Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Martin.
In 2013, a twenty-three years old Houston actor was graduating from an art college, called The Art Institute of Houston. The student spent four years studying at this institution because he longed to be apart of a movie production that could be seen by the whole world, whether it meant acting in one or creating one from scratch. “To create a movie, though, you have to know how to do special effects, right?” is what this student thought.
This student finally graduated college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Arts & Animation and did not waste any time. Upon graduation, he announced the opening of his Houston studios- just like that! He could have gone back to school to study business, but instead, he learned from experience and applying what he knew about animation. You already know, this student is Josh Martin.
Martin Animation Studios started as a company that served clients’ needs in various interests, such as graphic design, photography, videography, website design, live event coordination and attractions, delivering ready actors and models and…. animation. From 2014 to 2015, Josh made his money creating content for a Houston talent agency, called Beaz Talent, working as a production assistant for an entertainment group, called Round Rock Entertainment, being behind the window at The Music Box Theater’s ticket booth, as well as taking groups of people around the Houston Heights as a tour guide for Ghost Tours Texas. The sole focus on animation, VFX, books, toys and home decor didn’t actually happen until years later.
Josh Martin, third son to his parents, was encouraged by his younger brother Gabriel to pursue bringing the company to life. Gabriel was a form of life support during Josh’s college days, lending him money when Josh needed it. Josh had an instructor in college who spawned the idea of a Houston production company, named Steve Hussey, but Gabriel was the second voice to enforce it. So, Gabriel started it with him as a business partner. One year after Josh graduated from The Art Institute of Houston, he was working at Papa John’s. Papa John’s? That’s right! And there, one of his co-workers caught him doodling on a pizza box, saying “That’s pretty good drawing!” Then, Josh replied, “I studied drawing. My degree is Media Arts and Animation.” His co-worker smiled and requested Josh to make him a cartoon. Josh quit Papa John’s that very day and rushed home to tell his brother, Gabriel.
Josh began getting into business mode; this would be the first time he’d make a dollar off of animation. He made several animations in his time in college, but those were for grades. Not many know, but this first animation business deal was not very profitable, financially. He did gain an abundance of experience and wisdom, but he only charged $400 for a cartoon that would take over six months to produce. The co-worker who requested the cartoon was E-Spade, and the cartoon was Can’t Stop My Crease.
Because he charged so little, he then added the other services to his company. In fact, in July 2015, he took two days to put together a business plan and realized he could promote several art-related services and hire other artists to work for him as independent contractors. Josh would add a small profit on top of their fee(s) for the company. His focus then became marketing and managing multiple projects while completing Can’t Stop My Crease. He spent an hour posting ads on Craigslist for different major cities, which is how he caught Dave Dar’s eye. To complete Can’t Stop My Crease, it suddenly hit him that he could also recruit students from The Art Institute of Houston, too, to help him while serving as interns. The students would gain experience, learn about business from an artist’s perspective and grow a relationship with a thriving entrepreneur, while Josh would gain trust in them as hires for future projects requiring additional manpower. In addition to assisting Josh in completing the client’s request, Josh would give them gas money, pizza and hire them for extra duties on the side. Therefore, Josh now had both independent contractors and interns in his second year of business. Gabriel didn’t have the animation education that Josh had, but he sure did love entertainment as much, so he began focusing on live events.
Mr. Martin wasn’t a rich man all of a sudden because he owned his own business; he was living on a very tight budget. Josh stayed at his parent’s house for free, but he was responsible for all the cleaning: floors, kitchen, dishes, laundry, bathrooms and yardwork. To eat, he would switch between rice, beans, crackers, tuna, ramen noodles, bread, turkey, cereal and cheese every single day for almost two years. As the Houston production company grew in popularity on Instagram and Facebook, so did it’s profits. Dave Dar eventually requested a cartoon music video in 2016 just like E-Spade did the previous year, and it debuted Bubba Bee and Bella Bee! For this cartoon, which was only two minutes long, less than half the time of Can’t Stop My Crease, Josh Martin also charged $400. The reason why he charged so little, again, was because his skills in Toon Boom software had improved from working on the E-Spade cartoon. Josh was able to complete this Bubba Bee cartoon, called Let Me, in only two months!
