Breaking into Animation: Leading with Imagination and Inclusion // Howie Hoffman #4252

In this episode of Breaking the Biz, we sit down with animation veteran Howie Hoffman, a visionary Creative Art Director whose work has helped define multiple eras of animated entertainment and advertising.

Hoffman has brought some of pop culture’s most iconic visual moments to life—whether it’s the Trix Cereal rabbit in action, Michael Jordan mingling with Looney Tunes in a groundbreaking MCI commercial, or the unforgettable opening sequences of Reading Rainbow and The Magic School Bus. His contributions to network branding and animated interstitials for outlets like NBC Late Night, HBO, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon helped shape the visual language of ‘90s and early 2000s television.

As Design Director for the first two seasons of Nickelodeon's Doug, Hoffman led a 17-person team in crafting the show’s signature aesthetic—an experience he calls one of the most treasured of his career. That same passion for collaboration and creativity extended to Camp Androscoggin in Wayne, Maine, where he launched one of the country’s most visible animation programs for youth, backed by industry giants like Disney and Nickelodeon.

Throughout his career, Hoffman has been recognized with numerous awards: in fine art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in animation from the Ann Arbor and Washington D.C. Film Festivals, in graphics from the Broadcast Design Association, and in direction with nominations for both a Cable ACE Award and an Annie Award.

But what truly sets Howie Hoffman apart is his unwavering commitment to inclusive storytelling and education. He began his career with a National Endowment for the Arts grant to teach animation in Virginia public schools and has since come full circle through his work with Exceptional Minds, a nonprofit animation studio for artists on the autism spectrum. The animated shorts he’s produced with Exceptional Minds students and graduates have received accolades from the Palm Springs International Animation Festival, the Los Angeles Animation Festival, and the Marvels of Media Awards at the Museum of the Moving Image.

This episode is a celebration of legacy, mentorship, and the power of accessible creativity. Whether you're an aspiring animator, an advocate for disability inclusion, or someone who grew up loving Saturday morning cartoons, this conversation with Howie Hoffman will leave you both inspired and informed.

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Interested in being a guest speaker? blieberman@yicunity.org

