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Na’iim Shareef (@inkpen_tv) Na’iim joins us on the Black Superheroes Matter Podcast. Na’iim is an Atlanta, Georgia native crediting a lot of his work to the cities influence, a storyboard artist for network tv shows like Netflix’s Stretch Armstrong and FX’s Archer, a comic book illustrator, and cofounder of DAGGERSHOT STUDIOS that animates for tv, film, and advertising, Na’iim found his calling in animation at a very young age. Now, with five years and counting in the industry there’s still a lot more Na’iim plans on accomplishing. Lately, he puts his energy into his creative agency and telling stories through 2D animation with anime style influences.
Notable Time Stamps:
How did you get started?
9:12-9:36 “In high school I met my friend who’s actually the cofounder of our animation studio, but he introduced me to anime. Before this, all I knew was Dragon Ball Z and I didn’t really know what anime was at the time. He introduced me to Bleach and One Piece, Death Note etc. And I’m like ‘yo, I know what I want to do’ “
9:40-10:00 “We started creating ideas for stories and we live here in Atlanta so this is us in like 1920, we’d go to Cartoon Network and Adult Swim and walk in to pitch our ideas but we realized you can’t do that. You can’t just walk in to a big ol’ corporation and try to pitch to them.”
10:01-10:11 “We’d decided let’s learn, let’s just put our heads down and see how these people are doing this stuff. So, I decided to learn storyboarding and animation”
10:20-10:42 “While in La, I met this Black animator from Atlanta actually and he was a professional animator who’s worked on a lot of Disney films. I asked him “teach me how to storyboard” because I draw but I want to tell my stories, show me how”
Professional Experience:
12:17-12:39 “For right now since this would be your first job, it would be temp work but I would like you to do some storyboard revisions on this show called Stretch Armstrong. So, I did that and that was my first professional experience.”
12:47-13:11 “I applied to the show Archer on FX and I applied to Bob’s Burgers. Both of those animation studios are here in Atlanta, I got hit back by both but Archer hit me back first so I took the job with them and I was a storyboard artist on season 9 of Archer”
14:3-15:13 “My friend and I, we got commissioned by the NBA to do a basketball commercial before Covid happened. It kind of delayed the premier of our commercial and a lot of the players that we animated don’t even play for the same teams anymore”
15:34-15:50 “Ever since then we’ve been doing commercials, stuff for businesses, and we’re also working behind the scenes on proof of concept so we can pitch our show to Netflix.”
Words of Advice:
14:08-14:24 “I was like you know what? You got to do better so I started buying books because I didn’t want to be in last place anymore. I started just doing my research and eventually I got better, I started gaining respect there”
11:49-12:15 “I would just storyboard these ideas and I’d post them on Facebook. Probably every two months I’d have a new short storyboard and this one guy who worked on Netflix shows actually hit me up through Facebook and says ‘hey, I see your work, you’re getting really good from where you first started and I’d like to offer you a job”
21:35-21:50 “A lot of stuff that I was doing I didn’t need to be in LA for. I thought to work at Netflix you’ve got to be in LA, you’ve got to be here and there but nah. A lot of stuff is remote nowadays.”
What are you working on now?
35:44-35:57 “There’s one I’m currently working on with Outkast, I’m excited about that. I’ve been working on it for the past month now”
54:57-55:15 “Hopefully you’ll see a show coming out in the next couple of years, I’m working on that right now but in the meantime just making sure my animation studio is growing. We’re looking to hire animators, storyboard artists, everything.”
57:13-57:26 “I just finished a series of drawings of all of the Friday characters in my style and so I’m going to sell prints pretty soon.”
Key Links:
Instagram: @inkpen_tv
Twitter: @Naiimshareef
YouTube: @naiimshareef
Website: naiimshareef.carbonmade.com
Hey, this is Steve. I played football at Oregon State University and University of Hawaii. Now I doodle cartoons and blow stuff up on camera. I also make web comics too. Hopefully I can make this whole thing a full time gig so I can make the big bucks to pay for Medical School! (Fingers Crossed) If you would like more thought-provoking content or a quick laugh consider supporting me on Patreon, checking out my webseries Eyelnd Feevr, or checking out links to my other projects below:
Eyelnd Feevr Webseries | PDX Black Rose Podcast | Stuck E Podcast | Black Superheroes Matter | Artist Portfolio | DIY Arts Tutorials & Blog |