Each of our animation projects is seen to completion by a dedicated project manager (we only have two right now) and, on higher paid projects, edited and sweetened by a sound designer (our own Director of Business Development Bryan Zug, until we find a good candidate to relieve him of that!).

The creativity for each project comes from our animators, illustrators, composers, voice-over artists, and writers. Therefore, the artistic quality depends mostly on their talent, so we search all over Internet for the best talent we can find. 

How large is our creative team?

We have 181 creative people currently in our database, profiled in Batchbook according to their skills, with sample portfolios, contact info, etc. All of them are independent artists, residing in US and outside US, from Brazil to Germany to India. They are all freelancers who tell us when they are available for work, so that we can plug them into a project that fits their schedule.

We have recently started profiling them on our blog, so check it out. 

Where do we find them?

Our favorite online “fishing grounds” –

For animators we love to look on Film Festival sites (like SIFF,VIFF, Berlinale); animation school sites (like Vancouver Film School); animation blogs (like CartoonBrew or ColdHardFlash); video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo; Twitter – through searching via Tweetdeck for “animation” or on twitter directories like Twitr.

We always find great illustrators who do children’s illustration, they tend to create better characters (on sites like Childrens Illustrators) and we’ve found some illustrators on stock sites (like iStockphoto).

Most composers come to us by word of mouth or on MySpace; voice-over artists and writers have been harder to find, so we only have found good ones though friends recommendations. And, lately people have been contacting us almost daily inquiring for potential work, so we hardly look for them ourselves. 

How do we screen them?

We screen all of our talent against our brand values – wow, simple, smart, alive.

Do we say “Wow!” out loud when we see or listen to their work? Is their work simple - does it flow easily, without effort, is it intuitive, does it seem natural?

Does the artist know their craft and appropriate tools/software, is the work intelligent and/or innovative? Is the work alive - is it human, authentic/original, enthusiastic, conversational?

Only if all 4 criteria match, we contact the artist and offer to work with us. If the answer is positive, we add the artist to our database in Batchbook and contact them when the right project comes along.

How do we work with them?

For their first project, we put them on our Bootstrapping package, to give them enough time to be trained, and we always have backups in case something goes wrong. Once they have completed a project to customer satisfaction, they move on to being profiled from NEW to PRO in our database. And from then on, we’re set to work together!

Born in Brooklyn NY, James aspired to work in a field he would enjoy the most. The only problem was he did not know what he wanted to be! At the age of five he wanted to be a dentist, but a week later after seeing the wildly imaginative "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" he quickly abandoned cavities for cartoons.

James loved cartoons so much, he even wanted to be one. But his parents wisely told him that sticking his finger in an electrical outlet would not comically show his skeleton, but would lead to rather fatal results. Since he wanted to stay alive like all human beings, he decied to take the safe approach and draw himself getting electrocuted, as well as squashed, stretched, and twisted.

For the next twenty years, he continued to draw electrocution, squashing, stretching, and twisting, only with more refined skills and using different characters. Since then, he has graduated from New York's School Of Visual Arts and has interned and freelanced for such companies as Sony Pictures,  Discovery Channel, Frederator Studios, Augenblick Studios, and more recently, Lilipip.

James' goal is to keep improving his skills while finding work in animation and to someday produce his own cartoon series. James' claim to fame is his undying determination to succeed and his crazy but cute cartoon style. Not bad for a guy who likes to collect toys of his favorite cartoon characters and still lives with his parents.

James worked with Lilipip on the political animation for the League of Conservation Voters.

"Launch Party Vancouver is a lively mixer for the city's brightest entrepreneurs, tech junkies, and bloggers, who are doing it, have done it or want to make their ideas happen here. The goal of the event is to connect BC’s growing community of Internet and new media leaders with investors and other trailblazers across Canada and abroad. 

Founded by local entrepreneurs,  LPV is not your typical networking event. There are no presentations or panels to be found.  But what you will discover are the individuals responsible for making Vancouver one of the greatest start-up cities in Canada.  Every event features local, early stage new media companies strutting their stuff and sharing their ideas with the community.

This competition features videos from the nine startups selected to demo at Under the Launch Party 8. Watch each video and rate your favourites. The Company with the highest rating will win the People's Choice Award. Winners will be announced live September 16, 2009 at LPV8!"

So, vote for us and spread the word!!!

Jeff Blancato attributes a good portion of his creative output to solo rides in the car and his AM shower. He's the guy you see unashamedly singing/mugging/shouting/vocalizing in your rearview mirror or playing the B3 solo to a classic Yes song on the dashboard. He has also been known to take a shower long enough to fully orchestrate a bridge to an in-progress song while the wallpaper peels around him. Long, long ago, before Pearl Jam was cool and when cassettes lined the new music shelves at Strawberries, Jeff first picked up a guitar. It was The Doors' "Love Me Two Times" that happened first, and the rest is self-taught history. 

Even long, longer ago, when NES was the game system all the cool kids had and you first learned the words to New Edition's "Cool It Now" (all of which you still remember), Jeff was known at school by the 100%-not-flattering nickname "Pee Wee" as a result of his impression of pre-police raid Pee-Wee Herman. It was another notch in his impersonation belt, having had a knack for imitating and creating voices for as long as he can remember.

Here in the present, Jeff calls Seattle home, busying himself with all manner of guitar and bass playing duties, as well as a healthy influx of voice acting jobs. When there's time, he hops in the car and makes all sorts of ungodly noises, some musical, in an attempt to perfect a new character or write some new killer melody.

Dan Lamont - Photographer.

