“On April 1, 1996, AWN.com went live for the very first time with our first issue of ANIMATIONWorld Magazine. “We said we’d give it one year…30 years later, through the dotcom boom and bust, the explosion of streaming, AI-enabled everything, uncertainty and upheaval in the very foundations of visual entertainment production and consumption, and continued implosion of the publishing business across all fronts and industries, I’m still happy to report, we’re still here, we’re still having lots of fun, and we’re still hoping that you will enjoy it as well! “My business partner, brother-in-law, and co-founder Ron Diamond and I had a vision for a new way to publish, to bring our animation community together on this newfangled thing called the Internet. Ron committed, stayed true to that commitment through many difficult time, and made it happen, and for 3 decades, we’ve managed to stay animated! “To all our readers, writers, editors, sponsors and supporters, both past and present, a huge, heartfelt thank you! Stay safe, stay healthy, hug your loved ones and furry / scaled / feathered friends, and always keep dreaming, creating, and telling stories that need to be told!” – Dan Sarto, Editor-In-Chief of AWN Thanks to all who have supported our team for 30 years! It’s been a wild ride and we’re looking forward to many more years covering the animation evolution! #awn #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #30thbirthday #30thanniversary

Adobe Animate isn’t dead, but it is in maintenance mode, and that matters more than people realize. From freelancers to studios, this tool still anchors real pipelines, real income, and real deadlines. What happens if stability turns into silence? 🦈 Watch SharkBytes at The View 🎥👇 #SharkBytes, #AdobeAnimate, #AnimationIndustry, #TechNews, #PopCultureNews, #2DAnimation @Adobe @AdobeCreativeCloud @AdobeAnimate @CartoonBrew @AnimationWorldNetwork youtu.be/hCE2B4i8Abs?si=gz8m…

We are so excited to finally be able to share a trailer for THE BONES EXIST. Thank you to @animationworldnetwork for premiering the trailer and supporting independent genre filmmaking!

“It sounds like a very simple thing,” says #CharlottesWeb showrunner Luke Matheny. “You’ve seen the illustrations in the book, and it’s like, ‘How hard could it be to make a web?’ But then you look at webs in the real world, and you try to think of how that would actually work in 3D animation. And it becomes very confusing very quickly, how words written in a web would be legible. There were a lot of problems to solve.” 🕸️🕷️🐷 For Matheny and director Yurie Rocha, ‘getting it right’ on certain key visual elements was critical in their 3-part 3DCG adaptation of E.B. White’s classic book about the loving bond between a gentle pig and a wise, selfless spider determined to save his life; now streaming on HBO Max. Read the full interview from Victoria Davis, here: awn.com/animationworld/webs-… #ebwhite #charlottesweb🕸 #hbo #hbomax #charlotteswebhbo #lukematheny #yurierocha #sesameworkshop #gurustudio #awn #animation #animationworld #3dcg #animationworldnetwork

Another great #AnimationIsFilm year in the books! 🎥 Special guests in attendance included Anna Kendrick (“ParaNorman,” “Pitch Perfect”), Shabana Azeez (“Lesbian Space Princess”, Emmy Awards Winning “The Pitt”) and Mamoru Hosoda (Director, Oscar Nominated “Mirai”, “Scarlet”). Festival winners to be announced soon! 🏆 Read more on AWN.com! #aif #aif2025 #mamoruhosoda #scarlet #annakendrick #paranorman #paranormanthethrifting #shabanaazeez #lesbianspaceprincess #awn #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork

Our editor in chief Dan Sarto moderated a panel at Ottawa for #gurustudio and #sesameworkshop about their latest animated masterpiece #CharlottesWeb 🕸️🐷 The panel, “Spinning a Classic: Reimagining Charlotte’s Web for a New Generation” dived into the making of the three-part animated special, now available to watch on HBO Max. Bringing to life once again one of the most cherished stories of all time, this animated retelling of E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” is from Academy Award winner Luke Matheny (Ghostwriter) and executive produced in collaboration with Sesame Workshop. The special tells the story of friendship, hope, and the power of simple acts of kindness through the bond between Wilbur, a gentle pig, and Charlotte, a wise and selfless spider who vows to save him. Luke Matheny serves as showrunner, executive producer, and writer, alongside director Yurie Rocha. The stylized 3DCG animation was Guru Studio, the renowned Toronto-based animation house.  Feature story coming soon to AWN.com! #ottawa #ottawainternationalanimationfestival #OIAF #charlottesweb #hbo #hbomax #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #awn

