TiM

Ken Turner

Follow me at: twitter.com/iKenTurner

Ken Turner graduated from the BAA Animation program in '07 at the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. In the summer of 2005, he, along with nine other fellow students, made a co-op film named "Umbrella Boy". Directed by Andrew Ross and mentored by Ricardo Curtis of House of Cool, it was later screened at the Ottawa International Animation Festival 2006 and won 2nd place.

In 2006 he directed his first 2D animated group short film, "Attack of the Giant Vegetable Monsters", and in 2007 he directed his final year film and his first stop motion animated short film, "TiM", which was an homage to his favorite film director Tim Burton. Both "Tim" and "AOTGVM" were Aniboom Awards 2007 entries.

In June 2008, "Attack of the Giant Vegetable Monsters" won Best Online Short – in the Animation category award for the MovieHatch - Jackson Hole Film Festival Online Short Film Competition. It was an official selection of the 2008 JHFF festival and awarded the coveted Cowboy Award in Jackson, Wyoming. In February 2011, "TiM" was an official selection and an animation night selection at the LES (Lower East Side) Film Festival in New York, NY. In February 2012, "TiM" screened before Sleepy Hollow at the L'ETRANGE SOIREE DE TIM BURTON - CONVENTION HOMMAGE (The Strange Evening of Tim Burton - Convention Tribute) in Paris, France. To date "TiM" has has received over 118,000 plays on Vimeo.

Ken has worked as a character designer and animator for various studios such as C.O.R.E Toons (Iggy Arbuckle), Cookie Jar Entertainment, 9 Story Entertainment/Nelvana (My Friend Rabbit, Spliced), Cuppa Coffee Studios (Ugly Americans), Atomic Cartoons (TWT), Oasis Animation (Disney Channel's Lucky Fred) and JibJab Media (E-Cards), POPS (Mobile Message Alerts), JEAN Production Company (Promo Short Film) & Uncooked Cards (E-Cards).

From 2009 to 2010, he published three illustrated humour books called "A Night at the Movies", "Eye Candy Volume #1: The Village Idioms" and "Eye Candy Volume #2: Apples & Idioms". In October 2010, he made a mini comic entitled “The World of Snowboy and Crow” about the misadventures of boy made from snow and his friend a crow. In May 2011, he formed his production company "Freak Show Studios", a place where strange and weird projects could call home. In August 2011, he published his fifth book entitled "Henry: The Heart Boy", an illustrated story book about a boy who quite literally wears his heart on his sleeve.

From April to October 2012, a new animated web series called "The World of Snowboy and Crow", based on the mini-comic of the same name, was produced. There were 6 episodes in the series with music by Tiago Videra and voices provided by Andrew Morrow.

On Halloween 2012, a new animated short film was announced: "Henry: The Heart Boy". The new film, based on the illustrated story book of the same name, will be completed in 2013 with plans for a film festival tour circuit to follow.

In addition, he has directed 3 animated short films, produced by award-winning filmmaker Koji Masutani, The Balsillie School of International Affairs and The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), from 2011 to 2013. From December 2012 to January 2013, he completed a short promo short with the JEAN production company for the RIEDEL Wine Glass Company.

His illustrations and film work have been featured in print and online via the pages of The Toronto Star, Cartoon Brew, DRAWN!, IMDB, SlashFilm, Tim Burton Collective, The Line of Influence: A Tribute to Ronald Searle, Sketchozine and INSTORE Magazine.