MindShare: Stories to Learn and Draw From

What is Your Superpower?!,our animation studio’s most complex project to date was commissioned by the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) for their 30th-anniversary celebration. This video is both a powerful message of inclusion and a shining example of a true philanthropic partnership.Artists are employed on films such as Marvel's TheAvengers series and Oscar winners Green Book and Black Panther. Graduates also go on to careers at media companies such as Disney, WarnerMedia, and ViacomCBS.
“The original concept was to follow a cartoon character through the Exceptional Minds experience, culminating with employment in an actual studio. Our animation team decided that the story would be best told through actual interviews with our young adults that literally became animated,” said Howie Hoffman, Creative Director of the Animation Studio. 
This Foundation's loyal support has provided our school and studio with much needed financial backing needed to secure a future for ou…

Created for Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) by our graduate animators, What is Your Superpower?! involved the usual deadline pressures (“Is it July already? What happened to June?”) punctuated by moments of pure creative genius (“Are you thinking what I’m thinking? How hard would it be to morph Craig’s head into a goldfish bowl?”) The making of What is Your Superpower?! also involved several unusual challenges. Mid-project, Exceptional Minds moved its whole animation team home due to the pandemic to continue collaborating over Zoom, which presented its own set of challenges. (“Zoom “lag" can make an animation render like a 2D drawing and appear as incomplete work. Oh Zoom!”)Still, the pandemic didn’t stop the crew from filming fellow artist Kate Jorgensen at Nickelodeon near a “secret” door that only a few in the industry know about (Howie Hoffman, an industry veteran who knows the back doors to more studios than he cares to admit, was the Exceptional Minds creative …