Village Gamer

Vancouver/Montreal – VanArts is proud to present a 2-day Masterclass in Montreal with Story Artist Matt Luhn and Animator Andrew Gordon from Pixar Animation Studios! This is a one-time special event.

These seminars are designed for animation industry professionals, students or enthusiasts. Skill sets covered are not software-specific, and all lectures are organized with visuals, live-action and animated clips. This rare opportunity gives you the tools needed to create your own stories and do feature quality animation.

DAY 1

Saturday June 13, 2009
9:00am – 4:00pm

Animation Masterclass with Andrew Gordon

Topics will include animation principles, staging, pose design, weight, dynamics, acting for animation, gestures, scene planning, blocking, facial expressions, and high level polish techniques.

Andrew Gordon has been animating characters professionally for over 12 years. He joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997 where he has been an animator on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. The characters he has worked on include Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Gill from Finding Nemo and Edna Mode, the costume designer in The Incredibles. Andrew also worked as supervising animator on the short film Presto. His work has also included directing several promotional spots for Broadcast, Web and Blueray content.

Mr. Gordon studied animation in Vancouver and NY, and prior to his work at Pixar, he worked in the Looney Tunes division of Warner Brothers. He was awarded “Outstanding Character Animation in an Animated Motion Picture” by the Visual Effects Society for his work in Finding Nemo.

He has been teaching animation in California since 2000. He has lectured on animation around the world, including Masterclasses in China, Spain, Singapore, Austrailia and Italy. He is a contributing teacher to AnimationMentor and the CSU Summer Arts program. He is one of the founders of Spline Doctors, a blog/podcast dedicated to animation education. He is currently teaching animation at California College of Art in Oakland and animating on Pixar’s Toy Story 3.

DAY 2
Sunday June 14, 2009
9:00am – 4:00pm

Storyboarding & Story Development Masterclass with Matthew Luhn

Topics will include storyboarding, three-act story structure, sequence boards, character development, gags, boarding from scripts, board composition, line and value.

Matthew Luhn began his career at Pixar Animation Studios in 1992 as an animator on the very first CG feature Toy Story. Since that time, Matthew has worked in the Story Development department, storyboarding on Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Cars, Ratatouille, Up and Toy Story 3.

Prior to Pixar, Matthew attended the California Institute of the Arts, and would later be hired as an animator on The Simpsons and at Industrial Light & Magic. Matthew grew up in the San Francisco Bay area where his family has owned and operated Jeffrey’s Toys stores for over three generations.

Along with working at Pixar, Matthew teaches seminars all over the world on how to create great stories and characters.

This 2-day Masterclass will be held at:
Cinematheque Quebecoise
Salle Claude-Jutra
335 boul De Maisonneuve East
Montreal, Quebec

Course Fee: $450 CDN (no taxes)

Brochure: download a printable PDF brochure
Registration: register online here *choose “part-time courses”
Dates: Jun 13, 2009 – Jun 14, 2009