In his short time working for Nickelodeon, Joe Brogno has added some impressive work to his portfolio. The Full Sail Computer Animation grad worked as a CG artist on the network’s hit show Tak and the Power of Juju, and recently was given the title of CG Lead Artist on Penguins, a spin-off of the hit DreamWorks Madagascar animated feature. With such a list of accomplishments, it’s hard to believe that just a year ago, Joe was working as an apprentice.
Joe got involved in Nickelodeon’s apprenticeship program when it was first created, and though it was intended to last a year before a review would determine his future with the company, things progressed faster than expected.
“The apprenticeship was designed to allow for freshly graduated students to experience what it was like to work in a production environment,” he remembers. “It was the most beneficial program. We got to look … and touch! I quickly moved up through the program ahead of the schedule and was hired as a full-time employee five months into it.”
Joe’s contributions to the shows he’s worked on have been wide-ranging. “I’ve rigged everything from a popcorn seed to a main character, as well as adjusted, fixed, added, subtracted, and altogether altered rigs to meet specific needs,” Joe says. His multi-faceted workload on Tak included lighting for large jungle and indoor scenes, creating layout and composition of sets, button and command scripting, and renaming millions of files due to changes in naming convention (“that was a FUN two months,” he laughs). The variety and intensity of the work prepared him for the increased responsibility he was handed on Penguins.
“Juggling tasks and knowing how to deal with priorities has been key. The challenges in this job run the gamut, from learning new processes and programs to experimenting to achieve the wanted effect while keeping in mind the limitations of episodic work as opposed to film work. Every challenge brings stress. The key is to turn it into positive stress and make it work for you instead of against you,” says Joe.
“Full Sail took me through a rigorous schedule, for both learning and sleeping! If you can’t make it through their schedule, then don’t plan on being able to stand up to the small-studio schedule. Because the school introduces you to a bit of everything, you can leave there with a well-rounded knowledge that allows for flexibility and makes you more valuable to a studio.”
Despite the stresses and challenges, Joe’s excitement for his position is unsurprising, given the legendarily creative environment at Nickelodeon. “What’s not to like?” he asks. “I come in every day and sit in front of a really nice machine with dual monitors, on a couch, [in a studio] filled with like-minded people, and work on creating an amazing piece of art and entertainment. Even now, after a year of employment, I find myself stopping to look at frames from cartoons long-cancelled, realizing that all that magic from my youth was harvested here. And now, I could be the one creating that same magic for someone else.”
