Program Advisory Committee
Ken Duncan's career spans well over twenty years in animation production. After attending Sheridan College, he began working in England and Spain where he collaborated on television commercials and feature films starring the French comic favorite Asterix.
Given his desire to focus on character performance, Ken soon jumped to Walt Disney Feature Animation, where the eight films that he worked on as Animator & Supervising Animator produced some of his most indelible character work, such as "Jane" from Tarzan, "Meg" from Hercules, "Belle" from Beauty & the Beast, and "Jafar" from Aladdin.
After Disney, he worked as Supervising Animator of "Angie" on Dreamworks Animation's Shark Tale. He then established a California studio for Reel FX, where he served as Creative Director and Supervising Animator on several projects including TMNT (Ninja Turtles) and The Wild (as co-director for the opening sequence).
Over the course of his career, Ken has been nominated for three ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Awards in the category of "Best Individual Achievement in Character Animation" for Hercules, Tarzan, and Shark Tale. The Visual Effects Sociey also nominated Ken's work on Shark Tale for "Outstanding Performance" and on 9 for "Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature."
As has been the case throughout his career, Ken's commitment to creating memorable characters continues to propel him forward, this time bringing his love of animation and knowledge of strong character performances to his innovative production house Duncan Studio.
Ken Duncan studio website: www.duncanstudio.com
Ken Duncan at IMDB
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.
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.
Mark Pullyblank is one of our most successful VanArts graduates and keeps in touch with us as a mentor and advisory board member. He has worked as an animator for Rainmaker Entertainment and Frantic Films in Vancouver, WETA Digital in New Zealand (as a senior layout technical director on James Cameron's Avatar), Sony Imageworks, and his current position as animation director for Goldtooth Creative. His other lead and supervisory animation credits include The Smurfs, Garfield, Dr. Dolittle 3, Stargate:Atlantis, Elektra, Night at the Museum, Blades of Glory, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Watchmen and many other projects.
Charlie Bonifacio's animation career spans over 34 years, beginning after graduation from Sheridan College's Animation program in 1976. His early career included character animation & design, layout, posing supervision, story development and directing at Nelvana Inc in Toronto, as an integral part of their holiday special series and features Rock & Rule and The Care Bears Movie.
His other credits include: Nelvana's The Thief of Always & Ruby Gloom, Sullivan-Bluth Studio's The Land Before Time, All Dogs go to Heaven & Rock-a-Doodle, Squeeze Animation's Wicked Wendolyn & The Christmas Pony, Walt Disney Animation Canada's Peter Pan: Return to Neverland, Tarzan 2, & The Legend of Mulan, Walt Disney Feature Animation's Hunchback of Notre Dame & Lilo and Stitch, and Starz Animation's 9 & Gnomeo and Juliet. Charlie continues to contribute and stay current with the Canadian animation industry.
