01. Shawn Kelly
Shawn Kelly set his sights on working at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) at age five when he saw the movie Star Wars in the cinema with is father. After a seemly random thread of events he started studying under the tutelage of animators Bill Hennes and John Root, he studied drawing and computer software throughout high school, attended community college, and Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
A summer internship at ILM introduced Shawn to another influential mentor, animation director Wayne Gilbert. It was through Wayne that Shawn realized that he wasn’t learning what he needed at school. Shawn left the academy in 1996 for a job as a character animator at former video game and educational company Presage Software, and continued his studies with Gilbert twice a week. They became very close friends and remain so, today.
It took about two years but Shawn fulfilled his lifelong dream and landed a job at ILM in 1998 and since that time, he has worked on numerous films including War of the Worlds, for which he animated tripods and probes; Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where he helped develop and animate the vulture droids and animated Yoda in a pivotal swordfight; and Rango, where he was the Lead Animator for both the Mayor of Dirt and the Spirit of the West. He also worked as Lead Animator on all three Transformers movies. Kelly’s credits feature 23 films including Hulk, the Star Wars prequels, AI: Artificial Intelligence, and The Avengers.
Not to forget, he’s also co founder of Animation Mentor, the first on line animation school.
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02. Samantha Youssef
Samantha has studied at prestigious art academies around the world, she is a graduate of Sheridan College, Canada as well as the Gobelins intensive program in Paris and holds a degree in Film from Concordia University. Before establishing her own studio, Studio Technique, Samantha developed her stills working at Walt Disney Animation, Chuck Gammage Inc, Yawoza and Filmmax. Due to her rich and extensive background in the arts, Samantha is highly sought after by gaming studios. Her clients include Bioware, Cinematic Studios, EA Mobile, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Ubisoft, WB Games – to name a few! Studio Technique offers classes in Animation, Figure Drawing and Artistic Training as part of the ongoing training professionals need throughout their career. Samantha has such an amazing talent for drawing and traditional animation. She is so easy to talk to and incredibly generous with her knowledge.
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03. Glen Keane
The legendary Glen Keane. He is the most well known animator alive today… perhaps due to how his characters makes us feel. Ariel, Pocahontas, Beast, Aladdin, Rapunzel… Tarzan. All of these stirring vast amounts of emotion like no other character before. Glen really does animate from the inside out.
