Title: One on One Spotlight with Mike Mignola
Sponsored by The Creative Talent Network
Length 20 min
Moderated by Don Hahn an American film producer who has produced some of the most successful Walt Disney animated films of the past 20 years.
Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland, the [...]
Title: How to break into Animation and How to Stay There!
Sponsored by The Creative Talent Network
Length 20 min
Description: Director/Producer Steve Hickner gives practical advice and hints on how to get into the animation industry and pitfalls to avoid once in it.
Steve Hickner has spent the past thirty years working at some of the most fabled [...]
Andrew Gordon has been animating characters professionally for 15 years. He joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997 where he has been an animator on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. The characters he has worked on include Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Gill, from Finding Nemo and Edna [...]
Chris Oatley has worked as a visual development artist and a content creator in the entertainment industries for six years. Chris has worked in visual development on films at Disney and The Weinstein Company. He has developed music videos for Geffen Records and he directed one for EMI. He has also worked in development on [...]
Stuart Sumida is a professor of biology at California State University San Bernardino where he teaches animal and human anatomy. He is the author of three books and over 100 scientific articles. His work on animal structure and function led Charles Solomon to suggest him to the Disney Studios to help with the structure of [...]
Ellen Ann Mersereau Entertainment Attorney
After attempting to read his contract without help, one of Ms. Mersereau’s clients likened the experience to water running over a rock ——- nothing stuck. Another compared his experience to trying to hold onto a handful of cooked spaghetti.
Ellen Ann Mersereau has specialized in entertainment law for 18 years, with a focus on [...]
Title: The Relevance of Mime in Animation: Character Movement
Sponsored by The Creative Talent Network
Length 20 min
Lorin Eric Salm is the creator of Character Movement for Animation, a series of workshops using concepts and techniques from the art of Theatrical Mime to expand animators’ insight into the ways in which characters express personality, thought, and emotion [...]
I wanted to be a Disney Animator since the age of twelve. After graduating Cal State Long Beach in 1975 I joined the training program at Walt Disney under the patient guidance of Disney Legend Eric Larson. After eight years of climbing the ranks to animator I realized I was becoming increasingly tired of the [...]
Ezra, a native of New Jersey, left home to study theater at California Institute of the Arts. After graduating in 1994 with a B.F.A., he moved to the greater Los Angeles area to better pursue his career in the theater and television. The first of his most memorable credits was The Cradle Will Rock, with [...]
“Animators are often asked to work as independent contractors. This lecture will discuss the various provisions of an independent contractor agreement, including the term of the agreement, compensation, warranties and representations, duties and obligations as well as termination and dispute resolution. In addition, examples will be given of ways that animators can protect themselves before [...]
For more than 15 years, Steve Kaplan has been the industry’s most respected and sought-after expert on comedy. The artists he’s taught, directed or produced have gone on to be nominated for 43 Emmy Awards, 1 Academy Award, 3 Golden Globe Awards, 1 American Comedy Award, 6 Writers’ Guild of America Awards and several others. [...]
Tom Sito is a thirty year veteran of animated film production.
His screen credits include the Disney classics THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY & THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT ? POCAHONTAS,DINOSAURS and FANTASIA 2000. Animation World Network called Tom “one of the key players in the Disney Animation Revival” ( January 2001 [...]
I started my Seattle, Washington-based illustration and animation business in 1989. Since then, I have been working with clients such as Apple, ESPN, Fox, FedEx, IBM, Hasbro, Intel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Pepsi, Taco Bell, The Federal Reserve, Volvo, and Warner Books. I have received accolades both for illustration work and animation endeavors, including a permanent placement [...]
Aniboom is the first virtual animation studio in the world, bridging the gap between the global community of independent animators and the professional animation industry in all its forms: cinema, television, web, mobile, music videos, digital gaming, and advertising.
Since its founding in 1996 by CEO Uri Shinar, a former television executive with decades of broadcasting [...]
