The 2021 GLAS Animation Festival is currently taking place online — the festival is truly a must-see! It features a number of film competitions, retrospectives, Q&A’s, demos, and more. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion about the upcoming feature film Arlo the Alligator Boy (Netflix), with creator Ryan Crego and several incredible artists from his team. The film will be available April 16, and the series I Heart Arlo later this year. Thanks to GLAS and the Arlo crew!
Animation Magazine article "Pandemic Academics: Animation Programs Pivot to a New Normal" →
Thanks to Ellen Wolff (award-winning journalist for Animation Magazine) for the great article about how animation programs across the U.S. have adapted to teaching remotely during the pandemic, and for including the Character Animation Program!
CalArts Animation Student Portfolios →
We just launched the first-ever website showcasing all student portfolios from the Character Animation and Experimental Animation programs at CalArts!
It was a huge team effort, and I’m very thankful to all involved for their hard work — including our students, who put a ton of time and effort into preparing their digital portfolios and other materials.
‘If Anything Happens I Love You’ →
Directors Michael Govier and Will McCormack, along with producer Maryann Garger, reached out a while back about If Anything Happens I Love You (Netflix), a beautiful and important film they were developing. I connected the team with CalArts alumnx Youngran Nho, who became the animation director and animator on the film, as well as animators Haein Michelle Heo and Julia Gomes Rodrigues (also graduates of CalArts). Read more about the film on Deadline. Update: If Anything Happens I Love You received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in April 2021!
Filmmakers Present: 2020 Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival
It’s a great joy to be associated with the Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival, which programmed my film Bubble back in 2006, and has continued to support the film throughout the years! Many thanks to Dan Bennett, director of the festival, for organizing this fun panel discussion about filmmaking and animation, posted on the festival’s YouTube channel. (Update: the video is now private, and I’m including an Instagram post by the festival instead.)
CalArts-Gobelins Collaboration class
When CalArts announced in the summer that all instruction would be remote, I proposed a class for Fall 2020 that would bring together students from the Character Animation Program at CalArts, and Gobelins, l’École de l’image in Paris, France. With thanks to our partners at Gobelins, as well as our dean at CalArts, we launched the class in September! The students were randomly paired in teams of two (one from each school), and each team created a short animated project together. This was the first curricular collaboration of its kind between the two schools, and I’m very grateful to the students for taking the leap of faith to enroll in the class, as well as working together across time zones and oceans. I’ll post a YouTube playlist of their projects soon!
CalArts-Gobelins Collaboration class, Fall 2020
2020 Virtual CalArts Character Animation Open Show →
We weren’t able to have our annual Open Show this year, usually held every April, featuring all of the films our students complete during the academic year. But – thanks to our students, faculty and staff — we did a livestream on YouTube in September of the films our students completed during the pandemic thus far. Hats off to our students for their incredible persistence through this difficult year!
Guest on "Minkyu and Shiyoon - An Animation Podcast" →
Quoted in Variety article "Hollywood Still Struggles With Parity Behind the Camera" →
Photograph selected for “Secondary Colors” exhibit
“Vancouver Alley” was selected by juror Claudia Sohrens in the category “Purple” for the “Secondary Colors 2019” competition at the New York Center for Photographic Art. See other selections here.
