52-509: Gennady Borisovich " Genndy " Tartakovsky ( / ˈ ɡ ɛ n d i ˌ t ɑːr t ə ˈ k ɒ f s k i / ; born 17 January 1970) is a Soviet-born American animator , writer , producer, and director. He is best known as the creator of various animated television series on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim , including Dexter's Laboratory , Samurai Jack , Star Wars: Clone Wars , Sym-Bionic Titan , Primal , and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal . For Sony Pictures Animation , he directed
104-419: A Warner Bros. Discovery IP. Sam Register , president of both companies, said "Genndy is a true visionary who embodies the creator spirit of Cartoon Network Studios. As he continues to push the boundaries of storytelling and animation, we are excited to have a front row seat both here and now also at Warner Bros. Animation." On March 30, 2023, it was announced that Tartakovsky’s show Unicorn: Warriors Eternal
156-401: A final season of Samurai Jack , during which he stepped away from Sony Pictures Animation. When the series finished airing in 2017, Tartakovsky returned to Sony and directed Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018). After its financial success, two original projects were announced: an R-rated comedy called Fixed and an action-adventure film entitled Black Knight . In May 2019, it
208-417: A Cartoon! , it motivated McCracken to further develop his Whoopass Girls! creation. He recalled that the network could not market a show with the word "ass" in it, so two of his friends came up with The Powerpuff Girls as a replacement for the original title. His new pilot, " The Powerpuff Girls in: Meat Fuzzy Lumkins ", premiered on February 20, 1995, on Cartoon Network 's World Premiere Toons-In , and
260-639: A cameraman's movements). As a result, some studios now hire nearly as many lighting artists as animators for animated films, while costume designers, hairstylists, choreographers, and cinematographers have occasionally been called upon as consultants to computer-animated projects. Craig McCracken Craig McCracken (born March 31, 1971) is an American cartoonist, animator, director, writer, and producer known for creating Cartoon Network 's The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends , Disney Channel and Disney XD 's Wander Over Yonder , and Netflix 's Kid Cosmic . Regarded as "one of
312-470: A character as a 2D drawing or painting, then hand it off to modelers who build the character as a collection of digital polygons. Texture artists "paint" the character with colorful or complex textures, and technical directors set up rigging so that the character can be easily moved and posed. For each scene, layout artists set up virtual cameras and rough blocking . Finally, when a character's bugs have been worked out and its scenes have been blocked, it
364-473: A given scene was hand-drawn, then transposed onto celluloid, where it would be traced and painted. These finished "cels" were then placed together in sequence over painted backgrounds and filmed, one frame at a time. Animation methods have become far more varied in recent years. Today's cartoons could be created using any number of methods, mostly using computers to make the animation process cheaper and faster. These more efficient animation procedures have made
416-403: A group of teen heroes, drawing inspiration from world mythology, and is being billed as all-ages animation . It is being produced by Cartoon Network Studios to be aired on Cartoon Network and HBO Max as part of an attempt by WarnerMedia to reach a broader range of the "older kid and tween market." This was confirmed in a February 2021 announcement which mentioned the series. Tartakovsky described
468-526: A new Cartoon Network showcase project called The Cartoonstitute . After 17 years of employment, he resigned from Cartoon Network in 2009, after it shifted focus to live-action and reality shows. He created Wander Over Yonder for Disney Television Animation and Disney Channel in August 2013. After Wander Over Yonder was cancelled, McCracken pitched a new show to Disney, based on his 2009 comic strip The Kid from Planet Earth . Disney ultimately passed on
520-578: A prequel to his series. The film received generally positive reviews but was a box office failure. McCracken left The Powerpuff Girls after four seasons, focusing on his next project, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends . It premiered with the 90-minute television special "House of Bloo's" on August 13, 2004, on Cartoon Network. He developed the series with wife Lauren Faust and Mike Moon. The show ran for six seasons, all directed by McCracken, and concluded on May 3, 2009. It also won Emmy and Annie awards. In April 2008, he became executive producer of
