Nancy Beiman facts for kids

Nancy Beiman is a super talented artist who works in many creative fields! She is a director, a character designer, a teacher, an animator, an author, and even creates comic strips. She studied animation at a famous art school called CalArts.

Her Creative Work

Making Comic Strips

Nancy Beiman created a comic strip called FurBabies. It was accepted right away by a big company called Andrews McMeel Universal. You can read it online every day on the GoComics website: [1].

FurBabies started on June 5, 2023. It's about a mixed family of dogs, a cat, and a human child. They all talk to each other and deal with everyday things. These include how often to take baths, sibling fights, and whether food tastes better from a plate or the floor!

Some characters are based on real life. Shawm the Afghan hound is named after a musical instrument and is partly like Nancy's father, who played the oboe. Stella the Poodle is based on a cat, and Sirius the puppy and Kate the human child are inspired by kids and a puppy Nancy knew.

Bringing Characters to Life: Animation

In 1986, Nancy Beiman started her own company, Caged Beagle Productions, with her friend Dean Yeagle. Later, she moved to Germany and directed and animated for Gerhard Hahn Film Productions.

In 1989, she worked as a supervising animator at Steven Spielberg's Amblin' studio in London. She helped animate Miss Kitty in the movie An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

Nancy Beiman also animated famous Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Winnie the Pooh. She joined the Walt Disney Company full-time in 1995. There, she was a supervising animator and helped develop characters for movies like A Goofy Movie (1995), Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002), and Tarzan II (2005).

She also worked on the movie Snoopy: The Musical (1988). Plus, she directed and helped animate early video games like The Crayon Factory.

From 1982 to 1995, her interviews with other animation artists appeared in Cartoonist Profiles magazine.

Teaching Animation

Nancy Beiman loves to share her knowledge! From 2008 to 2018, she taught storyboarding at Sheridan College in Canada. Before that, she taught animation at Savannah College of Art and Design. She also taught animation, character design, and drawing at Rochester Institute of Technology from 2004 to 2008. Nancy retired from teaching in 2022.

Writing Books

Nancy Beiman has written two books about animation. They are called Animated Performance and Prepare to Board!. These books teach people how to make animated characters act and how to plan out stories for animation.

In 2022, she published another book called How I Finally Got to Live a Cat's Life: A Cartoon Diary 2020-2021. This book is a collection of autobiographical comics about her life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Awards and Recognition

Nancy Beiman has won several awards for her amazing work!

• In 1984, she received the NCS Division Award for Feature Animation.
• In 2000, she was nominated for an Annie Award for her excellent storyboarding in a TV animation.
• In 2007, she won a Golden Pencil award for outstanding teaching at the 2D Or Not 2D Animation Festival.