Chad Essley
is an an independent animation director and cartoonist, and the author of the upcoming graphic novel “The Hinterland”. A true story about an unusual friendship with John McAfee, founder of McAfee Antivirus.
CartoonMonkey Studio is a small animation business located in sunny Portland Oregon. We specialize in 2d character animation for education and entertainment. We also develop finished animation from conception to completion for games, interactive, short films and commercials.
Have a project in mind? Take a look at some samples, or an older showreel (flash) for some samples, and get in contact via e-mail for a quick quote.
We also have a large library of past projects to show, that may fit your specific animation needs. Ask about a specific style or feel you’re going for, and we will send along an example for your bid.
Chad Essley
Bio: Chad Essley is an independent animation director located in Portland Oregon with close to 20 years of experience working as a professional animator in the field of commercials, multimedia, and television.
Chad runs a boutique animation business in northwest Portland Oregon called CartoonMonkey Studio. The studio’s emphasis is on original & quirky hand drawn cel as well as simulated cut-out and natural media animation, with a variety of interesting styles.
“I’m a strong advocate for tablet computing, and technology that enables multimedia creation. In January of 2008, my involvement in the Tablet PC community lead to being asked to work directly with Microsoft’s research & development department to design elements & animation concepts for a new tablet device aimed at children k-12.
I started out in video post production, doing Quantel Paintbox graphics & station id’s for news & various post production facilities. Later moving into animation for commercials & short films. I’ve spent some time (which I really enjoyed) in the past teaching stop motion animation for Will Vinton Studios, (of the California Raisins ) as well as 2d animation in Flash for the Pacific NW College of Art , as well as The Northwest Academy in Portland.”
-CV:-
This list is far from complete, but gives a good description of what it is I’ve been doing for the last 20 years..
2012: Working on a graphic novel titled “The Hinterland” about my experience meeting the founder of McAfee Antivirus, John McAfee, as well as an upcoming animated documentary based on the graphic novel.
June – 2011: Update! Two of the animated music videos I made for Committee for Children won the CINE Golden Eagle award for 2011 in children’s entertainment!
(So I suppose I can call myself an award winning animator now.)
I shared the award with none other than Sesame Workshop, who also won the same award. I’m more than a little astonished by that, and humbled.
2010-11:
Completed eight minutes of animation against live action for the CFC Children’s charity.
I’ve recently completed two three minute long animated short films about empathy for the CFC Children’s charity in Seattle, that will be Shown in elementary & middle schools all our the USA this summer.
Here is a list of interesting projects & other things I’ve done in the past:
July 2009: Fray Magazine: Illustration published in Fray Magazine #3 “Sex and Death” for Daniel McDermott’s story “Braces”.
Nov 2009: Slave Labor Publications: Two page comic strip titled “Meat the Future!” in the graphic novel “Lulu & Mitzy” by S. Eddy Bell.
July 2008: EUSR European Union: Three minutes of animation about Bosnia joining the EU, and it’s various implications for the standard Bosnian citizen.
April 2008: US Veteran’s Administration: Contracted by the US Govt. to complete eight minutes (!) of animation for a short series of training videos, used within the Veteran’s Administration itself. Some good animation for a ridiculous cause. The check cleared. To never want to watch this animation again though. 
January 2008: Microsoft: Microsoft flew we to Seattle & asked me to do a series of short animations and illustration for some new children’s software, for a new educational device for children.
Renegade Animation: Lead animation supervisor for Leapfrog interactive. Titles include Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, Backyardigans, Spiderman..
TV Paint Inc.: – Current beta tester for this amazing animation software. Interface / usability consultant.
Wacom Inc.: Videos for the Cintiq for Siggraph 2004
Alias Software: Featured artist / video for Alias Sketchbook Pro / Beta tester
ASIFA Northwest: – President from 2003-2004
Pace Video: – Art director / Broadcast Designer
KATU Channel 2: – Broadcast designer
KOIN Channel 6: – Broadcast designer
Northwest Academy: – Animation Instructor / Classes in cartooning & Illustration
Pacific Northwest College of Art: – Animation Instructor
Saturday Academy: – Animation Instructor
Will Vinton Studios: – Created a stop motion animation curriculum and taught / trained animators for “The PJ’s” television series.
Flying Rhino: – Animator – Children’s edutainment cartoons.
StudyDog: – Animator – Children’s edutainment cartoons.
