Animation director Mark Simon has worked in the entertainment industry for nearly 30 years. His background includes live action and animation production, print, writing and teaching.
Mr. Simon currently own three companies located in Orlando, Florida.
Sell Your TV Concept Now, Inc. helps people to sell their TV ideas by showing them how to develop, package and pitch concepts to Hollywood studios and networks.
Animatics & Storyboards, Inc., provides storyboards, illustrations, cartoons and comic book illustration to the entertainment and print industries. They are the largest storyboard supplier in the Southern United States having provided support on over 4,000 productions, ranging from feature films to television series, live action, animation, commercials, industrials, books, magazines, newspapers and more. Their clients include Disney, Universal, Viacom, Sony, HBO, Nickelodeon, Steven Spielberg, Fox, USA Networks, ABC, AT&T, Yamaha, NASA, The American Cancer Society and many, many others.
His other company is A&S Animation, Inc., an animation consultation, development and production house. They specialize in character animation. A&S Animation, Inc. has produced animated shorts which have won over 100 international awards. They also animated Disney’s iconic character, Tinker Bell, for the hugely successful Disney Cruise Line.
Mark has directed numerous projects such as the pilots for The Peculiar Adventures of Willow B Star, Enchanted Thyme, Creepers, Luke and Reece Save the World, Cyber Optics and others.
The series of animated shorts, Timmy’s Lessons In Nature, which Mark Simon developed, directed and produced, won Grand Prize in Nickelodeon’s first-ever Nicktoons Film Festival.
Mark is also the author of ten entertainment industry texts. Producing Independent 2D Character Animation showcases every step of production of an independent hand-drawn animation.
His book Storyboards: Motion In Art is used around the world to train storyboard artists and the his Facial Expressions series of books are the best-selling photo reference guide for artists.
He has also written hundreds of articles for Animation Magazine, Animation World Network (www.AWN.com), Cinefex and others.
Prior to producing animation, Mark was an art director in live action film and TV in Los Angeles, CA and Orlando, FL.
While in Los Angeles, he designed many feature films, music videos and commercials. He then became the second art director at the new Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, FL in 1989.
He has also done Second Unit directing for Nickelodeon and on Steven Spielberg’s seaQuest DSV as well as working as a Special Effects Supervisor for NBC and Fox networks. Mark has taught at the Digital Animation and Visual Effects School located at Universal Studios, and at the University of Central Florida. His course on the Storyboard Pro software can currently be found at www.Lynda.com/MarkSimon. He currently lectures around the world at major conferences, conventions and schools.
Mark Simon’s Presentation: Storyboarding Alive and Walking Dead
Story artist, author and director, Mark Simon, will share his path from art director at Roger Corman’s studio to designing at Nickelodeon to storyboarding The Walking Dead. He’ll also talk about how he landed his dream jobs and if you’re nice to him, he may answer some questions.