572-479: A second short, " Crime 101 ", followed on January 28, 1996. The first short to be picked up by the network was Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory , which McCracken would contribute to in early seasons. McCracken's Powerpuff Girls was the fourth cartoon to be greenlit a full series, which premiered on November 18, 1998, with the final episode airing on March 25, 2005. The show has won Emmy and Annie awards. In 2002, McCracken directed The Powerpuff Girls Movie ,
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#1732859276776624-519: A series of anti-smoking advertisements, one for Nicorette in 2006 and two for Niquitin in 2008. In 2009, Tartakovsky created a pilot entitled Maruined for Cartoon Network's The Cartoonstitute program, which was not picked up. Around this time, Tartakovsky unsuccessful pitched Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige a superhero-themed series similar to Clone Wars . He then did some storyboarding work on Jon Favreau 's Iron Man 2 (2010). In 2009, it
676-405: A team of story artists, and synchronizing lip or mouth movements to dialogue already prepared by a screenwriter and recorded by vocal talent. Despite those constraints, the animator is still capable of exercising significant artistic skill and discretion in developing the character's movements to accomplish the objective of each scene. There is an obvious analogy here between the art of animation and
728-492: A variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animation is closely related to filmmaking and like filmmaking is extremely labor-intensive, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators. The methods of creating the images or frames for an animation piece depend on the animators' artistic styles and their field. Other artists who contribute to animated cartoons , but who are not animators, include layout artists (who design
780-599: A visual style inspired by 60s psychedelia), Yellow Submarine and Looney Tunes in Wander Over Yonder , and Dennis the Menace and The Adventures of Tintin in Kid Cosmic . During his time at CalArts, he discovered the cartoons of United Productions of America (UPA), which also heavily influenced the visual style of his creations. His shows often present the underdog as the main focus. For example, Kid Cosmic
832-459: Is not a character; most commonly vehicles , machinery , and natural phenomena such as rain, snow, and water). Stop motion animators do not draw their images, instead they move models or cut-outs frame-by-frame, famous animators of this genre being Ray Harryhausen and Nick Park . In large-scale productions by major studios, each animator usually has one or more assistants, " inbetweeners " and " clean-up artists", who make drawings between
884-572: Is about a group of "punk rock" characters who "may not have the skill or the talent, but they have the determination and conviction" to create a superhero team. Foster's also revolves around a group of misfit creatures that have been abandoned by their original owners. Although the Powerpuff Girls are not typical underdogs, the fact that they are little girls might make people underestimate them as superheroes. He also liked to present "the contrast of cute characters being strong and tough". Although
936-880: Is complete and has been perfected through the " sweat box " feedback process, the resulting data can be dispatched to a render farm , where computers handle the tedious task of actually rendering all the frames. Each finished film clip is then checked for quality and rushed to a film editor, who assembles the clips together to create the film. While early computer animation was heavily criticized for rendering human characters that looked plastic or even worse, eerie (see uncanny valley ), contemporary software can now render strikingly realistic clothing, hair, and skin. The solid shading of traditional animation has been replaced by very sophisticated virtual lighting in computer animation, and computer animation can take advantage of many camera techniques used in live-action filmmaking (i.e., simulating real-world "camera shake" through motion capture of
988-427: Is handed off to an animator (that is, a person with that actual job title) who can start developing the exact movements of the character's virtual limbs, muscles, and facial expressions in each specific scene. At that point, the role of the modern computer animator overlaps in some respects with that of his or her predecessors in traditional animation: namely, trying to create scenes already storyboarded in rough form by
1040-513: The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he met his friend and future collaborator, Genndy Tartakovsky . During his first year, he created a series of short cartoons featuring a character named No Neck Joe, which were picked up by Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation . While at CalArts, he also created a short entitled Whoopass Stew! , which would later become
