Today we’d like to introduce you to Dana Corrigan.
Hi Dana, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Pencil Gator Animation Studio began from a desire to tell my own stories through animation. I knew since I was young that I wanted to be a storyteller. In Elementary School, I used to write children’s books and read them to my class. I would be enthralled with cartoon shows, how I would get to know the characters and imagine where the episodes would take them as I got to learn more about them, their stories, and the rules of their world. It wasn’t long before I knew I wanted to be an animator and be involved in all areas of the process.
However, the creative industry is challenging to get into, and like many other young artists, I was advised to have a backup. It’s a good idea and one I relay to my own students because it can take years to establish oneself in our fields. I went for an undergraduate degree in Electronic Media Art and Technology at the University of Tampa, graduating in 2006, and worked in customer service while taking on freelance gigs as an Animator, Illustrator, and/or Graphic Designer. I later pursued an MFA in Animation at Savannah College of Art and Design to add teaching as an option, both because I loved the energy and creativity in the college environment, and I wanted to keep myself current.
After I graduated with my MFA in 2011 started teaching Digital Art and Animation at the University of Tampa and later at the University of South Florida. I continued to freelance on the side, taking on larger projects and occasionally assembling teams of colleagues as well as current and former students. My teaching background helped give me insight into gauging the strengths of my team, helped to improve my communication, and foster a collaborative spirit in our projects.
I never lost interest in creating my own stories. I’ve had a project dear to me, Fate Saga, which I’ve had for a long time and developed as part of my MFA Thesis’ visual component during graduate school. Through SCAD, I had the opportunity to pitch to Warner Brothers in 2011, and in 2013 I pitched to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. The feedback was helpful and inspiring, but it’s a challenge to get an original project picked up without a fan base, and I eventually had to put it down and focus on building income.
Around 2018-2019 I was inspired to pick Fate Saga back up again. With the success of other pilots like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Bee and Puppycat, and later Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, it felt like there were more opportunities open for independent artists and animators to create their own projects and draw their own audiences. However, creating an entire pilot episode solo is an incredible challenge and limits the film to the skills and limitations of a single person.
To both make the best of my skills and surpass my limitations, I hired some of my former freelance teammates as well as current and former students, whom I paid out of pocket. We’ve been working on the project slowly but surely and have picked up traction in the last year. In 2021 I had the pleasure of presenting Fate Saga at the Birds of a Feather: Women in Animation event at SIGGRAPH, and this year we had a successful Kickstarter campaign to help expedite the production process.
Fate Saga is a fantastical, action 2D animated series about fate and free will and follows a healer trying to save her town from natural disasters. She meets a knight who can see the future, and they embark on a journey across the continent to the Magic School of Dero, where the healer can learn the magic to save her town, and the knight can warn Dero’s powerful mages about the impending apocalypse.
It’s a story of found family and camaraderie. Our heroes uplift each other with their own unique skills and experience, complementing individual weaknesses to survive this growing cataclysm. The end of the world exposes the marrow of our characters, unleashing the darkness and selfishness of some, the helpless attitude of many, and the sacrifice and servitude of true heroes.
During the production of the project, we’ve officially become Pencil Gator Animation Studio. Fate Saga’s pilot is a proof of concept of both the project as a whole and Pencil Gator as a self-sustaining entity. I’m excited to see the project gain momentum and eager to see where it goes from here!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The biggest challenges of working on an original project are money and time. Unless it’s a commissioned project from a company, investor, or network the project isn’t going to generate income for a while, if ever. An individual creating their own project does it for the love and want to see it happen and the hope that one day it will grow an audience and gain financial support be it by a network, company, or crowd fundraising. Also, while my colleagues have been incredibly kind, I would never expect anyone who helps me with this project to do it for free, so there’s the cost of bringing them on board and paying them for their time.
As a result, the project is balanced with my teaching and freelance jobs, so sometimes my commercial work forced the production to slow. It’s the nature of the game. On a high note, recently, we’ve had some success with fundraising, merchandise sales, presentations, and conventions, and Fate Saga is gaining traction. My hope is for the project to become self-sustaining so we can spend that time and energy to present our story at its potential.
Samples of the project, behind the scenes, tutorials, and opportunities to donate or buy merchandise are all available on www.fatesaga.com.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a 2D Animation instructor and freelance animator. My specialty is in 2D Production, and I tend to work in Technical Direction, Production Management, Animator (frame-by-frame and puppet), Ink/Paint, and/or Project Lead in freelance projects. My most well-known project was Ink and Paint on Hazbin Hotel’s pilot episode, but I’ve also done other pilots, e-cards, animated short films, instructional videos, game prototypes, T-shirts, merchandise designs, pitch presentations, bumpers, and more.
I’ve taught courses in Visual Storytelling, Motion Graphics, Digital Imaging, Character Design, Digital Art, 2D Animation, 3D Animation, and 2D Production. I help connect students to internships, companies, and freelance projects and coach them on handling contracts and clients. I’m a consultant and trainer for Neuroshifts’ Animation team and have also taught at Elite Animation Academy and ITU.
Teaching and freelance has been a cyclical process that helps keep me current – I bring what I learn from the universities into my projects, and I bring what I learn from my projects to my students. For Pencil Gator, I use my educational background to create training seminars for my teammates. It’s my dream and goal to utilize my experience and passion to help bring Fate Saga to life and foster an atmosphere of creativity and camaraderie with our studio.
How do you define success?
I define success as finding the right balance of passion, work/life balance, stress management and financial security. There’s no such thing as perfection in every category, and the right balance will be different for different people and even at varying stages of their lives.
If you would like to help fund the project and expedite the production process, we’re offering fundraising opportunities including Merchandise. Pricing is as follows:
Pricing:
- $15 Hard Enamel Pins
- $12 Charms
- $5 4×6 Prints
- $4 Magnets
- $3 Stickers and Buttons
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fatesaga.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pencilgator/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatesaga
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fatesaga
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpweR7y2VhthPX_NQVCSjPw
Image Credits
Amber Newman
Cassandra Jacobsen
Jamie Lewallen
Kennedi Perez
Matt Bixler
Severin Piehl
Wally Collins
