Growing Up Aspen

ANDY COLLEN (1st Contributor) cut his entrepreneurial teeth at the age of 16 by becoming Burton Snowboard's first Aspen distributor. After his college years, he discovered a culture of independent animators in Portland, Oregon, and moved there, working at Teknifilm, the local 35mm film processing lab while connecting with the local artists and studios. He freelanced for Will Vinton Studios (Claymation, California Raisins, The PJs), Blashfield Studio (Photo cut-out, MTV music videos), and mentored with Tom Arndt of Merlin's Hammer. Andy met Amy Blumenstein while producing It's About Peace, a collaborative short film that Amy and many other local artists contributed animated scenes to. Andy and Amy soon married (at the Portland Zoo) and started their boutique studio, Happy Trails Animation. Ever the innovator, after several "nose to the grindstone" years of producing and directing commercial animation for ad agencies, Andy developed a distinct, low-cost, high-production value approach to generating Motion Comics and Motion Posters. This creative venture resulted in a stretch of work for Disney (Tron, The Muppets), Starz Entertainment (Spartacus, The Crazies), and BBC Worldwide (Doctor Who, Torchwood). Andy continues to explore and innovate through digital storytelling. He finds writing truthful tales about his childhood, perspective, and work to be a total blast.