Corey Barba

Art Director at Sketchy

Lead visual development and art direction for narrative-driven educational content; defined visual tone and style; mentored artists; streamlined art pipelines and cross-department collaboration.

Visual Development Artist at DreamWorks Animation

Contributed to visual development across characters, props, and color styling for series including Trolls Topia, Archibald’s Next Big Thing, and Captain Underpants; produced exploratory and production-support artwork to inform story and world-building; supported downstream departments with clear design intent; created physical assets for mixed-media sequences.

Freelance Character Designer at Nickelodeon Animation

Developed character designs and turnaround expanding established visual style while maintaining on-model consistency; created expressive poses and variations to support story, performance, and production needs; collaborated with production teams to ensure designs translated clearly to animation.

Senior Artist at Zynga Games

Designed characters, environments, and assets for stylized game worlds including FarmVille, Bubble Safari, and Ninja Kingdom; contributed to cinematic storyboards and visual direction for in-game narratives; partnered with outsourced teams to maintain visual consistency and quality.

Freelance Illustrator and Cartoonist at Self-Employed

Create narrative-driven illustration and comics for major publishers including Scholastic, MAD Magazine, SpongeBob Comics, and Simpsons Comics; collaborated with editors and creative teams to deliver clear, engaging visual storytelling across styles and formats.

Illustrator & Cartoonist at Soft Bright Engine

Produced illustration, character design, animation, and visual development for publishing; contributed art assets to Scholastic titles (Captain Underpants, Dog Man, Goosebumps) and associated properties; wrote and illustrated comics for licensed properties; directed and animated a 4-minute original short film; designed characters, props and assets for toy companies.

Character Designer at Nickelodeon Animation

Created character designs, expressions and poses for animated series Middlemost Post, Archibald’s Next Big Thing; maintained on-model consistency and supported storytelling and performances.