Today we’d like to introduce you to Dana Corrigan.
Dana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I always knew I wanted to be an animator, even when I was little. As a kid, I was enthralled with cartoon TV shows and wanted to tell stories with my art. While I enjoyed movies and video games, bonding with the characters and learning more about their stories in an episode-by-episode process had always been appealing to me.
In 2006 I graduated from the University of Tampa with a degree in Electronic Media, Art and Technology, and in 2011 graduated with an MFA in Animation at Savannah College of Art and Design. At SCAD, the MFA degree requires a Thesis with a visual and written component. The visual was an earlier draft of my current project, Fate Saga, and the written component compared procedural and serial story continuity in episodic animation. In more digestible terms, it just means comparing cartoon shows where the episodes don’t connect and the status quo is back to ‘normal’ at the end, with shows that treat each episode like a chapter of a larger story, while also acknowledging projects that laid somewhere in-between.
While in Grad School, in 2011 I had the rare opportunity to pitch Fate Saga to Warner Bros as part of a class about developing and pitching cartoon shows and was able to adapt my visual component into a pitch package and animated trailer. The presentation went well and was a fantastic learning experience. In 2013 I reworked the project and pitched to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network and, while it wasn’t picked up, I received excellent feedback and enthusiasm from both and just to be taken seriously as someone still getting into the industry is an accomplishment.
In 2011 I started teaching at the University of Tampa, and in 2013 started teaching for the University of South Florida concurrently as an Animation/Digital Arts Adjunct Professor. I’ve been working as a freelancer in illustration and animation since 2005, and working as a freelancer while teaching courses has been a great way of keeping current with the technology, networking, and connecting students to internships, freelance projects, and jobs. All the while I’d tweak my project here and there, but for the time being, I focused primarily on my professional work.
Around 2018, I was advised that, as a professor, it would be helpful if I had a project or publication of my own outside of my freelance work. I was already considering working on Fate Saga myself and that just gave me the go-ahead. At the time I had recently trained in Toon Boom Harmony because both universities were migrating to that software, so I took some additional advanced courses in Rigging and Compositing while I worked on the Preproduction. From there I reached out to colleagues and former students to help bridge the gaps in my skill sets and began the production of Fate Saga’s first episode.
Currently, I’ve had the exciting opportunity to present Fate Saga’s work in progress at local anime convention panels, as well as during SIGGRAPH’s 2021 Birds of a Feather, Women in CG event. I’ve recently formed a small remote studio – Pencil Gator Animation Studio – and have started a fundraising push to help speed up production.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge of working on an animated production is time and funding. I did most of the preproduction and animation so far, myself, but there are areas I’m not as skilled in such as environments, voice acting, and sound design. For those I’ve reached out to colleagues and former students for their help, and hire them to fill the gaps in my skill sets. I’m also balancing this project with my teaching and freelance jobs, so some periods my production speed will slow to a crawl. To speed up the production I’ve brought on other animators on occasion and offer internship training opportunities, but that still costs money and time.
To help mitigate expenses, I’ve started a crowd fundraiser, social media campaign, and merchandising, and have been presenting it at conventions to get more interest in the project. All sales and donations have gone directly into the production. Samples of the project, behind the scenes, and tutorials can be found on www.fatesaga.com
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an Animation Professor at the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa. My area of specialization is 2D animation itself – whether it’s frame-by-frame or puppeted – but I have experience in all areas of production. Outside of teaching I work as a freelance animator and illustrator, including Ink and Paint for Hazbin Hotel, T-Shirt illustration for the FishHawk Turkey Trot yearly charity event, e-cards, animated short films, presentations, and games.
It’s a cyclical process that keeps me current – I bring what I learn from the universities into my projects, and I bring what I learn from the projects to my students. I also help connect students to internships, freelance projects, or hire them under me for my own freelance gigs or Fate Saga.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I wouldn’t say I’m a risk-taker. I work on my projects the best I can with whatever resources I have at the time and prefer stability. I have no qualms against those who like to take risks, but it would be too nerve-wracking for me. I prefer to be reliable and consistent rather than risky.
Pricing:
- $15 Hard Enamel Pins
- $12 Charms
- $4 Magnets
- $3 Stickers
- $3 Buttons
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.fatesaga.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sapphiredragonstudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatesaga
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fatesaga
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpweR7y2VhthPX_NQVCSjPw
- Other: www.danacorrigan.com
Image Credits
Severin Piehl
Amber Newman
Kennedi Perez
Casandra Jacobsen
Dana Corrigan
Matt Bixler
Gian Marlar
Christopher Wade
