Cartoon Network Studios (CNS) has revealed the finalists for its second-annual Storyboard Artist Training Program. It’s a 90-day, full-time paid course on the fundamentals of storyboarding for television.

Six new rising stars from a pool of more than 2,000 submissions made the grade this year based on their portfolios. The program is open to anyone 18 years or older that is eligible to work in the US without a VISA sponsorship.

From February 3 to April 24, the finalists will receive training in advanced storyboading techniques, dialogue writing, gesture drawing and defining elements of physical comedy. They will also gain firsthand production experience on rotating in-house productions with support from guest instructors including John Fang (Ben 10), Stephen Neary (The Fungies) and Alonso Ramirez (Steven Universe The Movie), as well as returning teachers Julia Pott (Summer Camp Island) and Owen Dennis (Infinity Train).

Last year’s finalists got to train on CN series Close Enough, Craig of the Creek, The Fungies, Infinity Train and Summer Camp Island. Two of last year’s finalists, Christine Le and Miranda Harmon, are currently working full-time on The Fungies, one of HBO Max’s new original series from CNS. Meanwhile, other finalists Alabaster Pizzo and Marcy Bones are working on Summer Camp Island and Close Enough, respectively.

The 2020 finalists are:

Isabella Hanssen (top left): A student at the California Institute of the Arts with a background in comics, video games and story art. Hanssen has created six animated shorts and worked on four student-led games. She is currently working on a personal comics project.

Kevin Olvera (top center): This artist and 2D animator is a former CalArts student who most recently worked at Bento Box Entertainment as a storyboard artist for an upcoming Netflix show. Olvera also has 2D-animation experience from freelance stints at Mexican studio Mighty Animation and LA-based Moving Colour.  

Makena Bajar (top right): An emerging 2D artist from Sacramento, California, Bajar worked as an animator and character designer on Shoe Wars, which won best 2D digital animation short at the Walt Disney Family Museum’s 2016 Teen Animation Festival International. She also directed the program’s first 2D virtual reality project.    

Georgia Henderson (pictured, bottom left): Since graduating from Loyola Marymount’s animation program, Henderson has found employment as a storyboard artist at LA-based Shadowmachine and worked on Bento Box’s popular series Bojack Horseman and its upcoming show The Great North. She also has a self-published comic entitled Elli and Her Papa.

Lauren McKinley (pictured, bottom center): Currently finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in animation and minor in storyboarding at Savannah College of Art and Design, McKinley’s short film Heat Stroke was recently featured at New York’s Animation Block Party festival in Brooklyn. She also has freelance video editing experience and has collaborated on numerous short films as a designer, director and producer.

Patradol Kitcharoen (pictured, bottom right): With a master’s degree in fine arts animation from the University of Southern California, Kitcharoen is a 2D and story specialist who is passionate about action and comedy. He has work experience on animated short films, animated documentaries, projection mapping and television series.

The Cartoon Network Storyboard Artist Training Program is part of the CNS Academy’s artist incubator initiative. More information on the program can be found here.