Mighty is an outsourcing animation company for productions from big name studios such as Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and other partners. Located in Guadalajara, Mexico, they are passionate about creating high quality performances for their clients and partners and is a proud leader of the Animation industry in Mexico. I had the pleasure of working as a 2D Animator in Mighty’s Tie Down department.

“Sadie Sparks” is a magical new Disney Channels TV series about a 14 year old girl named Sadie who discovers she has magic powers. With the help of her mentor, and grumpy bunny sidekick, Gilbert, she learns to control her magic while juggling the typical ins and outs of high school. “Sadie Sparks” released on Disney Channel UK on April 20th, 2019 and plans to air in the United States.

My role on “Sadie Sparks” was Remote Tie Down Animator, or otherwise known as Key Animator, working with outsourcing animation company, Mighty. Mighty operates from Guadalajara, Mexico and outsources animation for larger pictures. They are the leading team in animation in Mexico. As they Tie Down Animator, I rough in the animation based on the storyboard animatic, and “tie down” the proportions of the characters in their poses and acting choices using Toon Boom Harmony. I worked on 6 episodes in their 2D animation sections.

Resources

The resources in “Sadie Sparks” are in the discipline of the character designs. I animated Sadie, the 14 year old wizard and Gilbert, the master and Sadie’s teacher of the art of magic. As an animator, I was required to study their proportions, and used their turnarounds and head poses to reference accurate translations.

Highlight for Password

Password: Reely?

Shots start from storyboard animatics made by artists onsite at Disney and given to animators to animate.

Key Animation

My Key Animation work hand drawn in Toon Boom Harmony. Determining timing, posing, and proportions, I drew the main keys and breakdowns of the character animation of Sadie and Gilbert.

Final

After my animation is approved, it is passed on to cut-out animators who use my hand-drawn poses to draw and pose the final cut-out character, inbetweeners, color artists, effects, lighting, and compositing to display the final TV-ready image.