1994: Sesame Street: I’m very proud to have done six educational short films for Children’s Television Workshop, animated on the mighty Amiga 1200 computer..
Steve Held
May 23, 2005 at 9:18 pm //
Very impressive. I’m taking some computer science classes and have learned some basic Java programming but nothing useful as of yet. You should post some programs/software you use to create your animations. I’d like to try animating.
Chad
May 23, 2005 at 11:01 pm //
Hey thanks.
Actually, the programming isn’t all my work.. the program itself.. was created using another simple scripting language, and actually, a lot of help from the users at the autohotkey forums.. Check it out! Google “autohotkey” and you’ll find the program that does it… It’s an interesting app that controlls almost any aspect of windows.. Easy to write and test scripts, and then compile an executable file that runs by itself.
As for posting apps: Can’t do it.. but I would advise you to check out books on animation, (Preston Blair’s Cartoon Animation) – and Richard William’s “The Animator’s Survival Kit” -http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/among others. If you’re interested in drawn animation, -download a free trial of (now owned by Adobe) Flash, and a copy of Mirage from http://www.bauhaussoftware.com -they’re fully functional for 30 days, as a trial. -Then you can try some lessons from these books on your own. There’s also a great distance learning animation school that you can ‘go to’ online, -the name of which escapes me at the moment..
But I’ll post a link to that when I find it..
Good luck learning animation. It can be a lot of fun, and really rewarding.
Although ..for the big $, I might put more stock into the programming as a long term career.. the animation world can be a trial… by fire.
Best,
C
Mike
May 26, 2005 at 9:15 am //
Hey Chad, I was wondering if you had an opinion on the choice of tools as in “industry insider”.
I have a ~700 frame cartoon I did in high school. I’d love to scan in my frames and assemble them into a digital movie. I need to add color, shadows, possible camera movements, etc… The thought of doing all this in Photoshop kills my motivation, so I’d like a more specialized tool help to bring my humble toon to the 21st century.
I’m also interested in the possibilities of an all digital production pipeline for new animations. I’d like whatever software I chose to be an all-encompasing visual creation tool. (Understandiing that scoring and sound effects may be better suited for a NLE.) I don’t care much about web and Flash, but that ability to easily move there is appreciated.
The two packages I’m considering are Mirage and Toon Boom Studio. You’ve talked highly of Mirage in the past, but I’m not clear if it will do everything I’d like. The cost also puts me off a little, but I’m willing to pay if it will do everything I need. Do you know if what I’m looking for can be accomplished with either of these packages or should I consider other packages. (Or is what I’m looking for not available as a single package and should I be looking at seperate software for the seperate steps?)
http://www.bauhaussoftware.com/products_mirage_LP.php
http://www.toonboom.com/products/toonBoomStudio/
Thanks,
-Mike
Chad
May 26, 2005 at 11:46 pm //
I would absolutely check out Mirage. It will do anything, and everything. It dosen’t limit you in terms of style, as it’s all bitmap, -like photoshop, rather than vector based.
I believe Bauhaus offers a serious student discount, you should check into it. Flash is a valuable tool for any web animator, and can do broadcast if the person driving it can push it’s look to a higher level through line quality etc.
The ONLY reason to have Toonboom would be it’s 3-D camera system. It is pretty neat to use, but honestly, anyone could re-produce that sort of effect in Mirage or Flash / After Effects easily, if you’ve done any study into animation at all.
(Multi-plane effects) Also, ToonBoom made the gigantic mistake of trying to bring an old fashioned way of doing animation into the 21st century. That is, they brought in a horrible exposure sheet, that is just plain outdated. The software probably made a few older traditional animators from the old days go ‘wow’, but you’d be better off learning Mirage or Flash, honestly.
Hope this helps in your decision making..!
Best
C
Mike
May 27, 2005 at 11:11 am //
That does help, thanks. (Although the thought of going back to school scares me more than paying full price!)
Steve Held
June 1, 2005 at 3:05 pm //
Actually I just meant for you to just say what programs you used. I would never want anyone to illegally host applications to download. I just really like your work and wondered what program you used to make them in.
Chad
June 2, 2005 at 11:26 am //
Ah ok!
Well, Flash and Mirage mainly. Also Sketchbook Pro!
These and my Tablet PC. Thanks for all the comments on my work. It’s good to hear, and inspires me to keep going!
Best,
Chad