“Gabby has a very low moment in the film, and she’s sitting on a bookshelf and she’s crying,” explains Ryan Crego, director of #GabbysDollhouseTheMovie. “We’ve never seen Gabby cry in the TV series. It’s a single tear, but it feels so big. And a little girl in the audience was crying. And I was sitting in the test screening going, ‘Oh my God, I’m done for. This is it. They’re taking this movie away from me now.’ The girl’s mom said, ‘Do you want to leave?’ And she said, ‘No, I want to cry with Gabby.’” He continues, “After that I was like, ‘It’s perfect. Let’s not touch it. This is amazing. Kids are feeling for her. They’re feeling with her.’ “I have her own voice in my head, telling me, ‘You haven’t figured it out… yet!’” says Laila Lockhart Kraner, reprising her role from the series, of her animated character. “The fact that I get to be that voice now for kids is really cool. I don’t think it’s ever going to fully settle in for me, but she’ll always be a part of me. I’m never going to lose Gabby.” The director and star discuss the new hybrid live-action / 3DCG film, based on the hit DreamWorks Animation preschool series, that features Gabby, her grandma Gigi (Gloria Estefan), and the adorable Gabby Cats heading to Cat Francisco, only to lose the dollhouse and lock horns with eccentric cat lady Vera (Kristin Wiig); now in theaters! Read the full interview from Victoria Davis, here: awn.com/animationworld/ryan-… #gabbysdollhouse #lailalockhartkraner #ryancrego #dreamworks #dreamworksanimation #heygabby #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #awn

🎉CONGRATULATIONS🎉 to #PhineasAndFerb’s Dan Povenmire & Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, honored with the SCAD’s Legends of Animation Award, as well as #KPopDemonHunters’ Chris Appelhans, who also received the Impact Award on behalf of himself and Maggie Kang at the annual SCAD AnimationFest last weekend. Stories coming soon to AWN.com! #scad #scadaf #scadanimation #animationawards #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #awn

We recently returned from #SCADAnimationFest 2025 and our features writer @victoriadavisd got the chance to moderate not one but two panels at the festival: the first for @PrimeVideo and @CriticalRole’s #TheMightyNein and the other for @Crunchyroll’s #LetsPlay and #TheBeginningAfterTheEnd 👏👏👏 At The Mighty Nein panel, there was an exclusive preview screening of Episode 1 of the highly anticipated animated series, based on the beloved second campaign of Critical Role. The Mighty Nein follows a band of chaotic adventurers as they confront their pasts and forge their destinies in a world of magic, mystery, and unexpected heroism. After the screening, Victoria led an in-depth conversation with Tasha Huo, executive producer and showrunner; Joseph Martinez, art director; and Jess Lackey, character and layout supervisor, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the storytelling, worldbuilding, and creative process that brought the characters of The Mighty Nein to life. The Crunchyroll panel took fans behind-the-scenes of two groundbreaking series. Victoria led a conversation with original creators Leeanne M. Krecic (a.k.a. Mongie) of romantic comedy Let’s Play and Brandon Lee (a.k.a. TurtleMe) of the fantasy epic The Beginning After the End, as well as Crunchyroll producer Heather Horn, discussing the process of how both widely popular webnovels received their anime adaptations. Thanks to Crunchyroll and Amazon and SCAD for hosting us and allowing us to moderate these two excellent panels! Hope everyone enjoyed the conversations! Look out for #SCADAF stories coming soon to AWN.com. Photo credit: @scaddotedu 📸 #scad #scadaf2025 #amazonprime #criticalrole #voxmachina #thelegendofvoxmachina #crunchyroll #anime #animenews #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #awn

Calling all inventors, fans, and demon hunters — SCAD AnimationFest is back! #SAF Sept. 25-27 at SCADshow 🎬🍿 This year features “Phineas and Ferb” creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, “KPop Demon Hunters” directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, plus screenings, panels, and exclusive premieres, including “The Tiny Chef Show,” the “Mighty Nein’s” first season, and Warner Bros. Animation’s “Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires.” Tickets schedule are live now. Don’t miss it! awn.com/news/scad-animationf… @scaddotedu #scad #scadanimationfest #scadfilm #scadanimation #animation #animationfest #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #awn

