Panels
The Line Kings
Title: The Line Kings: Designers of Animation
Sponsored by The Character Design Blog
Length 45 min
Join us in this rare opportunity when these top designers in the field of animation come together for a round table discussion.
Gregg Couch (TBA) Designer from Blue Sky Studios.
Jason Deamer
Jason Deamer began his career at Pixar Animation Studios in 1998 as a Sketch Artist on Monsters, Inc. He has worked as a Character Designer on a number of Pixar films including the Oscar®-winning Finding Nemo and Ratatouille, as well as the Short films One Man Band and Lifted. Deamer is currently in development, working on a future Disney•Pixar release.
Inspired early in life by Spiderman, Star Wars and Tin Tin to pursue a career in drawing, Deamer leads a small team of artists at Pixar who work with the film’s director to design the characters. Prior to joining Pixar, Deamer worked designing graphics and illustrations for Plan B skate boards.
Deamer grew up in Mill Valley, California and attended the University of California at Davis and the California College of Arts and Crafts in the Bay Area. He currently lives in San Francisco.
Andreas Deja
Andreas Deja was born 1957 in Gdańsk, Poland. Deja moved with his family to Dinslaken, Germany in 1958. After graduating from Theodor-Heuss Gymnasium (secondary school), he studied graphic design at the Folkwang-Schule in Essen, Germany. A lifelong fan of Disney animated films, Deja was hired by the studio in 1980 after he had corresponded with Eric Larson.[1] The first film on which he worked was The Black Cauldron, during which time he shared a cubicle with the film director Tim Burton.
During his rookie days at Disney, Deja sought mentorship and practical advice from seven of the then-living Nine Old Men (who were already retired before his tenure). On an interview with Clay Katis on the Animation Podcast, Deja stated that if the podcast needed anything on the Nine Old Men, to refer to him because of the vast amount of information he has collected over the years. He later revealed that one of his ambitions is to publish one book for each of the Nine Old Men.
Deja is best known as the supervising animator of some of the most memorable Disney villains: Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin and Scar from The Lion King. He also animated Roger Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, King Triton from The Little Mermaid, the title character from Hercules, Lilo from Lilo & Stitch, and Queen Narissa from Enchanted. In addition, he is the current resident specialist for the animation of Mickey Mouse.
In 2006, at the 35th Annie Awards, Deja was awarded the Winsor McCay Award for outstanding contribution to the art of animation.
Harald Siepermann
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 FEATURE ANIMATION in Burbank California. Harald’s credits include among others :
* Who Framed Roger Rabbit ?
* Mulan
* Tarzan
* The Emperor’s New Groove
* Treasure Planet
* Brother Bear
* Enchanted ( Disney)
* Space Chimps ( Vanguard )
As well as Designs for the upcoming Lissy Und Der Wilde Kaiser ( herbiX ).
Harald also works as a commercial illustrator in Hamburg Germany and together with famed Dutch Entertainer HERMAN VAN VEEN he is creator of the award winning TV program ALFRED J. KWAK. Harald Siepermann is lecturing character design at several FilmSchools in Cologne, Berlin, Ludwigsburg, Hamburg and Viborg, Denmark.
Marcelo Vignali
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 year began his formal art education at Otis Art Institute of Parson’s School of Design.
Marcelo began working as a commercial artist in 1985 doing black and white illustrations for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate; his illustrations were featured in 56 newspapers across the United States. Two years later Marcelo embarked on a career in television animation, as a storyboard clean up artist and character designer.
In 1989 Marcelo would establish a relationship with the Walt Disney Company that would span well over a decade, both in feature animated films and theme park design. During which, some of that time he was working as a freelancer while living in St. George, Utah.
In 2003, Marcelo Vignali returned to Southern California to join the creative team at Sony Picture Animation. Since then he has worked on a variety of Sony projects. In addition to Surf’s Up, Marcelo has also worked on Open Season (2006), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), and Hotel Transylvania. He currently resides in Southern California with his wife and two daughters.
Tags: Character Designers
What advice would you give to someone trying to break in to the animation field? I have had a great passion for animation for years and would love to work with the greats.
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