Armand Serrano
Visual Development Artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios
Armand Serrano has been in the animation industry for 25 years and have worked in major animated feature films for both Disney and Sony Pictures. His film credits for Disney include Zootopia (slated for march, 2016), Big Hero 6, Lilo and Stitch, Brother Bear, Tarzan, and Mulan. His film credits for Sony Pictures Animation include Hotel Transylvania, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Arthur Christmas, and Surf’s Up. His freelance works in film, game, and commercial industries have clients that include Blue Dream Studios, Blizzard Entertainment, Blur Studios, ReelFX, Big Red Button, Fisher Price, Laika House, Charlx, and 321 Launch. He’s also an adjunct professor at the Cinema and Media Arts Department of Biola University and conducts visual development workshops internationally. Armand was born, grew up, and graduated with a Civil Engineering degree from the University of Santo Tomas, in Manila, Philippines. He is currently working as senior visual development artist at Walt Disney Animation Studio in Burbank, California.
Artist Links:
Website: www.armandserrano.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/armandserrano.artist
Twitter: @ArmandSerrano
Instagram: armand_serrano
Dallas.
James Gentile
Sr. Motion Capture Technician at Monolith Productions
James is a traditional artist and graduated from The American Academy of Art in Chicago. After art studies, James entered the entertainment field as a graphic artist in the emerging video game industry. Moving through the ranks at Midway Games, Inc. as an Animator, Animation Lead, Dept. Manager, and Motion Capture Studio Director. In his career as studio director for Midway and THQ, James oversaw the project management end for motion capture on numerous renowned video games such as Mortal Kombat, WWE: Smackdown vs. Raw, UFC fighter 2, Saints Row, NFL Blitz, and Area 51, to name a few.
During these 20 years, James built a solid reputation for high quality capture data, with extreme attention to the aesthetic content. Overseeing motion capture for Midway’s satellite companies in the US and UK, James maintained a solid delivery record, while handling the demand for excellent creative and technical content.
In 2010, James was contracted to build (from the ground up – literally!), a state-of-the-art Motion Capture facility for THQ, Inc. This required a complete studio design and build-out, staff recruitment and hire, technical set up of motion capture system and network, and design of content delivery solutions.
After THQ project completion, James moved into Artist Management at Legend3D. James was brought in to reorganize and revamp the studio culture, reconnect management and employees, enhance communication and supervise department personnel.
In 2013, James entered the world of VFX and Animation recruitment for Rachelle Lewis Talent as a Sr. Recruiter. Years of hiring and recruiting for game animation made this a smooth transition. James was able to source, qualify and hire many, many artists for such VFX heavy titles as Godzilla, X-Men, The Amazing Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and many more.
In June of 2015 James returned to his motion capture roots and was contracted by Monolith Productions to revamp their motion capture studio and capture system. His goal will be to take the studio motion capture system to new heights of technical achievement and enhance the performance capture output and aesthetic.
James currently resides in Kirkland, WA.
Artist Links:
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,114325/
Jorge Gutierrez
Writer, Director and Creator at Reel FX Creative Studios
Born in Mexico City and raised Tijuana, Gutierrez attended CalArts, where he received his BFA & MFA. His thesis “Carmelo” won the Student Emmy Award. He has directed, written and designed characters for WB, Disney, Cartoon Network, Sony and DreamWorks. Gutierrez and his wife Sandra Equihua created the Emmy winning series “El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera” for Nickelodeon. Gutierrez recently co-wrote and directed “The Book of Life”, a CG-animated feature for Reel FX and 20th Century FOX, produced by Guillermo Del Toro and Brad Booker. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice Award, Producer’s Guild Award and Annie Award for Best Animated Feature. Most recently, Gutierrez signed a deal with Reel FX to write and develop his next picture – “Untitled Kung Fu Space Western”.
