{"id":200638,"date":"2025-10-04T01:42:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T01:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/200638\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T01:42:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T01:42:05","slug":"smiling-friends-team-launches-new-l-a-based-animation-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/200638\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Smiling Friends&#8217; Team Launches New L.A.-Based Animation Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tEXCLUSIVE: <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/smiling-friends\/\" id=\"auto-tag_smiling-friends\" data-tag=\"smiling-friends\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Smiling Friends<\/a> creators <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/michael-cusack\/\" id=\"auto-tag_michael-cusack\" data-tag=\"michael-cusack\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Cusack<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/zach-hadel\/\" id=\"auto-tag_zach-hadel\" data-tag=\"zach-hadel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zach Hadel<\/a> and producer <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/aron-fromm\/\" id=\"auto-tag_aron-fromm\" data-tag=\"aron-fromm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aron Fromm<\/a> have teamed to launch <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/zam-studios\/\" id=\"auto-tag_zam-studios\" data-tag=\"zam-studios\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zam Studios<\/a>, a new Los Angeles-based independent <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/animation\/\" id=\"auto-tag_animation\" data-tag=\"animation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">animation<\/a> studio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tZam will focus on high quality animation, VFX, production and post-production of all types, according to Cusack, Hadel and Fromm. The studio will also offer client services for television, feature film and commercial projects, as well as creating original content.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cZam will focus on what matters most in animation \u2013 high-quality work made by people who understand the process, are obsessed with craft and have a knack for producing cartoons that recapture the magic of years past,\u201d\u00a0Cusack, Hadel and Fromm said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe studio is handling all specialty and mixed media animation, live action, compositing and VFX for the third season of Smiling Friends, which premieres Sunday, October 5 on <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/adult-swim\/\" id=\"auto-tag_adult-swim\" data-tag=\"adult-swim\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adult Swim<\/a> and Monday, October 6 on <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/hbo-max\/\" id=\"auto-tag_hbo-max\" data-tag=\"hbo-max\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HBO Max<\/a>. The quarter-hour series follows the employees of a small company dedicated to bringing happiness to a bizarre yet colorful world. The new season features a mix of Claymation, high-end 2D animation, CG animation, stop motion and live action elements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tCusack (Yolo: Crystal Fantasy) and Hadel (OneyPlays, Hellbenders) are co-creators and Fromm (Sessions with Stan, Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus) serves as a producer\/director on Smiling Friends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tZam Studios\u2019 additional credits include the Smiling Friends shorts, Smiling Symphonies, Billy Idol Should Be Dead documentary, and bumpers for Rick &amp; Morty and Adult Swim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tZam Studios is represented by Fourth Wall Management.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tYou can check out the website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zamstudios.net\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Smiling Friends creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel and producer Aron Fromm have teamed to launch Zam&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[115519,12874,115520,1010,115521,115522,74,115523,115524],"class_list":{"0":"post-200638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-adult-swim","9":"tag-animation","10":"tag-aron-fromm","11":"tag-hbo-max","12":"tag-michael-cusack","13":"tag-smiling-friends","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-zach-hadel","16":"tag-zam-studios"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}