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Carlos Joseph Ramos (born December 25, 1973) served as art director and storyboard artist on ChalkZone. Ramos has created the Nicktoon The X's (aired from 2005 to 2006) and has worked as a fine art painter.

Early life[]

Ramos was born in Burbank, California.[1] He recalled his earliest memory was at a screening for The Black Cauldron's pencil test, stating that the animation itself "intrigued" him.[1] In an interview, he stated TV "raised him."[2] Ramos went to Fairfax High School, a magnet school that specializes in the arts. He took an animation class there, which helped in his decision to enter the industry.[1]

While still attending high school, Ramos was a show controller for Universal Studios Hollywood, a job he maintained through his freshman year of college.[1] Following high school, Ramos wished to attend the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), but was rejected following an application; Ramos applied once more a year later, this time being accepted.[1] He graduated from CalArts with a bachelor of fine arts in character animation.[3]

Career[]

His first job in animation was as development artist for DIC, following his freshman year of college.[1] He freelanced for Disney, designing characters on the short-lived series Nightmare Ned.[1] After graduation, Ramos worked at Frederator Studios, creating two shorts for Oh Yeah! Cartoons: Twins Crimson and A Dog & His Boy.[4] While at the studio, he worked on ChalkZone,[5] receiving an Annie Award in 1998 for his art direction on the Oh Yeah! shorts.[3]

In the early 2000s, Ramos was a writer for the Cartoon Network shows Time Squad[1] and Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?,[3] also storyboarding episodes of Dexter's Laboratory during this period.[2] In 2004, Ramos was lead character designer for Dave the Barbarian.[6]

Ramos' own series, The X's, was greenlit in 2004[7] and premiered in 2005 on Nickelodeon.[8] He received an Annie Award nomination for the show's character design the following year.[9] Ramos described the show's cancellation as "the hardest thing" he has dealt with professionally.[1]

A fine art painter,[1] Ramos began painting regularly after co-hosting Burning Brush auctions.[10] He has participated in several art exhibitions:[11] at Manifest Equality (painting Godzilla),[12] the Corey Helford Gallery,[3] Copro Gallery[6] and other art galleries. Ramos painted director Stanley Kubrick and scenes inspired from his film, The Shining.[6] His Kubrick exhibit gained the attention of Rodney Ascher, resulting in Ramos illustrating the poster for Room 237 (2012), also providing an animated short film.[1] He next held an art show featuring several David Bowie paintings at the Rotofugi Gallery, depicting several decades of Bowie's career.[10]

In the 2010s, Ramos served as a storyboard artist on the 2012 film Rise of the Guardians, worked on The Ricky Gervais Show,[1] a writer for Star vs. the Forces of Evil[13] and was head of story on Smallfoot (2018).

ChalkZone storyboard credits[]

In these episodes, Ramos also functioned as art director, remaining in this position for the remainder of the series.

Other projects he worked on[]

  • Twins Crimson
  • Mulan (1998)
  • A Boy and His Dog!
  • Tarzan (1999)
  • Toy Story 2
  • Fantasia 2000
  • Dexter's Laboratory
  • Finding Nemo
  • My Life as a Teenage Robot
  • Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
  • Shrek 2
  • Dave the Barbarian
  • Shark Tale
  • Ni Hao, Kai Lan
  • Bolt (2008)
  • Henry Hugglemonster

Personal life[]

Ramos has taught at his alma mater, CalArts, as a character design and storyboard teacher.[3] Some of his former students include Pen Ward (creator of Adventure Time) and J.G. Quintel (creator of Regular Show).

References[]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Laura (April 25, 2016). Carlos Ramos. Animation Insider. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Hart, Hugh (June 24, 2008). Animator's Crazy Creatures Inhabit Natural History Museum Show. Wired. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  3. Carlos Ramos: animation artist, cartoon creator. August 22, 2006. Frederator. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  4. Erickson, Hal (July 30, 2005). Television cartoon shows: an illustrated encyclopedia, 1949 through 2003. Page 197. McFarland. Second edition. International standard book number 9780786422555.
  5. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ramos, Carlos. Carlos Ramos: About Me. ProductionHub. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  6. Ball, Ryan (December 20, 2004). Nick Greenlights New Toons. Animation Magazine. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  7. Perlmutter, David (March 6, 2014). America Toons In: A History of Television Animation. Page 326. McFarland. International standard book number 9780786476503.
  8. Fritz, Ben (December 4, 2006). ‘Cars,’ DreamWorks draw Annie nominations. Variety. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  9. 10.0 10.1 Ohanesian, Liz (October 13, 2010). Carlos Ramos: From Stanley Kubrick to David Bowie. Los Angeles Weekly. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  10. Beck, Jerry (May 22, 2008). Carlos Ramos exhibit. Cartoon Brew. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  11. Ward, Alie (March 4, 2010). Manifest Equality art show in Hollywood displays love, civil rights in the time of Prop. 8. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  12. Perlmutter, David (May 4, 2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Page 591. Rowman & Littlefield. International standard book number 9781538103746.

External links[]

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