The first stop on my journey to find animation employers in
Cincinnati is Epipheo, which is possibly Cincinnati’s largest employer of
animators.
Epipheo has a simple goal- to give people epiphanies with
their content, hence the name. They do
this through writing and producing both live action and animated commercials
and explainer videos for a wide variety of clients.
A cool space awaits |
Nestled in Longworth Hall, Epipheo has a space filled with
staff creatives that feels very similar to a cabin in the woods… minus the cozy
fur-covered couch needed for napping. However, the whiskey and moonshine were
present.
This is how they work: they get the assignment from a
client, and their storytelling teams find the epiphany and write up the script.
For the animated videos they then either assign the script to an animator to
complete from start to finish, or they put together a team of creatives who are
each skilled at one aspect of production to make the piece.
They have a large pool of freelance animators that they work
with because they usually have a large group of work that needs to be done, so they
are communicating with 30-40 animators at a time. Plus they have 90+ artists in
a pool that they are just waiting to be able to work with. My impression is
that they work with animators on a solely freelance basis.
A large majority of the artists that Epipheo works with are
not local. They are mostly based on the coasts or even internationally. This is
because the most experienced artists are usually located in these places.
However, Epipheo does prefer locals, because it is much easier to communicate
with someone who can pop in at lunchtime than someone who is in a different
time zone/country.
Animators that apply to Epipheo are reviewed based on upon
visual and animation style, experience, and reliability of both quality of work
and ability to meet deadlines which are both extremely important to Epipheo.
They are open to artists who work in Flash (Animate) , After
Effects, Toon Boom, Moho (Anime Studio)
or other programs.
Another great aspect about them- they have an open door
policy. If you ever want to visit Epipheo to see what’s going on just email
Mike Morehart, the Design Coordinator, at mike(at)epipheo.com to schedule
something. I am thinking that a field trip should be on the horizon for us….
In Conclusion, dear Cincinnati animators; target your style
and hone your filmmaking skills because there’s a stack of work at Epipheo that
may one day have your name on it.
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