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Renegade Animation brings cartoons to life with Avid

Renegade Animation, an animation studio in Glendale, California, has been a pioneer in creating animated series, such as “Tom & Jerry” and “The Mr Men Show”, for Warner Bros. and its Cartoon Network channel. Tasked with managing increasingly complex animation projects, Renegade was faced with the challenge of having to meet tight deadlines while maintaining production quality.

The studio needed an editing solution that could handle the high demands of episodic animation, from managing vast amounts of media to ensuring seamless collaboration among team members. What’s more, the studio was transitioning from traditional to digital animation workflows, requiring tools that could adapt and evolve with the studio’s growing needs.

Michael D’Ambrosio (pictured), Senior Editor at Renegade, has been an integral part of the team since 2005, bringing nearly two decades of experience to the table. His relationship with Avid dates back to the early 1990s, when he first honed his editing skills on Media Suite Pro, before transitioning to Avid’s video editing toolset Avid Media Composer.

He explains that, over the years, Media Composer has become the backbone of Renegade’s postproduction process. “I’ve been using the new UI for a while now,” he says, adding his appreciation for the bin structure, being able to customize bin sizing, and dock them together. D’Ambrosio also implemented Avid’s media production storage solution Avid Nexis. This transition boosted efficiency and enabled the studio to handle higher resolutions and more complex projects, such as their work on “Tom & Jerry” and “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi”.

“Reuse is king in episodic animation”, he continues. “You have to be able to harvest elements from other shows to complete the storytelling. Media Composer makes that possible.” Another critical feature for D’Ambrosio is the Symphony module, especially for color correction. “Sometimes we’re given shots where the background is too similar to the foreground, making the character disappear. Symphony allows me to pull those apart and make the character appear more vibrant.”

Additionally, the seamless integration between Avid Media Composer and Avid’s digital audio workstation Pro Tools has fostered tighter collaboration between the editing and sound departments. Recent advancements, such as the ability to create Pro Tools sessions directly from Media Composer, have further streamlined the postproduction process. D’Ambrosio highlights the importance of Avid’s media management, particularly its ability to relink media, which allows him and his team to focus on what they do best - being creative - without getting bogged down by technical issues.

As technology evolves, D’Ambrosio is also exploring the potential of AI in his workflow to enhance productivity. “In a word, AI brings efficiency”, he notes. “I’m seeing that AI is going to give the individual the ability to be more productive, just like every other technological advance has.” He appreciates Avid’s approach to AI, emphasizing that it’s about support, not replacement. “We’re not trying to eliminate the human here; we’re trying to support the end user”, he remarks. “That’s a critical difference between generative AI and AI as a productivity tool.”

(Photos: Avid/Renegade Animation)

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