Teen launches animation company

Dani Bowman sits down at the desk in the living room of her aunt and uncle’s La Cañada home.

She opens up a drawing program on the computer and begins to create an outline of a character.

Soon, she begins to add color, then eyes, then ears. She adds a body — a torso, arms and legs. She adds hair to the head; she colors in the rest of the character’s outfit. After polishing the character for a minute or two, she has created a new figure.

And all in less than 10 minutes.

Bowman, 14, is an animator and chief creative officer of Powerlight Animation Studios, a company she founded this summer dedicated to creating characters and animation that is free of violence, drugs, sex and gore.

The teenager is also autistic. Her start, however, in creating characters for her animation company, appeared of the blue, according to uncle Patrick Eidemiller.

“She just does this,” said Bowman’s aunt, Sandy Eidemiller. “She just comes up with this stuff, and puts it together.”

Since moving to the area two years ago, and even while she was very young, Bowman has wanted to work with paint programs and PowerPoint, said her aunt. Bowman’s portfolio contains pages and pages of various characters and story boards drawn in pencil. And while the portfolio itself is not at the most professional of standards in terms of how its put together, it could be considered a very accurate blueprint of Bowman’s work.

Each of Bowman’s cartoon series have their own character development and basic plot line. And each character is unique. There are characters that have horns, fur, large floppy ears like a dog, and beaks.

“Hydro the Mako,” for example, centers around a shark that lurks underwater. Hydro the Mako is the fastest shark in the ocean. With its owner, Kane, they save the ocean world from shark hunter, Ron, and his angler fish, Darco.

“My original series includes the ‘Adventures of Captain Yuron,’” said Bowman. “It includes my ‘Lurangel’ series, ‘Tipwing,’ ‘Fleen the Alien,’ ‘Pani Lin’s Dash,’ ‘Gemstar & Friends,’ ‘Kenni Kitsune’ and ‘Hydro the Mako.’”

“Kenni Kitsune” revolves around Kenni Kitsune and his animatrobe friends from the planet Saturn who go around and make music videos all over the universe.

Bowman’s series “Lurangel” revolves around the adventures of Lurangel, Bowman’s alter ego. In this series, Lurangel is turned into an Earthian Blublex after being sucked into a black hole and transported to another universe. In the series, viewers will discover why she was turned into, and what a Blublex is, and learn of her struggle to return home. The “Lurangel” series also represents Bowman’s struggle with autism, she says. For example, the universe she lands in after being sucked into the black hole represents her world now as an autistic teenager. Her struggles with the disorder are reflected in Lurangel’s struggle to get back home — to a world where she is not autistic.

“My aunt, she was holding my hand,” Bowman says, describing a scene from the “Lurangel” trailer. “And then, when I was holding her hand, I was starting to slip my fingers. And then Aunt Sandy got hurt. Her hand got hurt by the lightning. It got zapped, and I start falling, and then I fall into the ocean. That’s me in the ocean.”

Bowman is inspired by anime and Manga, in particular Pokemon, which was created by Japanese video game designer Satoshi Tajiri, who is living with Asperger syndrome, a type of autism.

Powerlight Studios is also working with Joey Travolta’s Inclusion Films. Inclusion Films’ focus is to provide “developmentally disabled adults with an entry-level working knowledge of film production,” according to its website. Powerlight Studios has partnered with Inclusion Films for several projects, including a music video.

“They have handicaps and social skills, but they also have amazing ability,” said Patrick of the students in Travolta’s company. “He’s been working with getting children and young adults film experience.”

Inclusion Films and Powerlight Studios will also undertake animation projects as well, a perfect fit, Patrick says, to the ambitions of Bowman.

To view Bowman’s work, visit www.powerlight-studios.com.