Frank Gladstone has been working as a professional animator, producer, director, writer and teacher for nearly 35 years. From 1973 to 1989, he managed his own Emmy award-winning studio, Persistence of Vision, producing commercials and educational films, and has since held management positions for Disney, Warner Brothers and DreamWorks, among others. Some of his feature [...]
Title: The Secret Behind “The Secret of the Kells”
Sponsored by The Creative Talent Network
Length 45 min
Moderator: Charles Solomon
An internationally respected critic and historian of animation, Charles Solomon has written on the subject for “The New York Times,” “TV Guide,” “Newsweek” (Japan), “Rolling Stone,” “Los Angeles Times,” “Modern Maturity,” “Film Comment,” “The Hollywood Reporter,” “Manchester Guardian,” [...]
Matt Jones has worked in the animation industry for 14 years, initially in commercials in London & lately on feature animated productions. He’s currently a senior Story Artist on Aardman/Sony’s ‘Arthur Christmas’. While working on BiboFilms’ ‘A Monster In Paris’ in the South of France he managed to contact his drawing hero Ronald Searle & [...]
Join Kent Melton, Ruben Procopio and other maquette sculptors in a relaxed and informal setting while they discuss the history of the maquette. This discussion will include historical information about the early Disney animation model sculptures and the pioneering artists that created them. These sculptors will relate their own “personal” sculpting experiences of carrying on [...]
Title: The Pioneer Series: Those Who Paved the Way
Sponsored by The Creative Talent Network
Length 45 min
Moderated by Animation Historian Jerry Beck this round table discussion with Don Bluth and Gary Goldman centers on the pioneering spirit. Hear first hand about the passion and drive that drove these great talents along with many others to break [...]
Gary Goldman’s first animation job interview was in February at Walt Disney Productions. He had been raised in Watsonville, CA and earned his Fine Arts degree in Life Drawing with a minor in Art History from the University of Hawaii the December before, in 1971. Three days after the interview, he was hired into their [...]
Bruce Block is the author of THE VISUAL STORY, the widely read book on the relationship between visual structure and story structure. He conducts seminars at every major animation studio, computer game companies and advertising agencies in America and Europe. Bruce is also on the faculty at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where he teaches [...]
Angela Lepito is the Outreach Supervisor for DreamWorks Animation. In her role she is responsible for university relations with the studio’s key artistic schools, recruiting for entry-level artistic positions for the studio and special programming and events. She joined the company in 2004 in a Production Supervisor role on the television series, “Father of the [...]
Join Animation Mentor and guests at CTN-X for a conversation about “An Animation Career Snapshot”.
Panel Description:
Just as the animation industry is constantly evolving, so does your career in animation!
AnimationMentor.com has gathered top animators in all areas of the field; from Animation Directors & Supervisors to Jr. Animators, to discuss the differences in their day-to-day jobs. [...]
PETER de SÈVE’S illustration and character designs are known throughout the world. His work spans three decades and various media, including magazines, books, print and television advertising, animated feature films and magazines. Best recognized for his many New Yorker covers and his character designs for the three blockbuster Ice Age movies (“Scrat” is now an [...]
Andy Gaskill was drafted out of art school to work at the Disney studio when he was twenty-one. He flew out to Los Angeles from Philadelphia and he has lived in the movie capital ever since.
He participated in the first animation training program at Disney, supervised by veteran animator Eric Larson. Other veteran animators still [...]
Raised on Hollywood, sports and rock and roll music, David O’Keefe has an acute awareness for the images and personalities that have colored the lives of his generation. He just sees things differently – more intensely, edgier, somewhat more perspicuous than the average spectator. The pop culture icons that we idolize, glamorize and glorify, O’Keefe [...]
BLAKE SNYDER passed away suddenly August 4, 2009, from cardiac arrest. There was no one like him and all who knew him know that. No one more enthusiastic, more giving, more truly interested in “you”. He will live on in his films and his books, and in the advice that will never grow old, with [...]
