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TV Animation Background and Storyboard Artist
Sue Bielenberg
Los Angeles, CA
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About
Sue is a UCLA-educated animation artist based in Hollywood, CA. She's created background layouts, character layouts, storyboards, and assistant directed for shows like the Simpsons, King of the Hill, Rugrats, Harmonquest, Dilbert, the Oblongs, Mission Hill, Dragon Tales, Duckman, and online projects such as Surprise.com and ROMP.com's Booty Call. She created art for independent projects such as Nickelodeon's Little Freaks, the Tupac Shakur video, "Do For Love," ESPN's Extreme Sports, Japan, and ESPN's sports bar's "Baseball" video animation. She illustrates book, including the popular gay comic, Jayson by Jeff Krell as well as T-shirts for Paul Frank, liner notes for CDs, and greeting cards. She is skilled with Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Animate (Flash), Storyboard Pro, Digi-Cel Flipbook, and some After Effects, Final Cut, and Premier.
Outside of animation, Sue is an avid scuba diver, pigeon, lizard and rat enthusiast, and member of Urban Sketchers Los Angeles. -
Education
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None offered AnimationAmerican Animation Institute1991 - 1999Life Drawing, Animation, Animation Assisting, Storyboarding, Character Design classes
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MFA AnimationUniversity of California, Los Angeles1989 - 1993Participant in Falling Lizard weekend
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BFA Art HistoryUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign1983 - 1986Minored in Political Science
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None Architectural rendering, life drawingAmerican Academy of Art1983 - 1985During the summers, I attended skill-oriented classes at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, an art school focused on practical commercial art fields. I learned design and drawing, with focus on architectural rendering. This helped me greatly when I came to Hollywood and began animation jobs involving background layout and design.
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Experience
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Mural DesignerLos Angeles, CANov 2022 - Present (2 years 1 month)Create original large-scale art to be printed on vinyl and hung in the lobbies of stores for national project.
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Freelance animatorSelf-EmployedOct 2011 - Present (13 years 2 months)Art directing, storyboarding, Flash animation, character and Background design. Oversaw small crews for animated parts of independent documentary and TV show intro. Also Logo design, fashion illustration, greeting card design, t-shirt design,
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Caricature ArtistLos Angeles, CAOct 2011 - Present (12 years 8 months)My caricatures have been part of LA Pride, Hollywood Walk of Fame star installations, weddings, school graduations and proms, office and church events, Bar Mitzvahs, holiday events, and house parties. I draw in ink on high quality thick paper and deliver drawings to guests in clear plastic sleeves.
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Animation DesignerSurprise.comLos Angeles, CANov 2021 - Jan 2022 (2 months)Daily use of Adobe Illustrator to create original backgrounds, character costumes, and props per scripts in the style of the project. Use of Slack to communicate with director and teammates. Bill.com invoicing/Timecards.
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Lead AnimatorMeeple.comLos Angeles, CAJun 2018 - Mar 2020 (1 year 9 months)For dating app. Vector comps in Illustrator, set up for animated cycles in Unity. Characters sometimes needed to be dressed in new costumes; vehicles had to be created, and backgrounds had to be arranged to suit the action in my rough designs/storyboards. Fast turnaround time, usually within the same week.
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House PortraitistLisa Collins ArtLos Angeles, CASep 2014 - Jun 2018 (3 years 9 months)Daily used photo reference to construct, render and paint images of clients' homes. Tight deadlines. Followed company style. Matched colors per paint guide. Shipped art.
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Storyboard ArtistStarburnsBurbank, CASep 2015 - Feb 2016 (5 months)Storyboarded for SeeSo online streaming show "Harmonquest."
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Production ArtistAvanquest SoftwareApr 2012 - Jun 2012 (2 months)In PC environment, prepare artwork for use on various projects.
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Story ArtistBunnyfuDec 2011 - Jan 2012 (1 month)Story concept illustration
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Tag IllustratorKaiya Eve EnterprisesApr 2011 - Apr 2011Freelance illustration for hang tags for girls' appearal company.
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Cleanup OperationUS Dept of CommerceJul 2010 - Aug 2010 (1 month)In advanced stages of the 2010 Census, collected data from hard to find respondents in difficult to navigate areas.
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EnumeratorUnited States Census BureauApr 2010 - Jul 2010 (3 months)Short-term, part-time position counting the population of the United States.
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Concept DesignerFox MobileJul 2007 - May 2010 (2 years 10 months)Draw with pencil concepts for cell phone animation/wallpapers to be cleaned up in Illustrator.
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Creative Department ArtistFox Mobile GroupJun 2007 - Nov 2009 (2 years 5 months)designed and animated The Simpsons Mobile content for www.thesimpsonsmobile.com
Daily use of Photoshop and Illustrator -
Sketch ArtistSelf-EmployedDec 1992 - Oct 2009 (16 years 10 months)Sketched live bands as they played at area rock clubs
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Commercial ArtistFox Mobile Studios2007 - 2009 (2 years)As an artist in the Creative Department at Fox Mobile, I sat in on broad concept meetings as well as more narrowly focused content meetings dealing with our seasonal catalog of offerings. The team was small, so everyone's contribution was important. My work could vary from storyboarding for a mobisode (actually an award-winning mobile series created in-house) to roughing out ideas for monthly wallpapers and screensavers based on a popular prime-time television series. We fully animated our cartoons in-house in Image-Ready. We used the Adobe Suite CS3, originating all of the concepts for our art under the supervision of an art director and the VP of Creative.
