Meet Sarah Schmidt | Director & Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Schmidt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Growing up, I saw my parents handle a few different jobs leading up to running their own gas station/convenience store. As I got older I was able to help out there and eventually work the register, sell beer and cigarettes, etc. We had a deli, a pizza oven, and even rented movies. There always was something to do and you felt directly connected to the surrounding small town community. A motion graphics/animation studio sounds like it might be a lot different than that, but I like to think everything I learned on the clock directly translates to the way I like to work with clients and deliver projects. The name “Sunshine Mall” is literally half named after my family’s gas station and half named after my partner Ian Ballantyne’s family laundromat business.

Before Ian left for China for his Master’s Degree in Printmaking, he asked me to give him a quick, 15-minute rundown of Flash/Adobe Animate. Over the course of his time there, he ended up doing a ton of stickers which helped break the language barrier in WeChat… and inevitably he made more animations than any of my colleagues had. When he returned from China, I had been freelancing for a few years and started needing help with larger projects. After enough chunky PayPal transactions, we started to consider the idea of taking it to the next level. My biggest inspiration was the boutique studio I worked at after graduating, Super77, where I figured out how to work on commercial projects as a team. I loved my coworkers, the environment, and the excuse to make a lot of crazy stuff together. I want to create that kind of environment for creative friends and people looking to learn how to make work like this.

What should our readers know about your business?
We are currently a two-person team of artists with backgrounds in fine arts, illustration, printmaking and animation. During our undergraduate studies at Columbus College of Art & Design, I loved taking classes with Ian and felt that as a draftsman, he could run circles around the bulk of us – I constantly thought it would be cool if he were able to try his hand at animation. Both he and I felt dissatisfied with the ‘Illustration’ path our freshman year and mutually made the decision to split – he to the ‘Fine Art’ concentration and myself to the ‘Animation’ route. We both started as people who liked drawing characters and telling stories, but both felt it wasn’t enough to do only that. Because of this, I believe the work we make together has an extra layer of depth and care that sets us apart.

Right now, the work I am most proud of is our Adult Swim Small’s project: “Gassy’s Gas & Stuff”. It’s a direct love letter to my family’s gas station and reminded me of the days spent working on crazy cartoons with Rad Fortress. I was able to design the three minute short from start to finish, split the animation workload with my partner, and have a ton of fun hiring voice actors from music projects I love! The reception has been really positive online and I would love the chance to revisit everything in the future. The fact we were able to release this video and work on the video for SZA’s “Kill Bill” this year has me feeling beside myself lucky!

We would not be the business we are today without the clients and mentors that have helped shape our process. I owe a lot to the producer at Super77 who went on to help us get our first job making stickers for Bath & Body Works, the guys at 2Tall and Modlo for trusting our hands at a ton of crazy projects, and most recently, the amazing team at Nathan Love for letting us hop into projects for Snoop Dog, the NBA, and SZA.

The biggest lesson over the years is the tried-and-true “it’s about who you know”, and I owe so much to our clients as well as all the friends I have made through Malt Adult events and emails. I definitely wouldn’t be as happy with my animation practice if I hadn’t had the chance to really sit and digest the works from all the animations we have had the opportunity to show in our animation screening series. I think anyone serious about this type of career path – even if it’s “just” motion graphics – should get themselves to an animation festival. Having the chance to go to GLAS and Animation Block Party changed how I felt about the medium forever.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I always had wanted to move to LA and would have probably done it if I didn’t get a job offer from my last college internship! Living in Columbus, Ohio for so many years helped me save up money and time to visit LA a handful of times throughout the years. I am always needing to visit friends in Burbank – specifically the drag on Magnolia Boulevard starting at Porto’s. You can snag a coffee + treat while you take the stroll down to look at all the shops and then end up at the best vegan bar food I’ve ever had (besides Chicago’s Handlebar-!), Tony’s Darts Away. Silverlake and Echo Park are my must visits, too.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Part of the reason I got an internship and eventual job at Super77 was because I had worked with my friend Pat Kain at this local t-shirt design company. He’s a great illustrator, comics, and animation artist. Pat led the efforts of this tiny in-house team to make content that would help move their online product – it felt like everyone higher up at the office just knew if they didn’t let Pat make cartoons, he would leave them for Los Angeles as soon as he could! Because of this, I was able to start using Adobe Animate and help on small cartoon shorts.

With this little collective, “Rad Fortress”, we were able to help out with one of the last “Animation Breakdown” events at Cinefamily in LA, go to SPX in Maryland, etc. It felt really nice to be a part of something and start making connections with other people doing the same. Pat was super inspired by the collective Paper Rad, and when I was working with them, I became obsessed with Animation Domination High-Definition, who coincidentally was also making work at the time with one of the guys from Paper Rad (Ben Jones). I am even back in school because one of the other guys from Paper Rad is working at my University (Jacob Ciocci).

The idea of an animation collective also helped spark my idea for Malt Adult Animation Night, which has been a huge part of my life since 2016. Pat was the first ‘local Animator’ I featured in our zine. I feel lucky that while in undergrad, I was a part of the newly formed “Animation Student Collective” – the step from there to Rad Fortress helped me figure out what type of ways I could bring animation professionals and indie animation together in a unique way like we do with our Malt Adult animation screenings.

Website: https://www.sarahmaeschmidt.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahmaeschmidt

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmaeschmidt

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahmaes

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sarahmaeschmidt

Other: https://www.thesunshinemall.com https://www.maltadult.com

Image Credits
Photo has an image of Sander Joon’s work on the screen at our animation event/show.