DON BLUTH, trained by the nine old men is one of the original pioneers of independent animation filmmaking. As an animator, producer and director he was invited by 20th Century Fox to move to Phoenix, Arizona to co-helm the creation of Fox Animation Studio in 1994, following an already illustrious career in the animation industry [...]
KATHY ALTIERI is Production Designer on one of DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming 2010 releases, “How To Train Your Dragon,” based on the children’s book by Cressida Cowell. Prior to “How to Train Your Dragon,” Altieri was Production Designer on “Over the Hedge” and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” When arriving at DreamWorks Animation in 1994, Altieri [...]
HARALD SIEPERMANN was born 10th of June 1962 in Bochum Germany . He studied Art and Illustration at the Folkwang School in Essen and startet early to work for Advertising – Agencies in Düsseldorf London and Zürich.
For almost 20 years Harald is designing characters for a range of animation-studios worldwide most notably for WALT DISNEY [...]
David Burgess does not have any time to get into trouble – he has been busy enough animating!
Dave was most recently Head of Character Animation on DreamWorks Animation’s March 2009 release, “Monsters vs. Aliens.” Prior to Monsters vs Aliens, he was Head of Character Animation on the mini-movie “Hammy’s Boomerang Adventure,” and has been a [...]
DAVE ZABOSKI has always been drawing. From the start, he has pulled images from his imagination and observed the motion and emotion from life, filled a thousand sketchbooks, and can always be found with a drawing pen in his pocket and blank pages nearby.
He has been a professional at this for twenty years and has [...]
MARCELO VIGNALI is an Art Director and Visual Development artist for Sony Pictures Animation in Culver City, California.
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Argentine immigrant parents. In 1976 his family moved to Southern California, where his father started an auto repair shop. Marcelo graduated from West Covina high school in 1983, and that same [...]
LEE SILBER, affectionately known as “Creative Lee” is the best-selling author of 14 books including “Self-Promotion For The Creative Person”, “Organizing From The Right Side Of The Brain”, “Rock To Riches”, and “The Wild Idea Club”. Silber is also the founder of five companies ranging from Waves & Wheels Surfcenters to Deep Impact Training. Since [...]
KATHY ZIELINSKI with over 21 animated feature screen credits behind her is one of a very elite group of award winning women animators in the animation industry. Currently at Dreamworks Animation Studios for the past 10 years she graduated from California Institute of the Arts and began her career at Walt Disney Animation Studios in [...]
JASON RYAN was Supervising Animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for almost twelve years and is now Supervising Animator at DreamWorks Animation Studios.
After graduating from the European School of Animation (aka Senior College, Ballyfermot), Ireland in 1993, with a student of the year award from Don Bluth (creator of An American Tail and Land Before [...]
AARON SIMPSON is the Founder of Cold Hard Flash (coldhardflash.com), a popular news and entertainment site focusing on the rapidly expanding universe of Flash animation. Animation Magazine called the site “one of the 13 platforms reshaping our world.”
Simpson is an Emmy-nominated Producer of “Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island,” a Flash-animated series that aired on Kids’WB! [...]
PILAR ALESSANDRA is the director of the popular writing program “On The Page.” A sought after teacher and lecturer, she’s traveled the world teaching screenwriting and is in high demand at major writing conferences and film festivals. As a consultant, she’s helped thousands of writers create, refine and sell their screenplays. Her students and clients [...]
Jerry Beck is an animation historian and cartoon producer. His twelve books on the subject include The Animated Movie Guide, Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney, and is currently a consulting producer to Warner Bros., Universal and Disney for their [...]
Max Howard is the president of Exodus Film Group the independent production company formed in 2001 that has taken pioneering steps in the animation field by creating one of the first private equity animation film funds. The company will develop, produce, finance and distribute a multi-picture slate of CG-animated feature films, DVDs and television series.
In [...]
BILL KROYER is an award-winning director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles and theatrical films. Listen to him here…