🎬 Calling all VFX artists, animators, tech creatives, and storytellers — #SIGGRAPHAsia2025 returns to Hong Kong from 15 - 18 December 2025 at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. Join a dynamic community of computer graphics professionals from around the world for four days of inspiration, innovation, and collaboration. From real-time rendering and generative AI to XR, animation, and interactive techniques — this is where ideas take shape. As part of the AWN community, you’re entitled to a special 15% discount on your ticket. Use code SA25AWN15 during registration. Get your tickets now 👇! 🎟️ Tickets & pricing: bit.ly/sa25reg 🗓️ Early bird deadline: 3 October 2025 #VFX #Animation #CG #GenerativeRenaissance #siggraphasia #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork

“When we were adopting both of our children, I found a lot of things were still really misunderstood about the process and the reasons why a birth parent would choose to give up their child” shared Nate Smith, the stop-motion filmmaker behind Saurus City. “I remember hearing, ‘How could someone possibly give up their child?’ They’re doing it because they love their child and want what’s best for them…I hope people leave the theater understanding that love a bit better.” Set in a dino-populated medieval fantasy world, writer-director Smith’s film follows a grizzled knight’s journey to understand the courage and love it takes to give a child a better life, echoing the real-life adoption experiences of its creators. Read the full interview from Victoria Davis, here: awn.com/animationworld/sauru… #sauruscity #stopmotion #stopmotionanimation #stopmotionfilm #sauruscitymovie #suspendedanimation #405productions #bonfireentertainment #awn #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork

Happy 11th Birthday, @tonkohouse! 🥳👏🎉 Academy Award-nominated animation studio Tonko House was founded by Daisuke ‘Dice’ Tsutsumi, who left Pixar to co-found Tonko House with Robert Kondo. The studio is known for its projects The Dam Keeper, Oni: Thunder God’s Tale and Bottle George. Check out AWN’s coverage on the studio on our website (link in bio)! #tonkohouse #tonkohouseoni #onithundergodstale #bottlegeorge #thedamkeeper #dicetsutsumi #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #awn

“Many animators have a big fear of showing strong expression or a deep perspective in a scene,” says @sciencesaru’s Abel Góngora, co-director with Fūga Yamashiro on #DanDaDanEvilEye, now in theaters from @GKIDSfilms. “I hope Dan Da Dan will make future animators realize we don’t need to follow the rules. We are free to do things that are not logical. I don’t know how people are going to receive this season, but I hope they like it. It gets a little bit crazy.” The first 3 Season 2 episodes are now available to watch in U.S. theaters from ahead of its full season release July 3 on Crunchyroll and Netflix. The new season is filled with heartfelt moments alongside the cringy, lewd, sinister, and horrific, all richly, stylistically animated and colored to maximize its mesmerizing storytelling. Check out @victoriadavisd’s full interview with co-director Góngora and English voice actors Abby Trott (Momo Ayase), A.J. Beckles (Ken ‘Okarun’ Takakura) and Aleks Le (Jin ‘Jiji’ Enjoji): awn.com/animationworld/dan-d… #dandadan #sciencesaru #animenews #abbytrott #abelgongora #aleksle #ajbeckles #kentakakura #momoandokarun #awn #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork

@ViewConference announces media partnership w @ANIMATIONWorld! Join us! viewconference.it/pages/regi… #viewconference 12-17 Oct #animationworldnetwork #awn #animation #film #vfx #games #art #ai #cgi #realtime #vr #ar #xr #mr #virtualproduction #3d #2d #filmmaking #storytelling