Artist Links:
Personal Website: http://www.super-macho.com/
The Book of Life Website – http://www.bookoflifemovie.com/
The Book of Life Trailers –
Making of the Book of Life videos –
http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/making-of-the-book-of-life/
http://cw33.com/2014/12/11/reel-success-reel-fxs-book-of-life-nominated-for-golden-globe/
Katie Heckey
Visual Development Artist at Brazen Animation
Katie is a visual development artist at Brazen Animation: an audacious studio of animators, artists, scientists, writers and producers bound by one common mission: to tell stories with meaning and purpose. She has contributed concept art and storyboards to a wide range of clients including Chevrolet, Hasbro Nerf, UCool Heroes Charge, and Solera Holdings Inc. She continues to contribute ongoing design work to Brazen’s exciting upcoming animated short and to provide mentorship to Brazen’s talented interns and apprentices. Katie is a graduate of San Jose State University’s Animation/Illustration program and a former president of SJSU’s famous and mysterious animation & illustration organization: The Shrunkenheadman Club. Juggling multiple disciplines as a character designer, background designer, and occasional advertising script writer, Katie’s strengths lie in her expressive line work, strong knowledge of perspective, and energetic gestures. You always know Katie is in the room by her boisterous laugh and her unstoppable energy.
Website: http://www.katieheckey.com/
RachelleLewis
Rachelle Lewis Talent
Rachelle has been a talent scout and top recruiter in the animation and visual effects industry for the past 16 years. Before launching her own company Rachelle Lewis Talent in 2006, she held the position of Director of Recruitment for Digital Domain, and was a Senior Recruiter at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and DreamWorks. She began her career as Director of Artistic Recruitment for Klasky Csupo, best known for the TV series Rugrats. Her credits in both film and television are vast, and include many Oscar and Emmy award winning films and TV series. She is known in the industry as the “no nonsense” person regarding advising artists in their career paths. She speaks to both ends of the spectrum, from the production artist to the studio executives. Rachelle’s client shortlist includes: Framestore, MPC, Method, Dreamworks, Laika, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Digital Domain, Microsoft, and more. Rachelle lectures at universities and industry events throughout North America and Europe. She acts in an advisory capacity developing the animation and visual effects curricula with universities and works directly with artists in the area of career development. She resides in California.
Artist Links:
http://www.rachellelewis.com
SamathaYoussef
Artistic Director at Studio Technique
Bring Movement, Life, and Believability to your drawings
Samantha Youssef is the founder of Studio Technique, an artistic training studio specialized in the training and development of industry artists. She is the creator of the Youssef Drawing Syllabus, a unique drawing program based on various schools of academic draughtsmanship, her experience as a feature animator for Walt Disney Animation, and her background in classical ballet, where she draws upon principles of movement and posing to design a progressive and successful drawing program.
Samantha is a feature film character animator and visual development artist. She is a former animator for Walt Disney Animation, and has animated and directed for Ubisoft cinematics.
Feature film, VFX, and gaming animation studios employ her to train their artists, and she has done masterclasses for animation studios, colleges, events and conferences around the world.
Artist Links:
http://samanthasketches.blogspot.ca
http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/samantha_youssef
Stephen Silver
Character Designer
Character Designer and Teacher Stephen Silver has designed characters for Disney Television Animation, Sony Feature Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, designing the style of the shows such as “Kim Possible”, “Danny Phantom”, Kevin Smith’s “Clerks” the animated series, and many more. He is the author and artist of 7 self-published books on the art of sketching, character design, caricature and life drawing. In addition to working freelance, and doing lectures, I am the owner of Silver Drawing Academy, an art school, located in Los Angeles, CA. I also teach two
character design courses online @ schoolism.com.
Artist Links:
Website: www.silvertoons.com
Tony Bancroft
Animator, Author and Director
Upon graduating from high school, Tony was accepted into the exclusive, Disney sponsored art college, California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts) in 1987, where he thrived artistically and developed a lifelong passion for animation. As a result of his time at CalArts, he was “drafted” to the big leagues of Walt Disney Animation Studios. During his 12-year career with Disney Studios, Tony created and animated many of the studio’s most famous characters, and was rewarded for his excellence by becoming one of Disney’s youngest animated feature film directors. His contributions to the Disney character hall of fame include:
Pumbaa, the lovable warthog in The Lion King; Kronk, the dim-witted sidekick in The Emperor’s New Groove; Cogsworth the clock from Beauty and the Beast; and Iago the pestering parrot in Aladdin.
