Welcome Statement
Congratulations, and welcome to the 2D Animation Program. Those enrolled this course, DAGV 1500, Concept Essentials, have completed a rigorous set of Animation Essentials courses and made it through a portfolio review. The faculty teaching in this program hope to provide you with a curriculum that is challenging, with a bit of fun thrown in every once in a while.
If you are willing to do your part, work hard and be persistent, this degree program will help you build a skillset that is in demand in industry today. Best of luck as you begin.
Experience and Education
Like many of you, I have always been in love with animated film. Some of my earliest recollections of characters and their stories are of early Disney movies, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Bambi (all produced long before I was born). I was also captivated by one of the first Japanese animated films to be released in the U.S. - it was titled Magic Boy. I also loved Ray Harryhausen, stop-motion films. Jason and the Argonauts was one of my favorites.
It's probably no surprise that I began to draw those animated characters at an early age.
When I started grade school and began to read, I discovered comic books. Exciting stories told with pictures, can there be anything better than that? I spent a lot of time drawing comic book characters too.
After high school, I went off to basic training with the U.S. Army, so was a little bit older than most other students when I started college. I began my college experience at a Community College, in Colorado. I also attended the University of Northern Colorado, and then BYU, and then Syracuse University, in upstate New York. My degrees are in art and illustration. My M.F.A. was awarded to me by Syracuse U., where I was an avid college sports fan - they won two national championships in lacrosse when I was there.
I worked in industry for nineteen years before I began teaching. I did a variety of jobs: graphic design, illustration, fine arts, and animation - both 2D and 3D. Most of the animation work I did was for Phillips Electronics, and at Allen Communication, the latter is a multimedia developer located in SLC. Although we did build some interactive games, most of my clients were corporate. That turned out to be a good thing, neither the Toyota Corporation nor the U.S. Air Force ever bounced a check and both of those were among the many clients we worked for.
Actually, there is little or no difference in working on a simulation for the Air Force, and working on a game for Epic (I got to do both of those).