Animation Wild Card (AWC) is an organization Catalyst Castle co-founded and continues to organize.
Animation Wild Card is a collaboration by animation artists who banded together to bring some joy to the masses by curating a light-hearted collection of short-shorts into episodes, while strengthening connection and collaboration within the animation community.
AWC Organizer Gallery: Catalyst Castle, Threadwood, & Apartment D Films
AWC grew out of Covid-19 stay at home orders. Catalyst Castle, as well as co-founders Threadwood and Apartment D, primarily work in stop motion animation and our corner of the industry was essentially shut down early in the pandemic. Our friends and creative partners were out of work with no end in sight, and we started to think about what we could do for our community. We came up with the idea to create an animation challenge and recruit friends and colleagues in the animation industry to participate.
Our community of animators continued to grow as the months went on, and we found ourselves making more episodes and growing our vision for Animation Wild Card beyond quarantine. We’ve found that supporting independent animators through AWC has created a space with the potential to change the animation industry for the better.
Catalyst Castle functions as a project organizer for Animation Wild Card—managing communications, providing admin support, editing episodes and trailers, and planning the future of AWC.
Episode Bumper Behind the Scenes: Photo Credit—Apartment D Films
AWC is now in it's second season and has featured animators from all over the world. While the core of AWC is a shorts program, we are actively working on new ways we can show up for our community. We want to grow and connect an international community of animation artists while providing resources that tackle the socio-economic barriers barring entry to emerging animation artists.
You can learn more about Animation Wild Card by following the links below:
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