To promote the company and increase its appeal, Josh hired Brianna Calhooun to model in professionally taken pictures that would reveal the E-Spade cartoon character or advertise a live event. The first live event that Martin Animation Studios produced was it’s very first product ever delivered, as it was delivered in summer 2014. The live event took place at a warehouse outside of downtown Houston. The event was called Cookies and Milk, because it presented different forms of entertainers, from fire dancers to DJs, while serving free cookies and milk. In fact, Josh picked up a summer job cleaning pools in Sugarland, TX to help fund the event. Gabriel wasn’t actually apart of the planning for this project, because he wanted to see how Josh could manage it, first. About fifty people attended, and Martin net profited only $10.
The second event was a little more successful; Gabriel did help with this one. It costed the studios $400 to produce it, which included paying the cameraman, Tony Hall, paying the comedian, Rich Williams, paying the girl who recruited the comedian, Velvet Mazariegos, ordering flyers and a poster and buying supplies to build a small stage. This event was a stand-up comedy show called Stand Up For Comedy Show, and it was at Molly’s Pub on Main St. in Downtown Houston. The net profit for this live event was $300. In addition, Josh picked up a job at Denny’s for a month as a dishwasher to help fund this show, which took place on April 16th, 2015.
The third original event he was putting together was an event called Charity Day. Charity Day was supposed to benefit over ten charities in Houston by having Houston families come to a playground that would be filled with games and activities, and each game and activity represents a different charity. To play, the attendee would have to make a donation, and the prizes were gifts granted by local businesses, such as Starbucks, Brother’s Pizza, Cinemark and Orange Leaf. Beginning on July 11th, 2015, the world would come to know this annual event that raises awareness of charitable giving. In conclusion, the event got shut down, unfortunately, because the wrong administrator gave permission to Martin for using the playground. When he arrived to set up the event, there were two police units waiting to deliver him the bad news.
Later in 2015, Josh began looking at office spaces, and then he purchased one in December to host all Martin operations. The location was just fifteen minutes away from the Houston Galleria area, and roughly five minutes from Memorial City Mall. It was at that time that he realized, the money in animation lies in the movie industry. Therefore, he announced auditions for Martin’s first animated movie, called KILO. While managing event videography and wedding photography requests, logo designs and other client needs, Josh hired artists to develop character designs for his first movie. The auditions were scheduled in March 2016, and tens of actors called for an appointment. Kevin Parrish, Josh’s first-ever employee, video captured the auditions, and Josh’s friend, Velvet Mazariegos, was hired to assist the auditionees. The movie was cast and the first rehearsal was scheduled for the coming fall. It was between March and September of that year when Josh’s best friend, Joe Chavez, passed away in a tragic car accident.
When Joe died, Josh was shocked. He began wondering what was to come off his ole pal as he was buried six feet under. This led him to begin working on a comic book series called Christ. Josh started reading the Bible and trying not to let his friend’s death distract him. However, he kept having lucid dreams related to biblical matters. The first rehearsal for the KILO movie arrived, as the cast gathered to read through the script for the first time. Josh’s dad, Daniel Martin, was a new partner for the Houston company, supporting Josh however needed. Alex Luckey and Tony Hall were hired to capture photos and footage of the event for behind-the-scenes material. In those days, Josh was getting tiresome of living at his parent’s house, and he found himself having many arguments and conflicts with his family. It was time for a vacation. Josh packed his bags and computer and hit the road to California. He was determined to partner with Warner Brothers for the KILO movie. All Martin operations were on hold as Josh Martin attempted to join the big league. After two days of driving, since he is afraid of flying in airplanes, he finally arrived in Los Angeles, California.
