Hannah O'Neal
The first thing to put Hannah O'Neal into context is to understand that she grew up in small "village" town called Ozark in the southern rural parts of Illinois, on an exotic animal farm. Hannah's life was never dull or ordinary taking care of some of the most interesting creatures on the planet. She also was deeply affected being lucky enough to grow up next to a national forest, where she spent most of her young summers. It was this environment that cultivated, inevitably, a great love for life and expressing that love through the best way humans can . art. At one point the floor of little Hannah's room was covered in pictures of drawn characters that danced out of her growing imagination. There was not an inch of hardwood floor to be seen for some time.
In high school, Hannah received the last thing that solidified her destiny as an artist; an amazing Art teacher, found oddly enough in that "middle of nowhere" area where she lived. This ultimately propelled her into a career exclusively centered around art. She found herself taking a fancy to an art school in the deep south called Savannah College of Art and Design. She looked into the animation department. Though she knew animation would be far too time consuming to be enjoyable. But, as a professor was describing the process to the group, suddenly something started to change . the illustrations began to move, and dance, and sing. "The work all pays off in the end, when you see your art come to life," the professor said. And that's all Hannah had to hear to be hooked. After years of hard work in Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, and with a firm understanding of animation principles, she graduated, with honors, with a BFA in animation.
Hannah was deeply inspired by life and adventure as a child, but also was inspired to imagine by the many artistic influences of youth. Things like Disney's animated films and video games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Earthworm Jim. as well as Saturday Morning Cartoons like The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Reboot, and Batman: the Animated Series. More recent influences include artists such as John Kricfalusi, Michael Dudok de Wit, Milt Kahl, and Richard Williams, among others. The most recent inspiration was one that was a long time coming; Science. Hannah's passion for the beauty of life has lead her to the world of science, physics, and a great interest in understanding the phenomena of the universe aside from being an artist.
Since graduating, Hannah has worked with several studios, most being broadcast animation studios. She worked on a range of different animation styles and stories, from Cartoon Network's Squidbillies, to Scholastic's Word Girl, only to find herself privileged enough to settle with a job at FableVision Studios. Since arriving at FableVision, she has worked on animation for The North Star Film and several games and websites, such as Jim Henson's Dino Train. She looks forward to the rest of her budding career here at FableVision.
To learn more about the adventures of Hannah visit her blog at: http://hannahoneal.blogspot.com
Hannah can be reached at hannah@fablevision.com
