Speaker Bios

The following individuals will be giving talks and workshops during the 2008 festival. Check the lectures and workshop pages for times and locations of these events.

Andreas Deja is the recipient of Red Stick’s Inaugural Career Achievement Award. Andreas works for Disney Feature Animation and has created some of the most memorable characters you've ever seen including, Jafar from Aladdin, Scar from The Lion King, Roger from Who Framed Roger Rabbit and King Triton from The Little Mermaid. He is also one of only a few animators the Disney Studio has authorized to draw Mickey Mouse.

Curtis Jobling is designer of the worldwide hit children’s television show, Bob the Builder. He also has a number of his own shows in development and is a successful children’s book author and illustrator. His book credits include Frankenstein’s Cat, which is also an upcoming TV series, Dinosaurs After Dark and Skeleton in the Closet. His film credits include Nick Park’s Oscar winner, A Close Shave and Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! Jobling has also directed a series of interstitial animations for Nickelodeon called Curious Cow with his long-time collaborators, Mackinnon & Saunders.

Stuart Sumida, Ph.D. is a biology professor at California State University, San Bernadino. Sumida received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1987. He is a comparative anatomist and paleontologist who specializes in the biomechanics and evolution of locomotion. Sumida has been an anatomical consultant on more than 35 films. His work in animation and special effects began with the Disney films Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, and has included many other feature films such as Mulan, Cats and Dogs and the Harry Potter film series.

Hans Rijpkema attended University of Twente for a master’s degree in computer science. He worked at SCAN in Groningen for five years as head of R & D (working mainly on train simulators for the Dutch and European railways) and teaching computer graphics and animation for a master’s degree program. In 1996 he came to Rhythm and Hues to start the character rigging department. He is now responsible for a wide variety of topics related to character development, such as character rigging and skinning, fur grooming and animation, model creation and deformation. He has worked on more than 30 feature films like Mousehunt, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Night at the Museum and Evan Almighty.

Chris Williams and Dougy Pincott are founders of the Animex International Festival of Animation & Computer Games in Middlesborough, England. The Animex festival, which served as an inspiration for the creation of Red Stick, has its roots firmly planted in the creative side of animation and computer games and acts to provide animators, directors, students, artists, designers, writers and educators with a forum in which they can share their knowledge and skills and promote the art of animation and games.

Clifford Cohen was born in London, England. He has led a wide and varied work history, working as a chef in England, Canada and the Arctic before going on to work in film production, advertising, public relations, media and currently, instructional education. Since 1989, he has run the award winning company AnimAction, which helps students from kindergarten through 12th grade use animation to express their feelings on various social issues. AnimAction has worked with youth media and the "DIY Youth Culture" globally for more than 17 years and has trained thousands of young people and teachers. Youth-produced animated shorts from AnimAction workshops have been shown worldwide and have been award finalists in international animation festivals, competing side-by-side with industry leaders. AnimAction, along with JRI, is a sponsor of Animation Collaboration.

Farah Kamal is the iEARN-Pakistan country coordinator. She has been associated with iEARN since 1999 has been recently elected as a member of the Executive Council of iEARN International. She provides leadership to several ECA-funded projects that include GCE, YES and CATALYST. Her efforts have made substantial contributions toward bringing together youth and educators from various nations to dialogue on civics issues using the telecommunication technologies. Farah has developed a wide range of teaching and training materials and teacher-training programs focused at engaging students in Online Project Based Learning. She has presented workshops and facilitated teachers training programs in throughout Pakistan and many different countries around the world.

Anatoliy Kochnev is the iEARN-Uzbekistan Country Coordinator. He is the founder of iEARN-Uzbekistan and currently coordinates several U.S.-government sponsored projects in Uzbekistan. Being part of iEARN, Anatoliy connects children with physical disabilities through an Online School for Disabled Students project funded by the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan and the National Youth Movement "Kamolot.” Through his work with GCEP and iEARN-Uzbekistan, Anatoliy has been committed to connecting schools in Uzbekistan with those in other countries to bring innovation to education and encourage participants to share their experiences.

Barbara Slade is a development executive with Walt Disney Development. Slade currently lives in the United Kingdom and recently sold an original, live-action series. She has written story scripts for Rugrats, Angelina Ballerina, Rotten Ralph and other shows. She began her screenwriting career in London, where her first show, Brown Bear’s Wedding, aired on ITV on Christmas Day. It sold to the Disney Channel as well as most countries in Europe, and was nominated for five Emmy awards, including “Best Writer.” Slade then returned to America, where she continued her career, penning award-winning screenplays and developing scripts for Nickelodeon, Disney, ABC and Fox. She has written features for both Working Title Films and Disney, and she received her first Humanitas award for an episode of Rugrats.

