This February: Spring 2025 Epic Intensive

February 3rd, 10th, 17th, & 24th
Online 6:00pm to 9:00pm PST

4 Speakers. 4 Evenings. 1 low price.

Early Bird Special Pricing, now through January 3rd: $130

1 Ticket Provides Access to All Sessions

Location: Zoom

The event will not be recorded. Recording is strictly prohibited.

*Authentic ZOOM email address required for entry. If you do not have a ZOOM account, open a FREE account at https://zoom.us/signup and provide us with the email address used at sign in *ONLY* email addresses associated with a ZOOM account will be eligible for entry

February 3, 2025: An ‘outside-in’ approach for acting, animation and character creation in feature films.

Join me to discuss all things animation and how my professional experience taught me how we can surround ourselves with references while harnessing them to create compelling shots and develop believable and entertaining characters for the big screen.

We will dive into what to look for when starting a shot and where we can find inspiration, concepts to set apart ‘good’ and ‘bad’ acting references, talk about some concrete examples of shots I worked on during my career as an animator as well as developing characters as an animation supervisor and as a Head of character animation.

Ludovic Bouancheau Animation Supervisor at Dreamworks

Ludovic Bouancheau Animation Supervisor
Dreamworks

Ludo is an Animation Supervisor at Dreamworks Animation. He lives with his family in Los Angeles. In the industry for 17 years, he worked as an animator on many feature films such as Megamind, Puss in Boots and Home, and as a Supervising Animator on Kung fu Panda 3, The Boss Baby, Abominable, Trolls World Tour and Kung fu panda 4.

He most recently worked on the academy awards nominated feature “Puss In Boots The Last Wish”, as a Head of character animation. He received a nomination to the VES Awards in 2012 for his work on the character of Puss in Boots, and to the Annie Awards in 2017 for his reel on Kung Fu Panda 3. He has given masterclasses about acting and workflow at DreamWorks studios, Gobelins Summer schools in Paris and Hong Kong, and at CTN expo among others.

February 10, 2025: Facial Appeal Through Connectivity

Learn how to really push your facial animation by better understanding the underlying facial anatomy and how it can be used to improve the connectivity and fleshiness in your performances for maximum appeal and believability.

Aaron McGriff
Animator
Pixar Animation Studios

Aaron McGriff is a passionate animator and animation coach with over 19 years of industry experience, having contributed to a wide range of projects at such studios as Industrial Light and Magic, Method Studios, and Pixar. After receiving his B.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art and Design, he spent the first several years of his career in New York City at a number of indie and commercial studios before heading to California and transitioning into VFX and Feature Animation.

He has spent the past 5 years at Pixar Animation Studios, and his work can be seen in films such as Soul, Luca, Lightyear, Elemental, Inside Out 2, Avengers Infinity War, Men in Black International, The Witches and others. Aaron resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and son.

February 17, 2025: Storytelling Through Animation and Character Design

Andrew will discuss his filmmaking journey going from animation generalist to CG animator to character designer.

Andrew Chesworth Head of Character Animation and Lead Character Designer at NETFLIX

Andrew Chesworth
Head of Character Animation / Lead Character Designer
Netflix

Andrew Chesworth is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker living in Burbank, CA. He co-wrote and co-directed the short film One Small Step at Taiko Studios. He also produced and directed the Oscar-qualified independent short film The Brave Locomotive, now on YouTube.

He began his career as a director of commercials and short films at MAKE in Minneapolis before becoming a CG animator on feature films at Disney. There he worked on Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, Get a Horse!, Feast, Inner Workings, and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. In 2019, he was a 2D character animator on Netflix’s Klaus for Sergio Pablos Animation Studios.

From 2016-2017, Andrew taught fourth-year Character Animation at CalArts. He was also an instructor for the online CG animation school Animsquad from 2014-2022.Recently, he was a Character Design Supervisor and Supervising Animation Director on the Netflix animated series My Dad the Bounty Hunter, and a Character Lead on the upcoming Stranger Things animated series.

Currently, Andrew is a Character Lead on an upcoming Netflix animated feature.

February 24, 2025: Story Development for Film and Series

How do you shepherd a concept from a novel idea to a full realized world? I’d like to take you through my process of developing a story for features film And series sharing stories, strategies and anecdotes.

Everett Downing Directory at Walt Disney Animation Studios

Everett Downing
Director
Walt Disney Animation Studios

An Academy Award©-winning animation director, Everett Downing has over 20 years of experience as an animator and story artist at Pixar, Blue Sky, Sony, and Dreamworks Animation. His impressive resume includes WALL*E, Ratatouille, Up, Toy Story 3, Ice Age, and Maya and the Three. In 2020, Everett received the Academy Award for directing the acclaimed animated short film Hair Love with Matthew A. Cherry and Bruce Smith.

Most recently Downing received an Emmy Award for his contribution to the limited series We the People from Team Obama, and he was the executive producer and showrunner on the Netflix animated series that he co-created, My Dad the Bounty Hunter. In 2022, Downing joined Walt Disney Animation Studios as a feature film director.