Transcript

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I want to welcome everyone to Breaking the Biz podcast with the Yes I Can crew. We have got a fantastic guest with us tonight. We have Howie Hoffman.[Theme music] 🎶🎶🎶🎶Stay tuned for today's episode of Breaking the Biz, an informative podcast🎶where we dive into the world of entertainment by interviewing seasoned🎶professionals who have made their mark in the industry.🎶Gain invaluable insights as they share their personal journeys, offering🎶advice on navigating the dynamic landscape of the entertainment industry.🎶Whether you're an aspiring actor, musician, filmmaker, author, animator, or🎶any creative soul, tune in for expert career guidance, insider tips and🎶firsthand accounts on breaking into the entertainment industry.🎶Get ready to unlock the secrets behind successful careers and fuel your own🎶passion for the limelight.🎶Please remember to like this video and to subscribe to our channels for more🎶great conversations.🎶Greetings from Breaking the Biz brought to you by Yes I Can Unity through🎶music and education.🎶I'm William Felber, your navigator through the intriguing universe of the🎶entertainment industry as revealed by the visionaries and creators who bring🎶it to life.🎶Stay tuned as we delve into diverse insights from the forefront of🎶entertainment. Hearing from pioneers, creators and agents of change.🎶Prepare for a journey filled with tales of innovation, resilience and the🎶undying quest for artistic brilliance.🎶Awesome. I want to welcome everyone to Breaking the Biz podcast with the Yes I Can crew. We have got a fantastic guest with us tonight. We have Howie Hoffman, who is an animation creative director. He's going to go into his bio and share, but there are some highlights that He's done everything in entertainment and advertising. He's worked on iconic commercials, Trick cereal, Michael Jordan with Looney Tunes, Nickelodeon's Doug, pbs, Reading Rainbow, Magic, School Bus. He's worked with the NFL. He's done Nickelodeon. He's done Saturday Night Live, Cartoon Network. I mean, really, the list goes on. One of his proudest accomplishments is being the design director for Nickelodeon's Doug. The first two seasons he's done animation camps where clients got to work with Nickelodeon and Disney. He's won a ton of awards and he's going to share that as well. He was a big part of Exceptional Minds. He's going to share that tonight. But I don't want to take away time from Howie because we're pretty lucky to have an hour with him. So, Howie, on that note, I'm going to turn it over to you and I'm going to allow you to kind of start us off on your career roadmap. But before we do that. I want to know when did you fall in love with animation yourself? Well, it's a good first question, but as far as my bio and all that that you read, I want to start off by saying you should be my prior Asian, actually. And one reason I'm accomplished and I've done a lot of things that for now, this generation doesn't know me as much as maybe 20 years ago when I was also in education as well. But the main reason is I'm just old. So I've done a lot of stuff because I'm old and I've been lucky and I'm grateful for it. So I'm happy to tell you what I've done. But as I told you before we started, Brett, I'm just as happy to tell you about my failures as a way of. Because a lot of them became successes in certain ways. I look forward to sharing stuff with you. To answer your question is. And I will go into this in terms of early childhood, but I loved cartoons as much as anybody as any kid did. And I think there's a gene even that they say dissipates as you get older that makes you like color as a kid. And I think that's one reason animation in Europe, it's a bit of a. It's more of an adult. Well, now it's becoming that too. But Europe, puppetry and animation, when I was growing up were more sophisticated there. And it was. Is more cartoony in the States, more cartoons. And I was a cartoon, so. And I loved animation. But I will say this, as much as I love cartoons, like any kid, I. I studied and watched TV commercials, and I really took in and how, you know, what 30 seconds was how. And I think it informed a lot of what I became. The main thing about animation, though, was I was into illusion. And I'm sure that you guys share this with me. I did magic as a kid, and it's fortunately for you, I did not pull that graph, that photo out, Brett, but I'll give it to you later if you want. And I did ventriloquism as a kid. I was into anything that was not as it seemed. And so animation, you know, as the Disney book calls it, illusion of life. Right. So that magic is really what there's. To me, there's a humor in things aren't what they seem. So I did fine art when I went to art school as a fine art major, painting and printmaking. And. And it was pretty funky. It was representational, but it was pretty funky. And in doing that, I later, in Richmond, Virginia, is where I grew up. I did a lot of dinner theater stage sets. And people would say, your art was always so wild and out there and out of the box. And your stage sets, they're so realistic. How has that happened? And I'll go, well, I still love the illusion that if you're going up the steps, that you think there's a room up there and it's just a flat, there's nothing there. So to go back a little bit, I grew up with a doctor, a beloved pediatrician, as a father. And in spite of that, because of that, my dad was great with his hands. He used to carve soap figures out of Ivory soaps. And he taught