Since it launched in 2017, @cabblowstudios has made great strides in the South African animation industry. The studio, run by mother-daughter duo Kabelo Maaka and Dr. Tshepo P. Maaka, has produced three of their own short films, launched a paid virtual animator residency that produced an additional five short films, and is now making headway on its webtoon-turned-animated series, Rorisang & the Gurlz. On May 4, the show’s pilot episode, Rorisang & the Gurlz premiered during Comic Con Cape Town. The series follows a K-Pop-inspired Afropop girl band group that attends an all-girls Christian school. The first screening of the pilot will took place at The Labia Theater then at the Comic Con Main Stage. Screenings will continue at Cape Town’s Academy of Digital Arts on May 6 and The Animation School on May 7. The stories of women – of all ages – has always been a through-line for Kabelo and Dr. T and, for Cabblow Studios, the future continues to be female thanks to the rock ‘n rollin’ high school student Rorisang and Cabblow’s upcoming collaborative short film, Crimson, a haunting and symbolic telling of what it’s like to go through menstruation. Read the full interview from Victoria Davis, awn.com/animationworld/cabbl… #rorisangandthegurlz #cabblowstudios #southafrica #southafricananimation #crimson #crimsonshortfilm #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork #awn

“The idea started while we were making an episode in the first season of Ramy,” he recalls. “It tapped into this young character’s point of view from 20 years ago. There was this flood of stories I had written out to shape the episode, and I realized this was a whole unexplored period of time. It became clear that this was a series.” For Ramy Youssef, ideas first developed during Season 1 of his 3-time Emmy nominated live-action series, Ramy, continued to resonate with him for some time. Thinking back to when he was a kid in the early 2000s for a particular episode, Youssef came up with all sorts of stories reflecting that time in the U.S., right after 9/11, when America’s relationship with its Muslim communities underwent a monumental, “critical” reassessment. Stories he felt that really hadn’t been touched on in entertainment. Stories told from a Muslim perspective. Stories that have now coalesced in an all-new adult animated series, #1 Happy Family USA, that debuted April 17 on Prime Video - to considerable critical acclaim. Read the full interview from AWN’s EIC Dan Sarto: bit.ly/3Yeya7a #1happyfamilyusa #amazon #mgmstudios #primevideo #muslimstories #awn #animation #animationnews #animationworld #animationworldnetwork

“There are episodes this season with nearly all-new backgrounds, which is usually something you avoid in a show like this because you want to reuse assets,” says Wendy Molyneux, co-creator with sister Lizzy Molyneux of #TheGreatNorth. “But we pushed. And our director, Derek Schroeder, suggested adding time-lapses to the new backgrounds — so each one would look different. That kind of initiative makes the episodes look even better than we imagined.” The Animation Domination series’ co-creators and EPs open up about genre experiments, character evolution, and the joys of storytelling in uncertain times, in the latest season of their @FOXTV animated comedy. Read the full interview from AWN’s EIC Dan Sarto: bit.ly/3EwcAEn #thegreatnorthseries #thegreatnorthfox #fox #foxanimation #foxanimatedseries #awn #animation #animationnews #adultanimation #animationworld #animationworldnetwork

A cute clip from #CarlTheCollector’s batch of new episodes airing this week! 👟🦝 The @PBSKIDS series, produced by Fuzzytown Productions and Spiffy Pictures, follows the everyday adventures of Carl, a warm-hearted autistic racoon who enjoys collecting things and loves his friends and family in Fuzzytown. Music for the series is produced by @EraserhoodSound. Friends since childhood, Eraserhood Sound partners, Vincent John and Max Perla’s handcrafted music for each episode gives the show a sophisticated, stand out sound that has not been seen in children’s entertainment since Peanuts (something that was called out by many critics at last year’s TCA Press Tour). The score features EHS’ trademark Synth & Soul palette, a distinctive blend of vintage analog recording stylings of 60s soul and traditional 70s funk, with 80s based synthesizers and drum machines. Read more about Carl the Collector on AWN.com! #carlthecollectorpbs #pbs #pbskids #pbskidsseries #autismawareness #animationworldnetwork #awn #animation #animationworld

In case you didn’t know, #LuckyDog is screening at Kaboom Animation Festival this week! AWN got the chance to interview the filmmakers earlier this month about the short’s origins and cathartic messaging. “The story came from a place of raw emotion and doing it as a musical was a great way to express the main character’s strong feelings,” notes director Ujwal Nair. Read the full interview and learn more about the film on AWN.com! awn.com/animationworld/lucky… #luckydogshort #shortfilm #animatedshort #immigration #kaboomanimationfestival #awn #animation #animationworld #animationworldnetwork