Raquel Benitez Rojas is the CEO of Comet Entertainment Inc. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in arts and communications at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, with two master’s degrees and seven academic diplomas, Benitez worked in a variety of academic and professional positions worldwide. She has created animation for the Web, games and film. She has received praise for her work worldwide, and the books and software programs she has written are widely used in animation.

Carmen Llanos is COO of Comet Entertainment Inc. She has a master’s degree in computer animation arts and has coordinated, produced and directed a variety of international projects in film, television, print, and online. Throughout her more than 10 years in the animation industry, Llanos has worked as an executive producer, creative director and instructor, and is the recipient of numerous industry awards.

Pete Draper is director of visual effects at Lightworx, an animation and visual effects facility in Bristol, United Kingdom, where he heads the animation and effects department as a technical director and effects supervisor. Draper was a fine/graphic artist before moving on to CG and animation. After working for several companies ranging from multimedia production to television with senior roles of lead and senior artist and head of media, Draper worked as a freelancer for a number of years and wrote his own book on re-creating natural effects using Autodesk® 3ds Max®. This book, "Deconstructing the Elements," is currently in its second edition and has received rave reviews both online and in industry magazines. It is also recommended reading for several CG university courses. He also writes for several CG-oriented magazines, such as 3D World and Computer Arts.

Eric Shaw has written as a staff writer for Nickelodeon's acclaimed hit, SpongeBob SquarePants on more than 50 episodes. A native New Yorker, Shaw began his writing career in live action sitcoms for 20th Century Fox's Secret Service Guy. Eric moved into animation and quickly wrote for some of the genre's most popular hits including WB's Xiaolin Showdown, Skunk Fu, as well as Tom and Jerry Tales, and Krypto the SuperDog. Shaw also has written for Jim Henson Productions, Nick Jr. and Walt Disney Television Animation.

Scott Innes is an on-air radio personality for WYNK, Clear Channel Radio in Baton Rouge. In 1997, Scott became the official voice of Hanna-Barbera's famous cartoon dog character, Scooby-Doo. He has voiced more than five Scooby-Doo animated motion pictures and more than 1,000 talking Scooby-Doo items such as toys and video games. Scott has also professionally voiced other cartoon characters such as Popeye, Snagglepuss, and most recently, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. In early 2006, Scott created Hollywood Hal and Rhinestone Al with the Wannabees with his best friend, Jim Hogg, Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network artist Scott Neely.

Gary Schwartz is an award-winning animator, director, artist, filmmaker and teacher. He has taught animation throughout the United States and in Europe. Through his company, Single Frame Films, Gary has produced, designed and directed animation for Disney, Sesame Street, MTV, Fox Television, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and others.

Tom Martinek is a digital artist and visual effects specialist who has worked on animation, CGI and other digital effects for more than 40 films, including Twister, Chicken Little, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dean Man's Chest and Transformers. He currently works for Industrial Light & Magic and is in post-production on the upcoming film Iron Man, where he served as sequence supervisor.

J. Walt is an interactive designer, filmmaker, graphic artist, and composer. He has been at the forefront of interactive art and computer performance, expanding the uses of computer animation into uncharted territories. He is an award-winning pioneer of computer-generated puppetry, having created many digital puppets over the years. In March 2006, he won a Technical Academy Award for his development of a real-time pre-visualization system.

Edward White is a graphic artist with Sky-Skan. He has previously worked as an animator with MOTEK Motion Technology and Trial Exhibits, Inc. He graduated from University of Southern Maine and the Ringling School of Art and Design.

Jason Walker first began drawing at the age of 4 in his hometown of Nairn, Scotland. Encouraged to draw and paint by his mother, he worked and studied visual arts with great determination throughout his childhood. He has painted portraits of various celebrities, including the portrait of Wayne Gretzky for his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and won an American Society of Portrait Artists’ award in 1998. Jason created the stop-motion puppet show Tutli Putli, a system of separating and analyzing previously shot stop-motion puppet moves, then choreographing, rehearsing and shooting a human actor's corresponding "eye performance" to match each puppet move, at the same time recreating as closely as possible all light and shadow passes original to the stop-motion. He works as a designer, animator and digital compositor, and his work for national television has garnered three North American Broadcast Design Awards.

Yvonne Body was appointed Head of Co-productions & Acquisitions, Europe & North America for Beyond Distribution in 2002. Based in Beyond’s London office, she is responsible for sourcing and developing programming of all types to add to Beyond’s growing catalogue of factual, lifestyle, drama and children’s programming. Prior to Beyond, Body spent five years in New York as Vice President of International Sales and Acquisitions at Tapestry International, Ltd., a production and distribution company specializing in quality factual programming. Her career in television distribution started with CBC International Sales, the commercial arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Before television, she worked as a professional translator in six languages. She studied German and French at University College London and Heidelberg University.

