Wayne Gilbert has two Clio awards and has worked on productions ranging from Hulk Mountain Dew commercials to Care Bears to Star Wars, Mummy 2 and award-winning video games. Wayne graduated from Sheridan College in the mid-1970s and began his animation career on a television special titled Witch's Night Out, then on to Nelvana for animation & background work on specials & commercials, and serving as Background Department Head for the feature film Rock & Rule. After leaving the studio life to freelance, he instructed and coordinated Sheridan's Classical Animation program. During this time he made two short films, Bottoms Up and Traffic Jam, which screened at the Annecy Animation Festival in France. In 1996 he was recruited to help set up the Walt Disney Canada studio in Toronto, then headed to ILM where he worked for 7 years transitioning to computer animation, and making two more short films, CPU and the award-winning Let Go. Wayne returned to Canada in 2005 to work as Senior Animation Director at EA Black Box on the award-winning games Skate and Skate II.
While working in production at ILM, Disney and EA, he also designed and delivered Professional Development classes for animators. His book, Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation, has helped to support the craft of animating since 1999 and is a required text at animation schools. Wayne has lectured on animation and filmmaking at a long list of international venues and is involved with Animation Mentor online school for animation. He regularly writes articles for the animation industry that can been see at: http://anamie-wayne.blogspot.com/. He has written a novel and screenplay, and is now working to bring them into production.
Click here to listen to Wayne explain the VanArts Character Animation program.
Charles studied film-making at John Abbott College's Creative Arts Program in Montreal in the early 1980s and also attended the Sheridan College Classical Animation Program in Oakville, Ontario. He has worked on several television series and commercials at studios in Montreal and Toronto, and on various independent projects in Vancouver. His eclectic background includes experience in radio broadcasting, as well as comic book and anime wholesale distribution. Charles has been teaching at VanArts since 1998 and initially worked underneath Lee Mishkin, Academy-Award winning founder of VanArts' Classical Animation Program.
Clint is a graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts, and Applied Multimedia Training Center. Having received training in classical and 3D animation with professional 3D animation and storyboarding experience, Clint is also a former gymnast, dancer, actor and since 2006 a highly appreciated figure drawing instructor at VanArts.
Dennis holds a Diploma in Classical Animation from Capilano University in North Vancouver. His professional work experience began in 2000 as a digital ink & paint/compositing artist for Mercury FilmWorks on Yvon of the Yukon and other miscellaneous projects. Since 2003, Dennis has worked primarily as a Flash animator for commercials, television and direct to DVD projects for Atomic Cartoons, Bardel Entertainment, and Global Mechanics.
Mark studied animation at Sheridan College and began his career at Nelvana. From there he moved on to Don Bluth Studios, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Dreamworks, and many other studios. His film credit list includes Ewoks, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Fantastia 2000, The Emperor's New Groove, Shrek 2, Meet the Robinsons and many more!
Steve was trained in classical animation at Capilano College and spent some time drawing storyboards at AKA Cartoon and Barking Bullfrog Cartoon Company. He made his first big splash in comic books by illustrating the debut story arc of Queen & Country, which won the Eisner Award for Best New Series and earned Steve several other nominations including Most Promising Newcomer. Other comic credits include Pounded, One Bad Day, Degrassi: The Next Generation and Emiko Superstar. You can learn more about his work at www.steverolston.com.
Paul has been working in animation for well over a decade, starting out in traditional animation with International Rocketship and Walt Disney Animation. Learning computer skills through employment at dot-coms and running his own company, he is currently working at Bardel Entertainment on Flash shows such as The Buzz on Maggie and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. Paul considers himself a continuing student in animation, and stresses the importance of adapting to new tools and applying learned skills.
Click here to see Paul Johnson on the imdb.
Advisory Council
Bill Matthews has been a guest instructor and visiting industry professional at VanArts since 1996. He is one of the founding instructors and directors of the Sheridan College Animation Program and is recently retired as Manager of Artist Development and ongoing consultant for Walt Disney Feature Animation. Bill worked on effects animation for Disney's Sleeping Beauty and for NASA, and has been writing traditional animation curricula for public schools and colleges for over thirty years.
Michael Venturini has been working in the feature animation business since he studied classical animation in Vancouver BC under legendary animator Lee Mishkin. Though he currently works at Pixar as a 3D animator, he began his career in 2D animation at Warner Bros. Feature Animation as a clean-up assistant, and animator on The Iron Giant. After becoming a 2D animator at Warner Bros, Mike decided to make the exciting transition to 3D animation by joining the Pixar team. Mike has worked on a total of 10 films including Space Jam, Iron Giant, Road to El Dorado, Osmosis Jones, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and was a Directing Animator on Ratatouille and Up. Along the way, Mike has also spent four years as an animation instructor with students who are now working at studios such as Pixar, Blue Sky, Disney, Sony, ILM, & PDI.
Mike Venturini on IMDB
Andrew Gordon has been animating characters professionally for over 12 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 Mode, the costume designer in The Incredibles. Andrew also worked as supervising animator on the short film Presto. His work has also included directing several promotional spots for Broadcast, Web and Blueray content.
Mr. Gordon studied animation in Vancouver and NY, and prior to his work at Pixar, he worked in the Looney Tunes division of Warner Brothers. He was awarded "Outstanding Character Animation in an Animated Motion Picture" by the Visual Effects Society for his work in Finding Nemo.
Andrew has been teaching animation in California since 2000. He has lectured on animation around the world, including Masterclasses in China, Spain, Singapore, Austrailia and Italy. He is a contributing teacher to AnimationMentor and the CSU Summer Arts program. He is one of the founders of Spline Doctors, a blog/podcast dedicated to animation education. He is currently teaching animation at California College of Art in Oakland and just recently finished animating on Pixar's Toy Story 3.
Click here to see Andrew Gordon on the imdb.
Guest Instructor Andy Beall studied classical animation under the late Lee Mishkin, a legendary Hollywood animator. His professional career began in 1996 at Warner Brothers as an assistant animator on Space Jam and later on Quest for Camelot. In 2001 he was a Lead key clean-up animator on Osmosis Jones. Andy began working at Pixar Animation Studios in 2004 as a fix animator on The Incredibles and as an animator on Jack-Jack Attack. On Ratatouille and WALL-E, Andy was a fix animation lead.
Annual guest instructor Bonita Versh majored in Life Drawing at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, which turned out to be the best possible training to bring to her lengthy animation career. She has worked for several studios, including Hanna-Barbera, Film Roman, Chuck Jones, Warner Bros., Walt Disney TV and Merchandise, DePatie-Freleng, Playhouse Pictures, Colosssal Pictures, Duck Soup,Nickelodeon and more.
She has directed projects in Germany, France and China, as well as a CD-ROM for Nintendo, Clay Fighter II, using clay-animation. Bonita worked for several years as a veteran director at Klasky Csupo Commercials, where she enjoyed the cutting-edge styles that the Europeans bring to the studio. Dedicated to continuing the classical tradition of animation, she loves teaching and lecturing, and is always learning more about this exciting field.