1092-509: The United States , his family moved to Italy . There, Tartakovsky was first drawn to art, inspired by a neighbor's daughter. Tartakovsky later commented, "I remember, I was horrible at it. For the life of me, I couldn't draw a circle". Kids watching too much TV is not a problem in Russia. There's nothing for them to watch. I came here and got sucked into TV right away. 'Wonder Woman,' 'Batman' and
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#17328592767761144-413: The "key poses" drawn by the animator, and also re-draw any sketches that are too roughly made to be used as such. Usually, a young artist seeking to break into animation is hired for the first time in one of these categories, and can later advance to the rank of full animator (usually after working on several productions). Historically, the creation of animation was a long and arduous process. Each frame of
1196-583: The 25th issue of the Dexter's Laboratory comic book series, titled "Stubble Trouble", as well as several stories which are collected in the Dexter's Laboratory Classics trade paperback . Additionally, he helped produce The Powerpuff Girls , co-directed several episodes and served as the animation director and a cinematographer for The Powerpuff Girls Movie ; he co-wrote one of the franchise's comics. Both Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls were nominated repeatedly for Emmy Awards . Tartakovsky created
1248-574: The Sith . The series won three Emmy awards: two for " Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More) " in 2004 and 2005, and another for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" (for background designer Justin Thompson in 2005). Tartakovsky was not involved in the 2008 follow-up series . Tartakovsky created Cartoon Network's animated television miniseries Star Wars: Clone Wars , based on
1300-471: The action-adventures series Samurai Jack , which premiered in 2001; he also wrote comics for the franchise. The series won him an Emmy in the category of " Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) " in 2004. Star Wars creator George Lucas hired Tartakovsky to direct Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003–2005), an animated series taking place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of
1352-420: The animator's job less tedious and more creative. Audiences generally find animation to be much more interesting with sound. Voice actors and musicians , among other talent, may contribute vocal or music tracks. Some early animated films asked the vocal and music talent to synchronize their recordings to already-extant animation (and this is still the case when films are dubbed for international audiences). For
1404-401: The art of acting, in that actors also must do the best they can with the lines they are given; it is often encapsulated by the common industry saying that animators are "actors with pencils". In 2015, Chris Buck noted in an interview that animators have become "actors with mice ." Some studios bring in acting coaches on feature films to help animators work through such issues. Once each scene
1456-400: The backgrounds, lighting, and camera angles), storyboard artists (who draw panels of the action from the script), and background artists (who paint the "scenery"). Animated films share some film crew positions with regular live action films, such as director, producer, sound engineer, and editor, but differ radically in that for most of the history of animation, they did not need most of
1508-548: The basis for Dexter's Laboratory . After two years at CalArts, Tartakovsky got a job at Lapiz Azul Productions in Spain on Batman: The Animated Series . There, "he learned the trials of TV animation, labor intensive and cranking it out". While he was in Spain, his mother died of cancer . Craig McCracken acquired an art director job at Hanna-Barbera for the show 2 Stupid Dogs and recommended hiring Rob Renzetti and Tartakovsky. This
1560-573: The basis for The Powerpuff Girls . In 1993, McCracken was hired by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons as an art director on the Turner Broadcasting System series 2 Stupid Dogs , alongside Tartakovsky. As his first job in the animation industry, he was "never really happy with how that [show] worked". While McCracken was at Hanna-Barbera, studio president Fred Seibert began a new project: an animation incubator consisting of 48 new cartoons running approximately seven minutes each. Dubbed What
1612-552: The cartoons from Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbera--as soon as I started watching it, I fell in love with cartoon movement. —Tartakovsky Tartakovsky's family moved to the United States when he was seven due to concerns about the effect of antisemitism on their children's lives. The family originally settled in Columbus, Ohio and later moved to Chicago . He was greatly influenced by the comics he found there; his first purchase