Gabriel Bendana, Josh’s uncle, welcomed him to his Santa Clarita home, temporarily, as he taught twenty-six years old Josh the ropes about the city. Gabriel is also an entrepreneur who runs a business with his darling wife, Susan, while raising an intelligent son, also named Joshua. While there in Los Angeles, Mr. Martin attended a couple of film workshops where he met a Disney engineer and other filmmakers. He also visited Warner Brother Studios and Cartoon Network. Needless to say, it was a very educational trip. More about Josh’s trip can be read about in his book Road To Heaven. Josh returned home to Houston after four days in California without a deal. He did return with wisdom and more motivation than ever about the advantage of living in Houston, Texas. Martin’s operations were back on schedule, but the company founder was continuing to have terrifying dreams. Some dreams were about a big flood, others about chaos on the streets, but the one that shook him was where he saw a Messiah-looking figure.
Praying for direction, Josh stumbled upon a post on Instagram that revealed black people being children of Israel. Macey Miller, a volunteer for Charity Day, noticed Josh’s social media post when he shared the Instagram post. She commented on his post, saying that she went to a church with mostly black people in its attendance who are learning the ancient Hebrew language. This immediately interested Martin, and he attended the next gathering that week. Attending that gathering changed his life more than his friend Joe passing away. This church, called The Gathering of Christ Church (GOCC), was the most biblical thing Josh had ever seen. He even bounced around to several other churches afterwards to compare the teachings, and there were no other church groups teaching the Bible like GOCC. Josh shut down the studios and the KILO movie project after that. Many of the cast members mocked him and were upset to hear he was stopping everything to spend more time learning about the Bible.
During his biblical studies, he picked up a job delivering cookies and milk for Tiff’s Treats and delicious meals for Zoe’s Kitchen as an independent contractor. In February 2017, Josh got baptized again. Everything he was learning about the Bible and how the world was nowhere as biblical as he thought it was led him to brainstorm a new company… Biblical Studios. Immediately, Josh Martin thought that people respond to movies, especially animated movies. “What if he animated the stories of the Bible?” Josh thought. Many around the world were having similar lucid dreams to those that Josh had, and one male singer in particular spoke about how he survived getting shot a few times by gang members. How he dreamed of speaking with someone who told him to forgive the gang members and to use his talents for teaching the Gospel. So, the man began singing biblical songs for his audiences. Josh knew he should use his talent and skills to preach, too, then. It was final, Josh announced the beginning of The Biblical Company when he wrote a new business plan to release animated movies based on the stories in the Bible. He informed GOCC of his plan and got to work on the Adam and Eve screenplay.
Soon enough, Debbie Porter, a Houston photographer who is the creator of Fabulous Phebe, heard about Josh Martin through a friend and requested an animation from him sometime in May 2017. She liked him so much because of his new ambition to release Biblical animation, but she didn’t have a budget for her request. They made a deal that she would provide her photography services to Josh if he would trade his animation service with her in order to complete her project. With her request, Martin Animation Studios was reopened… without an office location, though. Josh was back to working from home on a client’s animation just like he did in 2014. On Saturdays, he began celebrating the Sabbath by not doing any work whatsoever. Instead, he would watch old movies about the Bible that taught about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Esther, David, Goliath and Jeremiah. Come Saturday night when the Sabbath was over, it was back to working on Debbie’s animation and planning the Adam and Eve movie.