me how to draw, and my mom taught me how to write. So it was a doctor's household, but a very creative household. And we were encouraged to create. My mom used to write songs and poems for people's occasions. So I think that they were my first mentors, really, and we'll get into this later. But I think they gave me faith, and I could be whatever I wanted to be. Faith in myself, faith in love, faith in God, and just faith in general. And they used to call my dad a cockeyed optimist. I like to think that I am. So all those things come into play with what I want to convey today more than what I've accomplished. But I'm also going to tell you that I, as much as I've learned about autism and about career and about the journey, I've learned a lot of it from working with the autism population. I hope that I'll inspire you, but I know that I'll be inspired today because I have been. Let me see what else I wanted to tell you about any early things. Just so you know, I'm not on the spectrum, or maybe some people would debate that I certainly have ADD issues. As a kid, you didn't know what that was. I was just good at tuning out certain parents when I needed to and hyper focusing on. On doing my art or playing baseball or whatever else it was. And so if I get a bit ADD here today and jump around from one thing to another, I know Brett's going to help me, keep me in line so that we can make the hour. And I can still show you some things and hear from you guys. And the other thing is, I certainly can be obsessive. And I. I think people are more obsessive when they're scared, which is maybe I am now, but people will tell me how Creative I am. They'll even use the G word, which I usually reserve for people on Spectrum, the genius word. But I will say and I really mean it. A lot of it is just I don't let a problem go until I solve it. So you got to be resilient. So I, you know, I, I, I just, you and I just carry it with me all the time. And I do know how to structure creative thought. So in addition to writing and art directing, I mean, I'm lucky I became known as an idea guy. And I, there are people, it's, it's really great because I was known as an idea. I, I spent 20 years in New York and 20 out, 25 out here, there are people that don how well I could draw, can, used to draw. I'm a bit out of shape, but how well I can draw and how well I can write and I love that because it, it means I've made a living like this and that's, it's, that's done me well. So I, I know that you asked me some certain questions when what you sent me. So I'll, I'll get to that if you want would Brett. So my educational background, I dropped out of medical school after four days. I went four years as a psychology major. And so a lot of the things that informed my decisions happened as a way of me becoming myself and being myself. And I think that a lot of things in general things, when you're true to yourself, things happen for the best. So when I was pre med in art school and I was encouraged as an artist all my life, even though my dad was a doctor, and that's something that we really tried to hit here at YIC is if you're passionate, passionate about something, don't waste any time, go and pursue it. Have that plan A and, and, and see it through. And if it doesn't work, let B and C still be creative and if you don't succeed there, then go to the D and et cetera. But you know, there's something to be said even knowing after four days, this is not for me at med school. And it's not giving up when you know what you want to do. Giving up would have been like, that's it. I don't know what I'm going to do. But you had a direction and something you wanted to pursue. Yeah, I did. And I would like to say it was a choice. But it became so conflicting this or this that, I mean I learned from Jim Jenkins, the guy that created Doug, that the best Decisions are made out of strength as opposed to out of weakness. And so I made it out of strength because I had had some, my parents as mentors and, and early mentors. I had an early mentor who taught me how to play ukulele, a fourth grade teacher. And that became a real that, you know, I added two strings when I got to sixth grade and played guitar and folk group and then the Beatles hit and like a lot of people, they were mentors to me because everybody went and joined bands, you know, so that was, that was very life changing. And I know you deal with music. Love the idea of I'd like the name Yes I Can of your organization. I mean, you can't get better than that. You know, what's the old expression? If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. So I don't know if you're what you're seeing at this point. We're not seeing anything right now. All right, I know what to do now. There we go. We're good. These are these. I, I was lucky enough in high school to, to get a job in the summers and into college of doing product illustration for a chain of drugstores, sort of like Rite Aid when they, and they, they advertise stuff. Some of it was actual, you know, goods that, that you would recognize. Revlon Spray, Hairspray and things like that. But occasionally it was just things that didn't have a brand name on them, like Styrofoam and all that. But the, the reason for showing you this is everything I did that unknowingly just because it came up and because I wanted to do it and I had a chance to do it while all my other friends were working at Philip Morris getting free cigarettes and getting addicted to smoking. And I was working at 16, 17, 18 years old as doing product