As part of his directorial duties for Disney, Tony functioned as voice director of the English-language version of Hayao Miyasaki’s classic anime feature, Porco Rosso, directing a world-famous cast that included Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes and David Ogden Stiers.
Over the past decade, Tony’s directorial talents have been utilized by commercial houses to bring to animated life characters for Nestle, Hasbro, Mattel, McDonald’s, Intuit, Sony, Disney and many others.
Tony’s most notable accomplishments include being the co-director of Walt Disney’s feature film, Mulan, for which he received the Annie award for Director of the Year from ASIFA-International; and animation director of Sony’s Stuart Little 2, for which he received the Visual Effects Society’s top award for character animation.
Currently, Tony is directing a CG animated features called Animal Crackers with an international release of early 2017. Also, he has taken his 27 years of animation experience and composited it into a book called “Directing for Animation” which released world-wide through Focal Press. He and his twin brother, Tom, recently started a popular podcast about the animation industry called the Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast, which is on iTunes.
Artist Links:
Book – Amazon
Podcast- https://itunes.apple.com/…/bancroft-brothers-a…/id911802874…
Taught By A Pro – http://taughtbyapro.com/pros/tony-bancroft/
Tyson Murphy
Lead Character Artist at Blizzard Entertainment
Tyson has loved art, video games, movies, and books his whole life, and made the decision in 2007 to try and make a career out of all that. Tyson studied animation at Brigham Young University, where he fell in love with almost all aspects of entertainment art—concept art, illustration, modeling, texturing, animation. After interning at Disney Interactive and Blizzard, he worked some freelance jobs with Chair Entertainment, Fantasy Flight, Jim Henson, and others. Tyson has worked on World of Warcraft for almost 5 years now and continues to do freelance illustration and personal art.
Artist Links:
Tysonmurphy.tumblr.com
Random notable articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/20/artist-old-disney-movies-photoshop_n_6011140.html http://deadspin.com/5969376/dale-murphys-son-drew-his-dad-this-heartwarming-cartoon http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/12/18/dale-murphy-cartoon-son/1777541/http://www.boredpanda.com/disney-remake-illustrations-tyson-murphy/
ChasNaylor
CG Lead/Supervisor Reel FX Creative Studios
After spending nearly 5 years in the United States Marine Corps, serving in communications, infantry, and Diplomatic Security (Marine Security Guard), Chas turned his focus to the media and animation industry in 2001. After his under grad studies at the Art Institute of Dallas, Chas went on to work as the Associate Director of Motion Graphics at FUNimation Studios for over five years, working on and directing hundreds of motion graphics pieces, commercials, and special features for premier anime titles such as Dragonball Z, Afro Samurai, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
After leaving FUNimation, Chas moved on to work on freelance projects and to teach VFX and Compositing at the Art Institute of Dallas in 2007. For the last two and a half years Chas has worked at Reel FX Creative Studios, specializing in look development, lighting, and compositing. He currently serves as CG Lead/Supervisor for the commercial division of Reel FX. After working on several features and dozens of commercial productions, Chas was assigned as CG Supervisor for the Pacific Rim Oculus Rift experience. He is also currently completing his final class for his MFA degree in the ATEC program at the University of Texas at Dallas, and still teaches as an adjunct instructor at AI
Concept Art Panel
Eliott Lilly
Eliott Lilly Art, LLC
Eliott Lilly is a highly sought after concept artist with nearly a decade of experience in the video game industry.He has contributed to several popular franchises including Rage, Doom, and most recently Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Also an educator, Eliott teaches “Intro to concept art (1&2) ” at Richland College, here in Dallas, and is the author of The Big Bad World Of Concept Art For Video Games; An Insider’s Guide For Students.