Upon finishing Debbie’s animation, Josh’s parents retired and moved to their home country: Nicaragua. Josh and his brothers took on the mortgage they left, splitting the costs. At this time, Josh Martin recruited new artists on Instagram to help him draw up designs for the Adam and Eve movie characters and backgrounds. He, too, didn’t have a budget to pay these new artists, so he explained that if they would help him, that he would pay them once he got the money. They even signed contracts to outline this agreement, contracts that equaled up to $15,000. To gain perspective on selling points, he knew he had to look at the top-selling animation movies of the time. As Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Josh spent the days watching and analyzing Moana. After researching how to make an animated movie and put it in theaters, the formula became clear that he was going to need popular actors to star in the movie since movies sell better when someone popular works in them. Being a big fan of The George Lopez Show on Nickelodeon, the first person Josh Martin approached was Masiela Lusha. She replied that she would love to be apart of the movie, but to speak with her manager, Bobby; she even gave him his number. And that’s how it began, Josh realized there were lots of popular actors who share something in common with Houston actors who are not popular: they want to get paid to act. Recruiting actors isn’t hard.
At the end of December 2017, Martin was contacted by someone in Houston needing a production assistant for their independent film project. In return, they would give him a credit on IMDB. This opened Josh’s eyes to having his own IMDB profile. As he was finishing up the design work with his new artists, he began presenting himself and the Adam and Eve movie to major talent agencies in order to recruit popular talents, such as Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Liam Neeson, Kevin Hart and more. If he could get their interest, it would be easier to raise the money to produce the movie. Martin had fruitful conversations with some of the best agents in Hollywood, gaining knowledge about the industry with every phone call. Using LinkedIn to increase his professional network, he connected with Disney writer John Edwards. John and Josh have many things in common: they love animation, they enjoy the same type of content, good family values, resided in California, their interest in the Bible, etc.
Within two months, Josh completed the entire production plan for the Adam and Eve movie by himself. The plan included who would star in the movie, who would produce the computer-generated imagery (CGI), which types of artists would be needed and the quantity of artists needed, equipment and software needed, other miscellaneous needs, a marketing plan to show how the movie will be advertised on multiple platforms, a budget, summary of the movie and a profit and loss sheet. This production plan was going to be used to introduce and explain the project to potential investors. Along with the plan, Josh made a demo reel filled with all of the design work from the team of new artists that he recruited from Instagram to present, as well. This was before the Adam and Eve’s book had been produced, so he also used the design work to promote the movie on social media in order to gain a following. It was when Josh began pitching to potential movie investors that he came across Pra Kumar. Pra assisted Josh in finding funders for this massive project, and Josh returned the favor by assisting in attaching popular talent to a movie that Pra wanted to produce. Because of Pra, Josh had the pleasure of discussing business with Brad Pitt’s, Emma Watson’s and M. Night Shyamalan’s manager.
Suddenly, Justyn T. Bradley reached out to Martin Animation Studios in the spring of 2018 with absolute passion in his heart and a mission on his mind. Justyn and Josh met for the first time at an Ihop, since Josh didn’t have a studio roof anymore. They went over the details of Justyn’s request, and pricing. That week, Josh sold the biggest animation sale he’s ever sold in his career as a producer. Martin Animation Studios had enough funds to get a new office space off of Highway 290, on Northwest Central Drive.
Yes, this was the biggest animation sale he’s ever made, but it also took fourteen months to complete. It led him straight into May 2019. At first, it was meant to be a hand-drawn cartoon on 3-dimensional backgrounds (like the KILO book), but along the way, Justyn decided to change it to a full-on 3d project. This would be the first client to ever request a 3d animation in Martin’s history. Josh, alone, made the backgrounds for the project, and he also modeled and rigged the main character. Five months into Justyn’s project, Josh realized that he was going to need a team to help him finish it. Like “old times”, Josh recruited students from the Art Institute of Houston as interns to help; he even recruited a couple from the University of Houston. This time, the client had ensured Josh that once the project is completed, he would pitch it to Netflix or similar networks. With this in mind, Josh motivated the interns by saying, “The better result of this animation, the more likely we will sign a deal with a major network. That means full-time jobs for all of us.” The team worked hard, as seen in the 2018 documentary. Some members of the team were David “Ali” Oshkoohi and Loren Garcia.