illustration in the summer. I was lucky that way. But everything I did in Virginia before moving to New York for the birth of Nickelodeon and it all, it all came to it all, it all paid off later. I did scenic design because in Virginia there wasn't all that much art to do for a job, a living. And I later did, as you mentioned, a set for Action League now on Nickelodeon, this figure show and Reading Rainbow. But so a lot of the early stuff that I was lucky enough to do, I realized when I was preparing for this thing that it came to, that it helped me. The product illustration I just showed you helped me with prop design. And when I was the design director of Doug and I had a Staff of people that did props, characters and backgrounds. It helped. It helped me rough it out or evaluate theirs. And so the thing about everything I've accomplished, though, it's all collaboration. It's really collaboration. Like I told you before we started, my friends are the best thing about me. And they'll be the first to tell you that I'm very attracted to talent and gifted people. And in being attracted to gifted people, I'm also attracted to people who are good people. And so I have friends like, well, Alan Bodner, who was the art director of Iron Giant, you guys might know that. And Kim Possible. He's a mensch, you know, a sweetheart. And also just outrageously gifted at color and design and art direction. And my friend James Scheck Snyder is the same. He was a prop guy for Jimmy Kimmel and he did the prop mask for Bane and Batman. And just a lovely guy. And so I'm really, I'm attracted to talent and I think that's helped me. It surrounded me with collaborators. I've had long term collaborators. I had a collaborator for 15 years that a lot of people didn't know. He even did animation or created animation with me. His name is BJ Lederman. He's famous for his music on npr. One of my best friends. And he always, he always wanted to do advertising and he always had cool words. Even though he's famous for his songs on npr, National Public Radio, like the Morning Edition. The lyrics to the Morning Edition are actually how he hates to get up in the morning. So he's a very funny guy. And we work as art director and copywriter for a lot of commercials and a lot of shorts. So my collaborators the last 15 years have been people on the spectrum. And I've never had a better staff and I've never had better collaborators. And I really, I'm not just saying that, you know, you don't necessarily go for jobs. You create them. You can create your own destiny off of your own talent. And he's 100% right. We have the shortest attention span ever. And that's why reels are so important, because those three, you know, we don't have the capacity. Like we're just so used to flipping on the phone. So listen to what he's saying there. There's a lot of wisdom. You know, he made a joke like the older guy who's done it and seen it, but he's right. And he's, he's the catalyst for so many talented individuals just like you guys. So I'm hoping you're leaving, if anything inspired that you can create your own content without waiting for a studio to put it out there. You can create your own brand. That's right. Yeah. But I'm, you know, I'm learning that from you guys. Like, I work with artists remotely now, most of them remote and on the spectrum. Some graduates from except for mine and some not at all, but around the country and they're the ones that show. I'm not even on Instagram yet. I have to admit it. I'm about to be. But that vertical format that really started with TikTok and Instagram is now YouTube and Facebook. And so there's ways to do short shorts and what you're talking about doing. Danny, who else have I answer the question. Yeah, let's go, let's go. Real quickly, Josh, you got one that I'm really late. I hope you'll let. I'm giving you a big editing assignment. Brett, can I get on my YouTube channel real quick? No, not right now. Real quickly. I want to make sure that everyone. I'll. I'm going to connect you, Danny, to Howie Offline and you can share your work 100%. I will do that. First time. I know my answers are really long too, so it's all good. Josh, real quick, you got one question. Okay. So you said you worked on Doug when it was at Nickelodeon, right? How long did you work on that show and were you there before it went to Disney? Basically, yes. The answer is yes. But here's the thing. Jim had. And I'll tell you in a way that I think will will be informative and amusing. Yes, I did have the great pleasure to work on it. It was also something that was new because they had not made a cartoon in 40 years in New York and so we didn't know what we were doing. I actually was the original creative director consultant for the launch of Nicktoons and Jim. I knew Jim. Jim had brought me up to New York 10 years earlier and we had done stuff and I had helped him get advertising and do some stuff like that. We did a USA Network promo that he let me produce that had a precursor to Doug in it for USA Network. You can look it up on YouTube. Just put USA Network with early Doug or something. It wasn't Doug, but it looks like Doug and Pork Chop. Anyway, I ended up. This is where failure leads to success in a way. They came to me after my three week stint was up and it was up sooner than I thought because they didn't really need a creative director. Past the very beginning launch of nicktoons, because Vanessa, who was in charge of all of it, really acted as that and was a good one. So I went to the other side and I