The Vision

Who I am

I am Charlotte Rinderknecht and I had a vision that was Studio Kinate. While the studio no longer exists, it was and still is a passion and dream of mine to lead a unique type of animation studio. Below is my journey and while the journey has ended, it is still very much alive in my heart. After the passing of first Rusty Mills and then Larry Lauria, the dream crumbled.  This is that story of the beginning of the dream.

The Dream

It began with wanting to find a way to put talented novice animators to work. I wasn’t looking to build anything on a grand scale.  Just something where we could all enjoy creating small projects.  It was these young people who were the initial catalyst to build Studio Kinate. However, the more I researched what was happening in the animation industry  and sought to fulfill my own desires to be a storyteller, the more I realized there was so much more Studio Kinate could become.

When I found  Walt Disney’s famous phrase—“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible”—it inspired me to really think outside the box.  There needs to be a way to bring animation production back to the people who are the best at producing it, which is why I decided to become a virtual or “cloud” animation studio.  Using the technology available, we are able to put together teams of some of the top artists in the industry, from California, New York, Florida and everywhere in between. We have developed a proven production pipeline, allowing us to match the costs of outsourced production.  This IS a new paradigm but with all the digital tools available especially software such as Toon Boom Harmony, we believe our model will become the new norm for animation production.

As a producer, I want to push the envelop when it comes to animated storytelling.  After all, animation is more than JUST cartoons, it is about creating worlds, giving life to characters that may only exist in the imagination of its creator!

The Closing

This has been a hard journey for me, my family and for those artists who continued to work with me.  Our greatest setback was the loss of our Executive VP of Animation, award winning animator, producer and director, Rusty Mills (visit our tribute page to Rusty).

Building a dream takes time, sacrifice and vision.  For more about Studio Kinate’s early years, please read the Washington Post Magazine article.