Animation Skills Workshop

Ted Mathot is a Pixar veteran with films like Incredibles 1 & 2,  Ratatouille , Wall-E, Brave, and Finding Dory under his belt. Ted got his start on the Simpsons and later worked at Dreamworks as a story artist.   He was the story supervisor on Brad Bird's Incredibles 2.  

“Being the story supervisor, it’s my job to keep the entire movie in my head the whole time. And that includes where we’ve been and where we might be going. There are surprises, sure, but generally when you are crafting this thing, you kind of know where you are going.”

Derek has contributed to numerous film projects, including Men in Black, the Mummy films, Star Wars: Episode 3, WALL-E, and the Incredibles 2. His early career included stints as a freelancer at Electronic Arts, Dark Horse Comics and Maverick Studios before he joined Industrial Light and Magic, and then Pixar in 2005.

“The storyboard artist has to wear a lot of hats, thinking like a director, actor, editor, cinematographer, production designer, art director, and more. Then you have to be able to draw your ideas to communicate them.”

Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, Robert is a designer and animation director for clients including Nike, Levis and Coke, as well as storyboarding on animated TV series. Robert moved on to working as character designer on Motorcity and Disney’s Tron: Uprising which won him his first Annie Award.

In 2013 Rob directed the Wonder Woman DC Nation Shorts as well as a shorts series for Shinjuku, and then followed his very personal short story Pear Cider and Cigarettes which won an Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Carlos Baena is an animation director and cofounder of the online school Animation Mentor, which was started in March, 2005. It was the first post-secondary school that helped students to pursue a career in animation. At the school, students work with mentors from major studios in a production-style environment, and graduate with a professional demo reel. His credits include work for ILM, Pixar, Disney, and Paramount studios. 

Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, originally from Japan, is a filmmaker, painter and philanthropist. A graduate from The School of Visual Arts in New York, Dice has worked as a visual development/color key artist at Blue Sky Studios on Ice Age, Robots and Horton Hears a Who! His credits at Pixar Animation include Lighting Art Director for Toy Story 3 and Monsters University

Originally from Southern California, Robert Kondo graduated with a degree in illustration from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Robert landed his dream job as a sketch artist at Pixar on their 2006 release Ratatouille. While at Pixar, his film credits included Sets Art Director for Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, and most recently Monsters University and Production Designer on two shorts. In July, 2014, Robert left Pixar to start Tonko House, where everyday is a challenge and an adventure.