worked for. For Jim, and they didn't know they needed a design department. So what I did was within a week or two of me, they knew. They knew that I could draw Jim style. Okay, now, this is one thing I wanted to talk about before and left out, which is I don't. My style is mimicking other styles. And the reason that I have become a mixed media guy is I'm an idea guy. So I go whatever style fits the idea. That's the variety that you saw in the old reel, and the new reel is the same thing. And so when I was approached to develop Clifford the Red Dog by Scholastic, I said it should be a live action show, and it should be like, honey, I shrunk the kids, and he should just be this giant dog. And they said, no, thank you. And they went ahead and they developed it as an animated show. So about Doug. Okay. Doug Bluffington is really Richmond, Virginia, where Jim Jenkins and I are both from. My girlfriend in college had introduced me to him, and they grew up on Valentine Road, which is Skeeter's last name. There really was a Roger, a bully. And he's still around. He knows that he is the Roger. I won't give away his last name, even though I know it. And when I was doing commercials for tricks, Jim came to meet me for lunch one day, and he was waiting for me to get off the phone, and he drew a dog. This is two, three years before Doug. And under the dog he wrote pork chop. The dog barks way too loud. And I thought that was a funny one panel cartoon. And it was on my office door for years. And in the middle of Doug, I walked by him once and I said, I wish I had that drawing. And he said, I do. So I don't know. I left after two seasons because I developed a show called Incognito Mosquito, and Jim was paying me to do that. And so I left the design department and he called me back to do promos for Disney promo drawings, which was great, but. And here, here's one. Here's one I did quickly see if I can show it to you. I know, I know. I'm way past time. Brett, you're good. My wife will deal. All right. Wow. So this was painted by Michael. Michael Zadarazni, I think. I think. But I drew it, and I try to put implied motion in My drawings as much as I can. So you see, Skeeter's ice cream goes into pork chops cup. And here's Patty Mayonnaise. Now, Patty. Patty Mayonnaise is based on a woman. A lot on half on a woman named Pam Mayo that Jim had a crush on in high school. And. And my college girlfriend could shoot three pointers before they were a thing in basketball. And. And. And so she's part of that, too. And here's Roger taking it. But he hits his. These are his cronies. And that tips the table. And this. It all comes back around, you know, where the. Where the bad guys get it. But I. I didn't. I designed Doug's house. A lot of the rooms. A lot of the rooms. But I did not design Mr. Swirly's. And I don't know what else you would want to know about it. You can email me later real quick. I do have. I want to make sure that Noah and Daniel get to ask their question. All right. I'm sorry, Joshua, if I didn't answer it. It's fine. I was just wondering what an idea guy was. But you can. A person who deals in concepts. A creative director. Okay. Yeah. Well, sometimes I say I'm an idea guy, hopefully a good idea guy, you know, because they're. But I just use that as a short way to say a creative director who comes up with the concept. And that means writing, art, directing, whatever that is. So that's what it is. And what I've tried to be is I try to come up with the. In situations where the best idea wins, I hope to be that guy. But I want to expand on this for a second. Brett. It's collaboration. I've always had great collaborator partners. We did a Sesame street spot in studio at Exceptional Minds, and after we did one, we got another one to do. I said to Tina, who actually was an old friend, can we write this one? And she said, yeah. So I wrote it with four people on the spectrum right after Covid. So it's on Zoom, brainstorming. And it really was a group effort writing and putting this together. So that's what it is. And the idea guy structures. A lot of times, he'll structure creative thought. All right, who else did I leave out? Noah, go for it. One question. You. Since if you've been paying attention to what's been going on in the animation spirit, you may have noticed that there's been independent projects really booming. It seems to have really started with Hazbin Hotel, but then expanded to the Amazing Digital Circus Recent Just a couple weeks ago there was Pretty Pretty Please I Don't Want to Be a Magical Girl. And there was also stuff like. There's also stuff like Art of Murder and a bunch of other indie animation that's been coming out. Glitch Productions behind the Amazing Digital Circus. And what's your perspective on the rise of indie animation like studios funding via Kickstarter Order and Patreon and releasing it on YouTube and stuff like that? Well, I love the question and I have a question for you to start off with. Will you list those things for me so that I can check them out? I view myself as an independent animator or as an independent director. In the last 12, 10 years, I've done many, many shorts, but mostly designed and animated by young adults on the spectrum or kids on the spectrum. I read Kit Laborn's the Animation Book before moving to New York and it has a really great spirit of independent animation in it. And so I've been a fan of that. And then as an art director at the ad agency, I was able to get Kit Leybourne into commercials from being an independent animator. And