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Animation artistLooks and BrainsFeb 2007 - Jun 2007 (4 months)Animated on paper, scanned in, colored in photoshop, characters prepared for animation in AfterEffects for VH1 show, Acceptable TV
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Childrens Book IllustratorOcean Front PressSep 2006 - Nov 2006 (2 months)I created an executed finished artwork for childrens books using hand-drawn and computer techniques.
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T-shirt DesignerPaul FrankAug 2006 - Sep 2006 (1 month)Paul hired me to design (under his close supervision) a line of t-shirts for an outside client. I worked in Photoshop and by hand, using markers, colored pencils, and whatever else it took to get the job done. I helped originate the designs, including original typefaces, characters, colors, etc. When the project was finished, my obligations to the organization ended.
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Office ManagerAmerican Public MediaNov 2004 - Jun 2006 (1 year 7 months)Core services (day job - I freelance outside the office) - part time position in which I ordered office supplies and distributed mail to busy reporters. I also performed voice acting work for a national news show. I organized the company recycling program. I interacted with vendors and acted as shipping clerk.
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Office Manager89.3 KPCC-FM, Southern California Public Radio2004 - May 2006 (1 year 5 months)Ordering office supplies, scheduling studio times, interacting with vendors, updating communications lists for all of the international bureaus of syndicated public radio show and local affiliate of MPR.
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Office Manager89.3 KPCC - Southern California Public Radio2004 - 2006 (2 years)Ordered and stocked office supplies, answered multi-line phones, metered mail, shipped FedEx, DHL, USPS, UPS; maintained internal databases, maintained Xerox equipment, greeted guests, booked studio time, booked conference room times, distributed mail and newspapers.
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Animation InstructorAnimation CreationsLos Angeles, CAJun 2002 - Jan 2003 (7 months)Taught animation to kids 7-17 at private enrichment school
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Character Layout ArtistFilm RomanJun 1992 - Nov 2001 (9 years 5 months)Drew animated characters for King of the Hill television show. Worked 2 seasons in this capacity for this production.
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Character Layout ArtistFilm Roman / Starz Ent.1992 - 2001 (9 years)Drew characters in action for The Simpsons and King of the Hill television shows
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Character Layout ArtistFilm Roman Animation1992 - 2001 (9 years)As part of a team of 6 character layout artists, created keyframe animation for televisions shows (The Simspsons, King of the Hill) based on storyboard and model sheet reference.
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Character Layout artistFilm Roman, A Starz Media Company1992 - 2001 (9 years)Created original 2D animation keyframes from storyboards. Laid out backgrounds and characters, following model sheets and show bible.
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Assistant DirectorSony Films Entertainment1999 - 2000 (1 year)Supported an episode director in various phases of pre-production and production (storyboard, design, layout). Assisted with continuity checks, quality control, answered questions from and interfaced with large crew of artists at all levels of experience and ability.
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Assistant Director of AnimationSony Pictures Entertainment1997 - 2000 (3 years)Storyboard, layout, timing, and overseeing production under Andi Klein, animation director on large crew of Dilbert show. I attended animatic meetings and trained new artists.
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Animation InstructorLoyola Marymount UniversityAug 1999 - Dec 1999 (4 months)Taught fundamentals of animation to incoming Freshman class at private university in the Film and Television program.
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Animation ArtistDali Media1998 - 1999 (1 year)Created simulated 3D animated backgrounds with perspective pencil drawings as part of a pitch package for what would later become a 3D project.
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Background SupervisorThe SimpsonsOct 1997 - Feb 1998 (4 months)Oversaw other background layout artists on episodes of TV's The Simpsons. Checked continuity, composition, and model integrity on work turned in.
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DirectorVirtual SpringfieldFeb 1996 - Oct 1996 (8 months)Directed CD-Rom version of the Simpsons (Fox Interactive). Crew of hand-drawn animators and computer animators, designers, and colorists worked under me, getting guidance on composition, model, and style.
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AnimatorPhilips1995 - 1995Animated for video game version of Wizard of Oz property
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Animation ArtistSLADE1992 - 1992Drew directly into computer program in a form of rotoscoped animation for Bob Hope 90th birthday cartoon.
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Character Layout artistKlasky-Csupo1990 - 1991 (1 year)Drew characters for The Simpsons television show.
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Awards
Emmy for episode of The Simpsons; Top Performer as caricature artist on Gigsalad.
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Affiliations
IATSE 839
Urban Sketchers Los Angeles -
Industries
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Skills
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Elsewhere on the Web
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On Coroflot@hollywoodartchick, member since 2014
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