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1664-650: The crew positions seen on a physical set. In hand-drawn Japanese animation productions, such as in Hayao Miyazaki 's films, the key animator handles both layout and key animation. Some animators in Japan such as Mitsuo Iso take full responsibility for their scenes, making them become more than just the key animator. Animators often specialize. One important distinction is between character animators (artists who specialize in character movement, dialogue , acting , etc.) and special effects animators (who animate anything that
1716-418: The film Star Wars . In 2005, Tartakovsky was appointed creative president of Orphanage Animation Studios . In 2006, he was chosen as the director for a sequel to The Dark Crystal , but was replaced and the film was later scrapped. Tartakovsky served as animation director on the pilot episode of Korgoth of Barbaria , which aired on Adult Swim in 2006 but was not picked up as a series. He also directed
1768-732: The first three films and wrote the fourth film in the Hotel Transylvania series and is currently directing two adult animated films for the studio, Fixed and Black Knight . Additionally, he was a pivotal crew member of The Powerpuff Girls and worked on other series such as 2 Stupid Dogs and Batman: The Animated Series . Tartakovsky is well known for his unique animation style, including fast-paced action, horror elements and minimal dialogue. Throughout his career, Tartakovsky has won five Emmy Awards , three Annie Awards , one WAC Winner , one OIAF Award , and one Winsor McCay Award , among other nominations for his works. Tartakovsky
1820-439: The initial season, but it was not renewed. On 7 April 2011, an animated prologue by Tartakovsky for the horror film Priest premiered online. In early 2011, Tartakovsky moved to Sony Pictures Animation , where he made his feature film directing debut with Hotel Transylvania (2012). In July 2012, he signed a long-term deal with Sony to develop and direct his own original projects. In June 2012, Sony announced that Tartakovsky
1872-452: The majority of animated films today, the soundtrack is recorded first in the language of the film's primary target market and the animators are required to synchronize their work to the soundtrack. As a result of the ongoing transition from traditional 2D to 3D computer animation , the animator's traditional task of redrawing and repainting the same character 24 times a second (for each second of finished animation) has now been superseded by
1924-404: The modern task of developing dozens (or hundreds) of movements of different parts of a character in a virtual scene. Because of the transition to computer animation, many additional support positions have become essential, with the result that the animator has become but one component of a very long and highly specialized production pipeline. In the 21st century , visual development artists design
1976-462: The most powerful people in kids entertainment, in pair with Lauren Faust. Since his early years of career, McCracken has chosen to design characters in a simplistic way (as opposed to the realism of Warner Bros. or Disney feature films) because it is more practical for television production, as money and time limits what the animators can do. In addition to this, he claimed that the crew at Hanna-Barbera wanted their shows "to be different than what
2028-588: The most successful creators of episodic comedy cartoons", his style was "at the forefront of a second wave of innovative, creator-driven television animation" in the 1990s, along with that of other animators such as Genndy Tartakovsky , and has been credited as "a staple of American modern animated television". McCracken was born March 31, 1971, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania . He began drawing at an early age. He attended California High School in Whittier, California and
2080-452: The project as an "extension of everything that I've done from Dexter to Powerpuff to Samurai Jack . It's all those ideas that we practiced, that sometimes were successful, sometimes not as much". On June 15, 2022, Tartakovsky signed a cross-studio overall deal with Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation that lets him develop, create and produce animated programs for a variety of platforms, either with original characters or with
2132-526: The project, and he eventually left the company in 2017. He then pitched his idea to Netflix and it was greenlight under the name of Kid Cosmic . The show premiered on February 2, 2021, and ended on February 3, 2022. It is the first of McCracken's original works to have a serialized format and his return to the superhero genre since The Powerpuff Girls . He pitched 10 projects to Netflix in August 2021, but eventually left by April 2022 due to mass layoffs at Netflix Animation . On July 18, 2022, it
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2184-517: Was a major turning point in Tartakovsky's career. Hanna-Barbera let Tartakovsky, McCracken, Renzetti and Paul Rudish work in a trailer in the parking lot of the studio, and there Tartakovsky started creating his best-known works. Dexter's Laboratory grew out of a student film with the same title that he produced while at the California Institute of the Arts. Tartakovsky co-wrote and pencilled
