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..
Due to popular demand, and my own lame-ness, I present, the new, downgraded M1700 / Sahara I440D Slate TabletPc Shootout!
Now in deluxe cartoon-o-review-vision, with a severe lack of information, and photographs! W00T. (Click for biggy versions.)
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marc
February 21, 2008 at 4:40 pm //
so it seems your opinion of each of these tablets changed over time?
Amy
February 21, 2008 at 10:43 pm //
Considering I’m looking at both of these as possible sketching/drawing options in case my ModBook never comes, I’m glad to hear you liked the i440D… I was wondering how it faired as a drawing tool… is that what you ended up with?
cartoonmonkey
February 21, 2008 at 11:32 pm //
Hmm.. I would say, in general, the I440D fared pretty well. The plastic overlay made me a tiny bit nervous, (as if gradually, it would wear away, and render the touchscreen, at least, useless. Although it seemed very very TOUGH.)
I just had it for review for a short period of time, but yes, I think overall, my opinion has changed. I really liked the build and feel of the Sahara over the new (1600 and on) Motion Slates. I guess the older Sahara, (I forget which model) single core slate, was pretty fancy and light compared to the Motion M1400 at the time, but didn’t get as much press. The I440D, a bit thicker, but very well done. Liked the loud stereo speakers on it too, and overall friendly feel.
I think given a 2nd chance, I would have gone Sahara over Motion. Hoping for a slate pc based on that flat lil’ intel chip that resides in the current Mac airbook, with NON REPLACABLE USER BATTERY. Doh! Oh Apple.. you slay me.
C
BlackFlux
February 25, 2008 at 6:40 am //
Thanks Chad, I really appreciate you putting this back up. Any chance I can have a look-see of the comparison pictures? =)
Amy
February 25, 2008 at 8:38 am //
Hey Chad, thanks again! Any thoughts on the Scribbler 4000?
There’s a bunch of us desperate to get our ModBook orders fulfilled but it’s been slow coming… it’s very frustrating when there ARE no options for us Apple geeks
cartoonmonkey
February 25, 2008 at 4:30 pm //
Hey! Blackflux: Yep, somewhere, I do have those pictures. I’ll post them up this evening.
Amy: Hmm.. to the best of my knowlege, the Scribbler looks to be a fantastic machine. Similar to the I440d minus the touchscreen. Looks a bit thinner too.
I would caution you against running Vista, get XP, of course.. and if you buy an external DVD drive, I bet you could download a copy of OSX Leopard for Intel, from thee olde piratebayyy and install OSX on it. Did I mention I actually had OSX 10.4.8 running on my old motion M1400, with the pen working fully?
I ultimately went back to XP, because I happen to really not like OSX a whole lot, and couldn’t get the wifi or sound to work properly.
However, I do know that getting the networking, sound etc, is all possible on PC hardware, if you have a geeky enough pal to help you. I’ve done it on desktop hardware too. Had things 100% working there. ..
Good luck!
C
BlackFlux
February 27, 2008 at 5:40 am //
Speaking of Modbooks, does anyone else find it odd that there have been no reviews of the Modbook?
susi
February 28, 2008 at 8:00 pm //
over at the modbook forum one guy already returned his Modbook because of eratic pen behavior.(also the blue tooth does not work, nor portrait mode and battery life is only 2 hours) I canceled my order and looking at PC tablets and that is how I found this site!
Mike Milo
March 4, 2008 at 12:28 pm //
So the Sahara won out huh?
Hmmm. I’ve been eying getting a new Tablet and was going to go with the Le1700 but you say it’s too hot to hold?
I was messing with a TX1000 at Fry’s yesterday and I hated the spongy screen and I also hated the touchscreen because my hand kept touching more than one thing. I even loaded SBP on it and it sucked. It also made me nervous. I guess there’s just really no perfect tablet.
cartoonmonkey
March 5, 2008 at 3:03 pm //
Those photos are gone, gone gone. Sorry!
The LE1700.. well.. at some point ALL motion machines get a bit too hot for my tastes. Will they actually burn your hands? Let’s just say, at full power, on a warm day.. they get pretty hot. On bare legs, they can easily be too hot, and cause feelings of ouch-ocity.
Yeah! I think the Sahara won out. I can get past drawing on the touchscreen plastic-y spongy screen. It wasn’t too bad really. For the record, I own a Cintiq 21″ and the newer widescreen model, and the widescreen model ($2000) has parallax issues! Really disappointed with how incorrect the cursor is at the screen edges.
It’s workable, but for the money, I would really probably take a chance on one of THESE: http://www.kdsusa.com/visboard.asp
Hmm.. there’s a place that sells them in my area.. maybe I’ll get one and do a review..
C
Mike Milo
March 5, 2008 at 3:10 pm //
Whoah! that thing ROCKS! Yes please please please do a review! I will buy one of those on the spot! They’re only like $500! Amazing really. I wonder if the digitizer is good enough to draw with or if it’s just basic presenation kinda thing. Have you seen any reviews?
cartoonmonkey
March 5, 2008 at 3:27 pm //
Hey Mike: Just got off the phone with someone at KDS, and it looks like they have one set up out in their office, (no retail store) -and someone is going to get back to me about the possibility of me going out there and getting a live demo.
They say I could install a few apps, like demos of Flash, Photoshop, and Painter to test pressure sensitivity in all those apps.
I plan on taking my DSLR and doing a little review of the product for them.
Stay tuned!
C
Mike Milo
March 5, 2008 at 3:30 pm //
Awesome! That’d be great! I can’t wait! I’m drooling. Shocking to hear about the Cintiq being off. those things are so overpriced. If this thing for real, I’ll buy one tomorrow. I saw the pen is battery so I’m wondering if it really works well enough. Honestly I’d be surprised if it did.
cartoonmonkey
March 5, 2008 at 3:58 pm //
I think that the pen battery thing is only due to a patent on the battery-less pen that wacom holds. The way it works, is that the pen is actually powered by the small electromagnetic current / field that the screen digitizer gives off, charging and activating the little pen’s capacitors.. Heard that from one of the guys at wacom.
Found a post somewhere in dutch that claims that the Visboard will have a battery-less pen next year when Wacom’s patent runs out.
??! At any rate, I’m sure it works just as well. I’ve used battery driven pens in the past, and they were just a tiny bit more heavy than the wacom stylus.
-C
susi
March 14, 2008 at 9:11 pm //
Looking forward to this review and any news on the scribbler would be great!
BlackFlux
March 20, 2008 at 5:40 am //
Chad I was going through my computer organizing files/stuff and I found your original review with pictures. I guess I loved it so much that I saved it. I can zip it and send it to you if you like.
On another note, I just purchased the Cintiq 20WSX and I’m really disappointed with the calibration of the cursor at the screen edges (top right and bottom left). I was surprised that it only uses a 2 point calibration versus the Tablet PC 4 point calibration. I’ve only had it for one night and I am about to ship it back (I’ll give it a week). The only way I can exit out of a application is if I do file > close. That’s pretty sad.
cartoonmonkey
March 28, 2008 at 11:20 am //
Hey BlackFlux: Awesome! Yeah, can you place those online somewhere?
C