so they could make some money, but. And I was able to get a lot of independent animators into advertising. Some of them, they would say to me, actually kids producer called me once and said, I don't know whether to thank you or kill you for getting us into advertising, but. So now an independent animation changes with the landscape. But yes, it may be harder to get seen when you do a short. It's a lot harder to win an Oscar than it was when I was in New York and I knew people that did and like John who got Dorothy got nominated and John Kanemaker who won and all that. But that's my. I'm an independent animation spirit. So I say, I say go, go, go. And especially in light of the studios. I will tell you this though, that one of my reasons for wanting the studio at Exceptional Minds and I'm really happy that it's come true in a way in my absence, even I wanted it to be a destination. No as because I saw a lot of studios, little studios, crop up and become big studios. Either they cropped up in the beginning a cable and became big studios like Broadcast Arts and Curious Pictures. And sometimes I had a little hand in that because I would give them a job or like Broadcast Arch with Pee Wee's Playhouse. And then the more recent example is Titmouse, you know, that I remember when they were just Chris and Shannon, husband and wife. And now, now Titmouse because of streaming and Netflix and because they're good and they're, like, well liked and they're good at what they do, they've become huge. So I knew that the studio at Exceptional Minds had the talent that it could become as good as any other and big as any other studio. So that's in a growth process. But I love seeing the little guy, whether it's a studio or a person, do well. All right, last question. We have Noah. Let me. I'm connecting. I connected. I sent an invitation to connect with you on LinkedIn. Good man. Okay, that sounds great. Perfect. Good for you, Noah. I want to be. I'm being very sincere. I want to thank you for your commitment to this population. You truly understand the importance of mentorship, and not too many people do, I think when you are as successful as you have have been to understand the importance of paying it forward and, and helping the next generation, being that catalyst for them. We speak the same language. I cannot wait to connect with you offline and, and work with you because you. You truly get it. Not only are you a catalyst, you are a believer. You. You are a visionary. I. I'm honestly. You are a pioneer. The work you did with Exceptional Minds, you know, just the fact that you have had the success you've had and the creative path, and you still talk about that being one of your biggest accomplishments truly shows your character and where you're coming from. I've never met somebody as passionate as you. And like I said, we have have to work together. A collaboration of something. We will pick each other's brain and create something magical. But I'd be flattered. I definitely want to thank you for joining us on Breaking the Biz tonight. Anyone else who follows has some big shoes to follow. You are an amazing soul. So I want to wish you continued success, good health, and I look forward to touching base with you next week, for sure. Thank you, Brett. Anybody can contact me that you want, that wants to. And I want to say one thing in closing. Thank you for. You got it. For. For being like, For. For getting the good of me. There's, you know, it's. And I'm, you know, I. I am working on being more succinct, so I didn't work that way, but in hindsight, maybe we would have gone to questions earlier. And I probably should have let you do that because then I think I could have imparted more of the lessons in that way rather than just trying to show stuff. And then there's the reel that I would like for these guys to see the more current. Yeah, if you send that to me, I will most definitely share that with everyone. I will connect those who have not already connected with you on their own. But again, it is normally these guys are like, it's six o', clock, it's time for me to eat.

And we're at 6: 34:25

44 and you have 18 listeners still going strong. So, Howie, you are a special individual. I just again want to thank you again for your time. Thank you for making this possible. I'm very, very grateful. Very great. Awesome. [Host] As we conclude another enriching episode, we hope you've found inspiration in the stories shared today. Let's take a moment to Honor Yes I can's role in bringing breaking the biz to life. Yes I Can's commitment to empowering young people with disabilities through education, advocacy, and mentorship shines brightly, paving paths of opportunity and dialogue. This podcast celebrates the organization's dedication to nurturing talent and facilitating impactful discussions. Breaking the Biz is more than a podcast. It's a part of Yes, I Can's broader mission to amplify voices, dismantle barriers, and craft a world that's more inclusive and accessible for everyone. Each episode is a chapter in our shared narrative of progress, education, and empowerment, driven by the spirit of Yes, I Can. Thank you for spending your time with us on Breaking the Biz.🎶Continue to challenge the status quo and share stories that resonate until🎶our paths cross again.🎶Let's keep transforming aspirations into achievements and infuse every🎶endeavor with optimism.🎶Here's to advancing the landscape of the entertainment industry one episode🎶at a time.🎶I'm your host, William Felber.🎶🎶See you next time.