Up next: Toon talents

Tyros use hand-tooled techniques in innovative new ways.

Andersen M Studio
Collaborating with brother Martin from their U.K. design firm, Andersen M Studio, Danish stop-motion artist Line Andersen puts her intricate cut-paper designs to work for clients ranging from the New Zealand Book Council (2010 Annecy selection “Going West” brings the first pages of Maurice Gee’s novel to life) to Star Alliance (transforming boarding passes into their destinations).

Ant Blades
The British cartoonist behind the Daily Express’ Bewley strip, Ant Blades has built an online following translating his wit to the world of animation, designing clever 30- to 120-second shorts for BBC Comedy and various commercial clients (including Three Olives vodka) under the signature “Sketchy.” The nickname fits Blades’ appealing hand-drawn style, as seen in “Pub Dog” and “Duel.”

Tiny Inventions
Husband-and-wife team Max Porter (who attended Rhode Island School of Design) and Ru Kuwahata (a Parsons grad) blend handmade puppets with digital animation in fest favorite “Something Left, Something Taken,” playfully telling the story of a couple convinced they shared a ride with the Zodiac killer. The duo just relocated their Brooklyn-based creative operation to Holland, where a two-year grant from the Netherlands Institute for Animation Film allows them to focus on new projects.

Sylvain Marc
A 2006 graduate of Gobelins, France’s top toon school, Sylvain Marc went on to do character design and animation work for the likes of Laika and Framestore (where he worked on “The Tales of Despereaux”). Marc demonstrated primetime-ready skills in “Verne on Vacation,” a short featuring a would-be explorer, magic merman and robot pig created for Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe.

Dash Shaw
A child of the ’80s, American underground comicbook artist Dash Shaw made the leap to animation with a hand-drawn trailer for his graphic novel “Bottomless Belly Button.” After participating in the 2010 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Shaw paired up with John Cameron Mitchell and drew the comic panels for “Rabbit Hole.” Mitchell is producing Shaw’s first feature, “The Ruined Cast,” set in a future where people can wear strangers’ bodies.