Jocelyn Hamilton is Vice President, Creative Production, Corus Kids Television, Corus Entertainment, where she is responsible for overseeing the content development and original productions for YTV, Treehouse and Discovery Kids, as well as Nelvana Studios. Hamilton's new role now includes acquiring and developing quality content for kids on various platforms. In conjunction with her role as a broadcast executive, Hamilton is an award-winning producer with nearly two decades of experience in children's television. A loyal supporter of the Canadian production industry, she is also a member of the President's Council at Corus and sits on the board of the Alliance for Children and Television.

Migdalys Silva is the director of programming & acquisitions for Nickelodeon Latin America, where she is responsible for content development, programming acquisitions and the scheduling and delivery of compelling entertainment for Latin-American kids. Another key component of her role is to support all Nick channel areas by assisting regional programming teams with the development of local programming and creative strategies. Migdalys has been working in the industry since 1986, and has built a strong reputation as a programming strategist. She is a 1983 graduate of the Instituto Universitario de Nueva Profesiones (Caracas, Venezuela) where she concurrently earned a B.A. in advertising; communications & marketing and an M.A degree in television & broadcasting.

Stephen Anderson always wanted to work in animation and loved Disney movies growing up, so he now fulfills that dream by working at Walt Disney studios. Anderson marked his animation directorial debut in 2007 with the Walt Disney feature film Meet the Robinsons.

Jonathan Smith is the head of production for TT Games Publishing, a United Kingdom company established in 2005, where he has been responsible for the production of the best-selling LEGO Star Wars games. He worked as a designer and Executive Producer at Codemasters before moving to LEGO Company and co-founding Giant Interactive Entertainment, the only publisher to specialize in games for young players and their families. He's currently working on a variety of new titles, all of which promise to be amazing. Smith's company has developed many games and projects, including Lego Star Wars, Super Monkey Ball Adventure, Finding Nemo, Crash Twinsanity and WRC.

Chris Maraffi is the author of the two books Maya Character Creation and Softimage XSI FX & Design, and is currently the course director of the scripting and character rigging courses at Full Sail Real World Education in Orlando, Florida. He has taught certified 3-D training classes at Mesmer Animation Labs, The Academy of Art, The Masters Institute, School of Visual Arts, Pratt School of Design, NYU and NYIT. Before becoming an educator and certified trainer, Chris worked as a professional artist, animator, and consultant for broadcast, film and Internet companies in New York City.

Marc Adler is company executive and producer for Fathom Studios, who created the recent film Delgo. Mark is also chairman and founder of Macquarium Intelligent Communications, a leading interactive strategy and development firm serving primarily Fortune 1000 companies. He founded Macquarium in 1991 and is responsible for determining the overall direction of the enterprise. Marc has been named among the top 10 high-tech gurus by Business to Business magazine.

Jason Maurer was director and co-writer of Fathom Studios’ film Delgo. While at Fathom, Jason led and supervised the creation of all animated projects the studio undertook, including writing, direction and production, and created computer graphics and interactive design work for numerous clients, including the Sci-Fi Channel, the Weather Channel, Leo Burnett, and J. Walter Thompson. His work has been featured in Odyssey Productions' The Gate Beyond The Mind's Eye and he has won numerous awards for animation including seven Telly Awards and an Addy. Jason teaches animation with the Savannah College of Art and Design and develops short animation films for festival submission.

Tony West makes his debut as producer on Dream on Silly Dreamer, a film about the end of Disney’s cell animation films. Previously, Tony was a 15-year veteran Visual Effects Animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation in Orlando. Tony’s first film credit was Rescuers Down Under, and he worked on such classics as Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. Tony feels that his best effects work was on The Legend Of Mulan, where he digitally modeled and animated dragons and rockets, and he had the most fun working on Lilo and Stitch, where he modeled and animated all the ray guns in addition to other elements.

Dan Lund graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1989 and moved to California, landing a production assistant job at the Walt Disney Company for Prince and the Pauper (the last cell-animated film from Disney), which led him into the field of special effects animation. He ended up animating on every major film from Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King through Brother Bear and Home on the Range. While working at Disney, Dan continued his live-action work by making documentaries, including Mamma D, WANNABE: Just a Boy and Her Dream, Death Becomes Them: The Musical and Dream On, Silly Dreamer. Dan is currently turning John deHaas’ hit play Theme Park Diva into a feature film.