Tell us about your organization. How big is your team? Where are you based? What is your organization’s specialty in the film and video space?

Happy Trails Animation began by producing local television commercials before scaling up to national advertising campaigns. The studio subsequently expanded into digital content and motion comics for major entertainment franchises, including Disney’s Tron and The Muppets, as well as BBC Worldwide’s Doctor Who and Torchwood. Throughout its operations, the studio has focused on pioneering new formats within digital media production. Now working with the folks for “We’ve Got Your Back” a modern school safety program we believe in.

Why do you do what you do? Was there a transformative moment that solidified your career choice, your org’s success, or your commitment to storytelling?

Growing up in Aspen, Colorado, during the 1970s and 1980s, an early creative path began with selling clay sculptures in a local gallery at age 12, followed by a pivotal exposure to animated shorts at the Aspen Film Fest in the seventh grade. At a time when formal animation degree programs were virtually nonexistent and the career path relied heavily on mentorship, a college art instructor forced a choice between commercial or gallery art. This prompted a move to Los Angeles to work at Animation Magazine, where exposure to Portland-inspired animation studios ultimately led to relocating to Oregon to find a mentor and establish Happy Trails Animation with my wife.

Tell us about your Telly Award winning piece. What’s the story behind it?

This project originated when Michael Kimball, a retired SWAT commander and Aikido master, sought to adapt specialized training methods to help children navigate stressful situations and school lockdown emergencies. Recognizing that animation could effectively illustrate these critical safety concepts without inducing fear or anxiety, the initiative evolved into targeted motion comic series designed for grade brackets spanning PK through third grade, middle school, and high school.

Can you share a behind the scenes story or fun fact about the making of your piece?

We had fun collaborating with our artistic team to establish three distinct visual styles tailored to different age groups: a cute, Bambi-inspired animal aesthetic for PK through third grade, a traditional superhero comic book style for middle school, and a western anime style for high school.

What was your biggest challenge during production and how did you solve it?

Faced with a tight timeline to premiere the high school spots at a San Diego Comic-Con booth, the production team rigged the characters as digital puppets and animated them entirely within Adobe After Effects.

What are you most proud of about this piece? What is the most memorable response you got from this work?

Observing how children responded to the animation in person at the Comic-Con booth provided crucial real-world feedback, a dynamic that extended directly into subsequent in-class presentations where the production team joined students as they walked through the lessons. Witnessing firsthand how genuinely receptive the children were to the targeted stories and visual styles validated the entire creative approach and underscored the profound impact of the work.

You won a Telly Award for this piece. Why is recognition important for you, your team or your work?

Producing a comprehensive safety series like We’ve Got Your Back requires an immense amount of dedicated effort, making industry recognition deeply meaningful. Receiving a Telly Award is far more than just a pat on the back for a job well done; it provides essential industry credibility that helps reassure cautious school administrators and opens doors, making this accolade a wonderful milestone for the entire team to be thankful for.

Tell us what you’re up to! If there’s a new project, launch, or milestone you’d like us to celebrate with you, let us know, and we might share it with our community.

Let’s be completely candid: when you look at the cultural landscape right now, we are living through a period of extraordinarily deep division. People are practically at each other’s throats over everything. That exact frustration is why Joshua McMahon and I decided to start Flaming Justice. We didn’t want to just sit around complaining about the noise; we wanted to do something radically constructive. So, we set out to create high-impact music videos engineered with a singular, powerful intent: to bridge those massive cultural chasms and actually bring folks back together. Winning a People’s Telly Award for that work proves that when you focus on connection instead of conflict, people are more than ready to listen. https://www.youtube.com/@TheFlame-224