As the Martin Artists worked, John Edwards helped expedite the Adam and Eve (AE) movie by introducing Josh to Susan Bell. She is a person with such a high level of intelligence and understanding that you’d think you’re talking to the inventor of the wheel. Susan Bell, like many other film industry professionals, loved the Adam and Eve animated movie concept. She’s very well connected and did her best in advising Josh and getting the AE movie rolling along. Eventually, the Martin team had completed all the character models and rigging for Justyn T. Bradley’s request, and Josh single-handedly animated the whole thing. Then came rendering-time. Being the first time Josh had to work on a 3d animated project since college, he had forgotten all about the rendering process and the agony it brings. It took over three months to render this confidential project, so while it rendered, Josh wrote the screenplay for Adam and Eve part 2, or Cain and Abel.
In March 2019, Susan Bell informed Josh how she had submitted his movie to Lionsgate. He had given her full authority to represent the movie in the event that Josh would be paid as a writer. Before she could submit the screenplay, she asked John Edwards to polish it up, because it wasn’t ready for younger audiences. John polished it and did a swell job doing so, to say the least, but Lionsgate still declined it. Apparently, they liked the concept of an animated “story of creation” movie but hated the script. It had been over a year that Josh had been trying to get the AE movie greenlit, that it came to him how so many people knew about it and had the complete power to move forward with the idea without him. He would get rejected for so many different reasons, but yet, get a lot of encouragement and wonderful industry connections, too. That’s why Josh began working on the Adam and Eve’s book. “Making a book is faster and easier than making a movie.” said Josh. He could solidify the concept with him that he’s pitched to so many people.
Josh Martin produced the Adam and Eve’s book by himself in less than two months! Although, before making that book, he wrote Why The Bible is True in 9 days, which is a record of most his findings from the days of researching the Holy Bible and writing The Biblical Company business plan. Seeing the process for publishing, Josh developed a new department at Martin, called Martin Publishing Worldwide, where the company can release books.
In fact, in the fall of 2019, Josh Martin shot for the stars as he developed Martin Store, Martin Club and Martin Engineering. Mr. Martin met the love of his life, too, named Laura Mujica, who assists with several Martin operations. He’s published Bert & Mafulee: The Night Before The First Day Of School and Detective Donna and the Case of the Missing Kitty, and as the Houston studios approaches summer 2020, they are in the midst of releasing six more books. Adam and Eve’s movie is now in production.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Change in company ownership, relocation to different office space, sticking to strict low-budget diet and loss of major supporter in a tragic car accident.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Martin Animation Studios – what should we know?
We offer CGI and animation services, book publishing service, as well as produce our own content (books, apparel, animation, toys and home decor).
We are most proud of bringing jobs to Houston, Texas artists.
We are different because of our wide range of services, skillsets and goals (such as animated movie production and distribution).
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Josh Martin’s (Founder) dad and mother, Daniel and Maria, for constant support. All of our customers and social media followers keep us going, so big thank you to them!
Pricing:
- $950 per 3d animated character production, and $80 per second of 3d animation.
- 2d animation varies to styles at a cost of $600-10,000 per minute of traditional hand-drawn animation.
- Book publishing services vary from $300-3,000 depending on their needs.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5700 Northwest Central Drive #401,
Houston, Texas 77092 - Website: martinanimationstudios.com
- Phone: 8322298395
- Email: info@martinanimationstudios.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/martinanimationstudios
- Facebook: facebook.com/martinanimationstudios
- Twitter: twitter.com/houstonanimate
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD9JLyE1XwvW_Vftcjd0Ebg?fbclid=IwAR0fbRKAm0O3zYg-2YqBCbOKdDdB_Fi_9TXGDFpqcaIqLKhDAGUDg0YKaYE
Image Credit:
Bubba Bee (original Martin character) | Martin Artists taking a break from work by playing in the studio VIP room | Josh Martin and half of the team at Martin Animation Studios | Josh Martin holding his publications | Martin Artists sitting at a table in the Houston studios
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