy competition, we invited seven industry artists to join our judges panel. Each judge has the opportunity to cast votes for their three favorite films. The film with the most votes will be crowned winner of the jam during the awards ceremony on November 30th!

Meet this animation jam's judges panel:

• Brent Smith is a layout artist, 3D generalist and team coordinator with nearly 20 years of experience working in Toronto’s animation industry. He also has a well-earned reputation for connecting artists and storytellers.
• Eden Timm is a director, animator, storyboard artist, and college instructor. Their most recent projects include storyboarding at WildBrain Studios and animating on Giant Ant Films' upcoming feature.
• Jake Hollander is an LA-based writer and supervising director, with directing credits on Duncanville and Krapopolis. His indie work includes My Wife the Monster and The Yolk Bros.
• Kaitlin Sutherland is a Vancouver-based director and storyboard artist. Her production credits include episode director on The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder and Assistant Director on One-of-a-Kind Marcie.
• Lindsay Knowler is a Vancouver-based supervising 2D rigging artist and production trainer. She is also the founder of Eat Your Peas, the first animation production school that works like a real studio.
• Megan Ferguson is a director with over 15 years of experience working in the animation industry. She is also a founding member of Ottawa Animators Talking Socially (OATS).
• ZeBirdBrain is a Montreal-based YouTube creator known for producing in-depth Harmony and Storyboard Pro tutorials. She also recently published a series with advice for freelancers in the animation industry. (You can also join her Discord server.)