Artist Links:
www.eliottlillyart.com
https://www.facebook.com/Eliottlillyart
Elise Hatheway
Elise Hatheway is a Visual Development Artist working in animated features in Dallas, TX. Raised in Louisiana, she was constantly surrounded by a rich creative culture and knew her life would be filled with art. She graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2008 with a degree in Computer Animation. She started her career at Turbo Squid, a 3d modeling marketplace, working with artists to create commercial ready 3d models. Creative since childhood, Elise was never far from her sketchpad and pencils. When she realized she wouldn’t be happy doing anything else, she made the move to concept design. In 2010, she apprenticed at Reel FX Creative Studios in Dallas,TX. Shortly after, she was hired on as a Visual Development Artist working on Free Birds painting environments and color scripting. She also worked on other projects such as Daffy’s Rhapsody (a 3d short reboot of the looney tunes) and Humbugged: Rockettes to the Rescue (a live interactive Rockettes experience). In 2014, she finished working on Book of Life, a Mexican Day of the Dead film by Jorge Guiterrez. This year, she colorscripted on an upcoming film, Rock Dog, releasing soon in the US. Outside of art, Elise soaks up anything scifi, loves jelly beans, and playing with her adorable Shibas, Reese and Koda.
Artist Links:
Website: elisehathewayart.com
Podcast with Pencil Kings: http://www.pencilkings.com/elise-hathaway/
Lorin Wood
Senior Concept Designer at Gearbox Software
Lorin is an entertainment designer with nearly two decades of experience providing conceptual design, previsualization, and visual development for multiple facets of the film, television and video game industries for such clients as Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Independent Pictures to name a few. He is currently a senior conceptual designer at Gearbox Software, and a project manager and illustrator for the Nuthin’ But Mech book series published by Design Studio Press.
Artist Links:
www.lorinwood.com
Nuthin’ But Mech: http://nuthinbutmech.blogspot.com
Sarah Mensinga
Freelance concept artist and writer
Sarah Mensinga has worked in animation, comics and gaming in various ways. She was a character designer for The Ant Bully and Escape From Planet Earth, and has contributed stories to several comic anthologies, including Flight. She’s currently raising her three young kids, working as a freelance artist, and developing novels and children’s books.
Artist Links:
instagram.com/sarah_mensinga/
twitter.com/sarahmensinga
Scott Kester
Art Director/Concept Artist at Gearbox Software
Scott Kester has worked at Gearbox Software for over seven years and served as the the lead character concept artist for Borderlands 1 and 2 and the majority of DLC that followed both games. He is currently the art director for the upcoming game Battleborn from Gearbox and 2K games. Prior to the game industry he worked as a freelance artist in the comic book and the graphic design field.
Artist Links:
www.gearboxsoftware.com
www.Battleborn.com
Artist Alley for Industry Giants 2015
Artist Alley is a collection of local concept designers, illustrators and artists. This will be a showcase of inspirational work from around Texas. Artist alley showcase is open to all attendees and included with your ticket.
David Mitchell
Freelance Concept Artist / Illustrator
David started his career at a small mobile games company in Austin, TX called D7 Studios back in January of 2011. He worked there doing concepts and UI design for iphone apps and games, as well as illustrations for digital comic covers. From there he moved on to Nerve Software as a concept artist, where he worked on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Aliens: Colonial Marines, along with a few other unlaunched titles. He currently works as a freelance Concept Artist / Illustrator in Austin, TX.
Artist Links:
email: applecrow@gmail.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=727031380
website: http://applecrow.carbonmade.com/
Edward Taylor
Freelance Concept Artist & Illustrator Represented by The Bright Group USA Edward is a freelance Concept Artist working with commercial clients such as Disney, Chase Bank, Wendy’s, Leapfrog, 1-800-PetMeds, Mary Kay, National Geographic, and many more. Currently, Edward is illustrating his first children’s book. The book is slated to début in the Fall of 2016 with Little Bee Books. Previously, Edward worked as the in-house Storyboard/Concept Artist for Element X Creative. Edward had attended The University of Texas at Dallas, where he received his MFA in Arts and Technology.