Photographer Dan Lamont believes he was actually a sea captain in a previous incarnation. When he's not driving his sailboat around Puget Sound, Dan makes story telling pictures and portraits for an international crew of clients including The New York Times, Time, Der Spiegel, AT&T and Microsoft just to name a few.

Dan started working on multimedia projects back when there were film transparencies, slide projectors and audio tape cassettes (see Wikipedia for historical references). He shoots around the world but lives in Seattle with his three children and his cat Speedy.

Teddy Hose wants his cake and eats it violently.  Born to a family of artists, his childhood came with lots of creative quirks in the woods of New York, just North of the city.  This included drawing, holiday plays with his siblings, and making funny radio shows on cassette which his imaginary friends raved about.  He then moved to Seattle where he did comics for the high school paper, made funny radio commercials for its local station and animated videos on weekends using index cards, toys, silverware and friends forced to participate. 

New York City seemed to be a fitting place for Teddy's insatiable attention-lust, so he went and studied animation at the School of Visual Arts, joined a band, did stand up comedy and convened with other nerds to drown their sorrows in pizza grease.  His thesis film "The Tale of Lester Rhymes" won awards like MTVu.com's Best Film on Campus and 3rd Place in the Rogue Ales Film Festival, where his acceptance speech consisted of drunken burps and regret. 

After college Teddy went on to illustrate, design and animate for Nickelodeon, The Food Network, Sony Pictures, General Mills and Milton Glaser, the I ♥ NY logo guy.  He now lives in San Francisco, trying to cope with being straight and keeping the show going.

Russ Cox was raised by a pack of crazed hillbillies in the back woods of Tennessee. Without much in the way of modern conveniences, like a television set or running water, he spent his time drawing and whittling away the hours, often dreaming of the joys of a shower. Having been born into a family with a flair for racing, Russ hoped to be the next Bobby Allison or Richard Petty.

After dismantling his grandfather's lawn mower engine, and without a clue on how to get it back together, he soon realized that he did not have an automotive bone in his body. Back to the drawing board he went with his pencil and paper (and sometimes the barn wall). After spending much of his childhood roaming the South with his mom and sister, they moseyed to Pennsylvania. While in high school, Russ developed an interest in design and a passion for music. His automotive shop teacher was relieved.

After graduating high school he got his education at a local art school. With a portfolio in his hand, he ventured into the world of design and illustration. Good ole Russ worked for various design and advertising agencies until coming to his senses. With his wife giving him a swift kick-start in the rump, he opened his own studio, Smiling Otis Studio, where he presently specializes in illustration, Flash animation and logo design.

Russ also found time to teach various classes at PCA&D for several years. Recently he and ma packed up the wagon and headed to the wilderness of Maine where they have setup a homestead in Pittsfield. When not drawing, running amok in the snow, or training their four cats to sing Bohemian Rhapsody, Russ enjoys some quiet time with his banjo while also taking in the beauty of Maine. His wife would prefer him to play the triangle or build a sound proof room.

Lately we’ve been addressing this burning question from our customers. Your money will return first in increased brand value, then in sales. But what is brand value, how do you measure it, and what is a brand to begin with? The word brand meant “piece of burning wood” in Old English and began its history when the first farmer branded his cow with a hot iron. Today brand is what your customers feel when they think / see / interact with your business.

If it's a feeling, how can I measure it? 

You can measure it with numbers, and it’s very expensive to do it. But here is a simple way of doing it with 12-18 people, a bit of printed materials, and couple hours every month - to see an increase or decrease by comparison:

1. Ask 6 of your customers (statistically, that’s enough for good data) how they feel/what they think about when presented with your company’s name/logo. Is it consistent with what you think about it, or do they all say different things?
2. Ask 6 strangers the same – how does it compare to your customers?
3. Ask 6 of your employees (contractors, vendors, etc) the same - how does it compare to two other groups?
4. Lay out all of your branded materials on a big table – business cards, brochures, print-outs of web pages, documents, storefront images, etc. Are they visually consistent? Do they tell the same story?
5. For inspiration, play around with this tool to see what people think about other brands.

And how can I increase my brand value with an animation? 

1. It will help you differentiate, communicate your story in a unique way - as unique as your brand - from colors to fonts to music.
2. It will help you be consistent with your story, from telling it to employees, to posting it on your website, on YouTube, on cell phones, on TV screens at Trade Shows, inserting into PPT presentations to shareholders, etc.
3. It will help you find your true evangelists – a handful of people that feel exactly like you, think exactly like you, get excited about your product exactly like you – who will help your story spread, turning non-believers into believers.

Well, how does increased brand value translates into money?

1. Most importantly, it Increases revenue through more and better customers, who're willing to pay premium for your brand.
2. It also lowers your direct costs through better terms of business with your suppliers, hence lower discounts.
3. It lowers your overhead through reduced staff expense and improved efficiency.
4. And it reduces equity/borrowing costs due to weighted average cost of capital.

My dear friend Marcelo has organized the first conference of its kind, The Conference for Pre-Entrepreneurs, and invited me to speak about my failures - the ones I made before converting Lilipip to its current business model. I think I've spent roughly 10 hours so far prepping and thinking, what it is I can tell people in 15 minutes that will change their lives forever, that will give them the courage to go forward with their dreams, no matter how insane or impractical.

Failure is a brilliant thing - without it we don't learn. In fact, I would say failure is a required badge of honor every entrepreneur should pin to their jacket for every meeting they go to. I came up with 8 major failures of mine, so if you want to share a laugh looking back at them, come to the conference - you can register here. And please spread the word about it!