2236-538: Was an issue of Super Friends . Tartakovsky began attending Chicago's Eugene Field Elementary School in the third grade. School was difficult because he was seen as a foreigner. He went on to attend Chicago's prestigious Lane Tech College Prep High School and says he did not fit in until his sophomore year. When he was 16, his father died of a heart attack . Afterwards, Tartakovsky and his family moved to government-funded housing, and he began working while still attending high school. To satisfy his ambitious family, which
2288-426: Was announced that Adult Swim had commissioned a new series from Tartakovsky entitled Primal , which is about "a caveman at the dawn of evolution ... [and a] dinosaur on the brink of extinction". It began airing on 7 October 2019. On 11 May 2020, it was announced that Tartakovsky's Popeye project was being revived by King Features Syndicate , with T. J. Fixman writing the script. Tartakovsky later clarified that he
2340-562: Was announced that McCracken began developing reboots of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends at Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe . Foster's Home will take form in a pre-school show focused on new characters. In 2023, McCracken received the Winsor McCay Award at the Annie Awards ceremony for his "unparalleled achievement and exceptional contributions to animation". The Hollywood Reporter also named him one of
2392-478: Was announced that Tartakovsky would write and direct a Samurai Jack film from Fred Seibert 's Frederator Studios and J. J. Abrams ' Bad Robot Productions . In June 2012, Tartakovsky said that he had a story to conclude the series and title character 's story, but the project had been shelved after Abrams moved on to direct Star Trek . Tartakovsky created a new series for Cartoon Network, Sym-Bionic Titan , between 2010 and 2011. He had hoped to expand on
2444-596: Was born on 17 January 1970 in Moscow to Jewish parents. His father worked as a dentist for government officials and the Soviet Union national ice hockey team . Tartakovsky felt that his father was a very strict and old-fashioned man, but they had a close relationship. His mother, Miriam, was an assistant principal at a school. He has a brother, Alexander, who is two years older and a computer consultant in Chicago . Before coming to
2496-503: Was encouraging him to be a businessman, Tartakovsky tried to take an advertising class, but signed up late and thereby had little choice over his classes. He was assigned to take an animation class and this led to his study of film at Columbia College Chicago before moving to Los Angeles to study animation at the California Institute of the Arts with his friend Rob Renzetti . There he met Craig McCracken . At CalArts, Tartakovsky directed and animated two student films, one of which became
2548-524: Was moved to Adult Swim, which premiered on the programming block on May 1, 2023. On April 25, 2023, he stated that he had no intention of developing a Dexter's Laboratory reboot after the death of Christine Cavanaugh , the original voice of Dexter. Tartakovsky married Dawn David in 2000 and has three children with her. Animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in
2600-430: Was not working on it yet and funding was still needed, saying that if he had the time he would do it. In mid-2022, an animatic for the film was leaked online and subsequently taken down. Tartakovsky was involved in the development of the video game Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time , which was released on 21 August 2020. On 28 October, a new series by him called Unicorn: Warriors Eternal was announced; it will focus on
2652-552: Was on Nick and Disney". Some of his main inspirations were comic book artists such as Charles M. Schulz , Bill Watterson and Hergé . All of his series have had diverse influences in terms of design, comedy and storytelling. To mention some: 1960s Batman , Underdog and Rocky and Bullwinkle in The Powerpuff Girls , The Muppet Show and SpongeBob SquarePants in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (which also has
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#17328592767762704-515: Was slated to direct an animated Popeye feature. On 18 September 2014, Tartakovsky revealed an "animation test". In March 2015, Tartakovsky announced that despite the well-received test footage, he was no longer working on the project. He moved onto directing original story Can You Imagine? , announced in 2014, but it was cancelled. Tartakovsky directed Hotel Transylvania 2 , the sequel to Hotel Transylvania , released in 2015. In December 2015, Adult Swim announced that Tartakovsky would return for
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