Artist Links:
Website: www.edwardiantaylor.com
Elise Hatheway
Elise Hatheway is a Visual Development Artist working in animated features in Dallas, TX. Raised in Louisiana, she was constantly surrounded by a rich creative culture and knew her life would be filled with art. She graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2008 with a degree in Computer Animation. She started her career at Turbo Squid, a 3d modeling marketplace, working with artists to create commercial ready 3d models. Creative since childhood, Elise was never far from her sketchpad and pencils. When she realized she wouldn’t be happy doing anything else, she made the move to concept design. In 2010, she apprenticed at Reel FX Creative Studios in Dallas,TX. Shortly after, she was hired on as a Visual Development Artist working on Free Birds painting environments and color scripting. She also worked on other projects such as Daffy’s Rhapsody (a 3d short reboot of the looney tunes) and Humbugged: Rockettes to the Rescue (a live interactive Rockettes experience). In 2014, she finished working on Book of Life, a Mexican Day of the Dead film by Jorge Guiterrez. This year, she colorscripted on an upcoming film, Rock Dog, releasing soon in the US. Outside of art, Elise soaks up anything scifi, loves jelly beans, and playing with her adorable Shibas, Reese and Koda.
Artist Links:
Website: elisehathewayart.com
Podcast with Pencil Kings: http://www.pencilkings.com/elise-hathaway/
Eliott Lilly
Eliott Lilly Art, LLC
Eliott Lilly is a highly sought after concept artist with nearly a decade of experience in the video game industry.He has contributed to several popular franchises including Rage, Doom, and most recently Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Also an educator, Eliott teaches “Intro to concept art (1&2) ” at Richland College, here in Dallas, and is the author of The Big Bad World Of Concept Art For Video Games; An Insider’s Guide For Students.
Artist Links:
www.eliottlillyart.com
https://www.facebook.com/Eliottlillyart
Kevin Chin
Kevin is an experienced concept artist and illustrator in the entertainment industry since 2005. He’s worked at studios such as Junction Point on the Disney Epic Mickey 2 videogame and Killspace Entertainment for the Yar’s Revenge Atari remake.
Kevin has also done illustration work for the World of Warcraft card game and Warhammer 40k RPG books and has been featured in publications such as ImagineFX and Ballistic Publishing’s Exotique series.
Kevin grew up in Warren, Michigan and graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He currently resides in Austin, Texas working at KingsIsle Entertainment on the kids PC games, Wizard 101 and Pirate 101.
Artist Links:
Portfolio: http://www.kevinchinart.com
Tumblr Page: http://www.kevinchinart.tumblr.com
Stephen Silver
Character Designer
Character Designer and Teacher Stephen Silver has designed characters for Disney Television Animation, Sony Feature Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, designing the style of the shows such as “Kim Possible”, “Danny Phantom”, Kevin Smith’s “Clerks” the animated series, and many more. He is the author and artist of 7 self-published books on the art of sketching, character design, caricature and life drawing. In addition to working freelance, and doing lectures, I am the owner of Silver Drawing Academy, an art school, located in Los Angeles, CA. I also teach two character design courses online @ schoolism.com.
Artist Links:
Website: www.silvertoons.com
Terry Parr and Halo Sama
Shonuff! Studio is the draw-matic duo Terry Parr and Halo Sama! With Terry’s comic pin-up style and Halo’s cartoon anime style they can handle any art project thrown at them! Upcoming is Bela Lugosi’s Tales From the Grave with the infamous illustrator, Kerry Gammill for IDW! Creator owned comic book called Aerobicide, artwork for El Peso Hero Comic series, T-shirt designs for TeeFury, Project A-Kon 26 logo design, and ad campaign for The Fort Worth Parks and Recreation department.