Erick Oh, Jony Chandra, Brian Tinsman, Michael McCormick and Hayley Porter have all been added as new hires at Baobab Studios, the interactive animation company has announced.
Oh and Chandra have joined the Baobab as directors. Oh comes to the studio after having worked as a director on independent animated shorts, receiving an Oscar nomination for his 2020 short film “Opera.” Most recently, he worked with Baobab on his short “Namoo,” which was made in both VR and 2D. Previously, he worked as an animator at Pixar, and is currently in development on a new project for Baobab. Chandra joins the company after having spent 15 years at the now-shuttered Blue Sky Studios, where he worked in several leadership positions, including head of story and director of development. He worked as a story artist on multiple Blue Sky films, including “Peanuts the Movie,” “Ferdinand” and the “Ice Age” film franchise.
Tinsman and McCormick will be game directors for Baobab, working on interactive projects. Tinsman has worked as lead game designer on both video and tabletop games. He has extensively worked on the popular “Magic: the Gathering” trading card game, and has worked on projects for other major franchises such as “Pokémon,” “Dungeons & Dragons,” “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” “Transformers” “Marvel” and “FarmVille.” McCormick previously served as creative director of Maxis, where he worked on the “Sims” and “SimCity” franchise. He also worked as a lead designer on “Minecraft” and Telltale’s “Walking Dead” series. He is currently developing a new multi-player game for Baobab.
Porter will serve as director of marketing for Baobab. Porter has worked on animation studios’ marketing and PR campaigns for more than 15 years, working with companies such as Aardman Animations. She currently serves on the PR Committee for Women in Animation.
“Since our start, Baobab has been at the intersection of Silicon Valley and Hollywood with a founding team that comes from gaming, animation and film,” Maureen Fan, CEO and co-founder of Baobab Studios, said in a statement. “Our new talent will continue to build upon this position and accelerate us into new areas as we deliver on our mission of inspiring the world to dream.”
Founded in 2015 and led by creative director Eric Darnell (“Antz,” “Madagascar”), Baobab has grown over the past seven years to win nine Emmy Awards, including best interactive media for “Invasion!,” “Asteroids!,” “Crow: The Legend” and “Baba Yaga.” The studio is currently working with Disney Branded Television on “The Witchverse,” an upcoming Disney+ anthology series based on the interactive short film “Baba Yaga.”
