Animation Internship!

I just started an internship at Nickelodeon in the Spongebob Squarepants department. As an animation student, this is super exciting! I just started last week and I work Tuesdays and Fridays . On Tuesday, I helped sort out all the new revisions for upcoming episodes, went over storyboards and x-sheets, and actually got to sit-in on a storyboard meeting! I work right under the production assistant's for the show, so I also got to shadow them and they explained the entire in-depth process to me on how to bring a show full-circuit through production. On Friday, I got to assist the background designers and see all of the amazing paintings they've done for the next episodes. I then set up the new shipment of production material for Korea. Spongebob uses a company called Rough Draft Korea that does all the in-between drawings for them. Every Friday, we ship them the material they need for the show - usually storyboards, reference photos, new character designs, backgrounds, etc. (which means I got to see all of it)! The reason for this is because in between drawings take FOREVER, so using a separate company saves tons of time for the actual animation studio. They set everything up and all the other company needs to do is draw out HOW something goes from Drawing A to Drawing B. I believe the only studio that still does their own in-betweens is Disney!

I also got to go to this huge event Nick has every year where they show a movie on a giant screen in the courtyard and have this huge dinner and drive-in movie sort of event! It was so much fun, and I met all kinds of people, from animators to 3D modelers to P.A.'s to art directors, etc! It was so cool, and everyone was so nice. I actually was invited to sit in on Kung Fu Panda this week so I can watch some 3D stuff at work! That's the best part of the internship so far - everyone is so friendly and so excited to show us everything they're doing.

As if you ever needed a reason to apply for internships, there you go! I get to see all sorts of animation careers at work, and that sort of experience isn't something you can read out of a book!

- Holly