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Shawn Kelly | |
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| Occupation | Co-founder of AnimationMentor.com |
Shawn Kelly is an animator of movies and was a co-founder of the company Animation Mentor, an online animation school with student/mentor relationships at its core.
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Shawn Kelly | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Co-founder of AnimationMentor.com |
Shawn Kelly is an animator of movies and was a co-founder of the company Animation Mentor, an online animation school with student/mentor relationships at its core.
Born in Sonoma County, Calif., and raised in Petaluma, Kelly set his sights on working at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) at age five when the movie Star Wars hit the big screen. Under the tutelage of animators Bill Hennes and John Root, he studied drawing and computer software throughout high school, attended community college, and Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
A summer internship at ILM introduced Kelly to another influential mentor, animation director Wayne Gilbert. It was through Gilbert that Kelly realized that he wasn’t learning what he needed at school. Kelly left the academy in 1996 for a job as a character animator at former video game and educational company Presage Software, but continued his studies with Gilbert twice a week.
In 1998, Kelly fulfilled his lifelong dream and landed a job at ILM. Since that time, he has worked on numerous films including War of the Worlds , for which he animated tripods and probes; Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith , where he helped develop and animate the vulture droids and animated Yoda in a pivotal sword fight; and Rango , where he was the Lead Animator for both the Mayor of Dirt and the Spirit of the West. Kelly also worked as Lead Animator on all five Transformers movies. Kelly’s credits feature 29 films including Hulk , the Star Wars prequels, AI: Artificial Intelligence , and The Avengers .
Because Kelly realized his dream to animate films with the help of three mentors who took a personal interest in his career, he became convinced that animation lovers everywhere should have the same opportunity, and he co-founded Animation Mentor, an online animation school with student/mentor relationships at its core. Kelly works with Bobby Beck, Animation Mentor’s CEO and President, and cofounder Carlos Baena to help define and shape the school’s overall direction. Kelly balances his Animation Mentor role with his work as a senior animator at Industrial Light & Magic.
Kelly lives in California with his wife Jen, and writes short films.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began production on the original Star Wars, now the fourth episode of the Skywalker Saga.
General Grievous is a character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He was introduced in the 2003 animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars, before appearing through computer-generated imagery in the 2005 live-action film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Wood reprised the role in the 2008 animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the 2024 anthology series Tales of the Empire.
Star Wars: Clone Wars is an American animated television series developed and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network Studios for Cartoon Network. Set in the Star Wars universe, specifically between the Star Wars prequel trilogy films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, it is amongst the first of many works to explore the Clone Wars. The show follows the actions of various prequel trilogy characters, notably Jedi and clone troopers, in their war against the droid armies of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Sith.
Wayne Gilbert is a Canadian working in Vancouver, British Columbia, now Head of the Character Animation Program at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VanArts). He was the Senior Animation and Art Director for EA Blackbox, where he directed and animated in-game and cinematics for the ground-breaking video games "skate and skate2". Before EA, Wayne lived in Northern California, working at ILM as a Senior Lead Animator and Animation Area Manager. He worked on Star Wars, Attack of the Clones, The Mummy Returns, E.T. re-release, Jurassic Park 2, and Bounty Hunter. He storyboarded and animated numerous commercials with two Clio Awards. His animated short Let Go won a Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival. It was his second film created with friends while working at ILM. The first was CPU. Before that, he created 2D shorts entitled Bottoms Up and Traffic Jam, accepted into the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. As The Animation Area Manager, he had aesthetic input for animation dailies and headed the Animation Training Department. He was an advocate for thorough planning, which received opposition for a long time.
Roger Barton is an American film editor. He has worked on dozens of Hollywood films, including Titanic, Armageddon, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Ryan Church is an American concept designer best known for his designs of vehicles, planets, and architectures as a concept design supervisor on George Lucas's Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and of the tripods in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction action film based on Hasbro's Transformers toy line. The film is the second installment in the Transformers film series and the sequel to Transformers (2007). The film is directed by Michael Bay and written by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman. Taking place two years after the previous film, the story revolves around Optimus Prime, Sam Witwicky, and the Autobots allying once again in the war against the Decepticons, led by Megatron. An ancient Decepticon named the Fallen, seeks revenge on Earth and intends to find and activate a machine that would destroy the Sun and all life in the process.
Ahsoka Tano is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. She was introduced as the 14-year-old Togruta Jedi Padawan of Anakin Skywalker in the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) before appearing in the subsequent animated television series ; the sequel series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018); in the live-action film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) as a voiceover cameo; and in the miniseries Tales of the Jedi (2022), voiced by Ashley Eckstein. In 2020, Ahsoka made her live-action debut in the second season of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, portrayed by Rosario Dawson. Dawson reprised the role in a 2022 episode of the spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, and the 2023 series, Ahsoka.
Carlos Baena is a professional animator and now a 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.
Mace Windu is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He was introduced in the prequel trilogy as a Jedi Master who sits on the Jedi High Council during the final years of the Galactic Republic. He is portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in all three prequel films. Windu also appears in the 2008 animated film The Clone Wars, the television series of the same name, and in novels, comics, and video games.
Transformers is a series of science fiction action films based on the Transformers franchise. Michael Bay directed the first five live action films: Transformers (2007), Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark of the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014), and The Last Knight (2017), and has served as a producer for subsequent films. A sixth film Bumblebee, directed by Travis Knight, was released in 2018, while a seventh film, Rise of the Beasts, directed by Steven Caple Jr. was released in 2023.
James Morris is an American film producer, production executive and visual effects producer. He is currently general manager and president of Pixar. Previously, he held key positions at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for 17 years.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a 2011 American science fiction action film based on Hasbro's Transformers toy line. The film is the third installment in the Transformers film series and the sequel to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). The film is directed by Michael Bay and written by Ehren Kruger. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, John Malkovich, and Frances McDormand. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Sam Witwicky must lead the Autobots against Megatron and the Decepticons as they battle to possess powerful technology abandoned on the Moon, in order to restore Cybertron.
Russell William Earl is a visual effects supervisor. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards, among other awards.
Rob Coleman is a Canadian animation director; he is currently the creative director at Industrial Light & Magic's Sydney branch. Previously, he was the Head of Animation at the award-winning Australian visual effects and animation studio, Animal Logic from 2012-2021.
Jeff White is a visual effects artist who was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 85th Academy Awards and 90th Academy Awards for The Avengers and Kong: Skull Island, respectively.
Richard Bluff is an English visual effects supervisor. Known for his works in Disney's visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) as a digital matte artist and visual effects supervisor in acclaimed films such as Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), The Island (2005), Transformers (2007–11), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Star Trek (2009), Avatar (2009), The Avengers (2012), Cloud Atlas (2012) Pacific Rim (2013), The Big Short (2015) and Doctor Strange (2016), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects nomination at the 89th Academy Awards. He previously worked at Blur Studio as digital artist.
Bruce Banner is a fictional character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise originally portrayed by Edward Norton and subsequently by Mark Ruffalo—based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name—known commonly by his alter ego, the Hulk. Banner is depicted as a genius physicist who, after a failed experiment to replicate a super soldier program using gamma radiation, transforms into a large, muscular creature with green skin whenever his heart rate goes above 200 beats per minute or when facing mortal danger. As the Hulk, he possesses superhuman abilities, including increased strength and durability.
The Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project is one of the annual awards given by the Visual Effects Society, starting from 2002. Since its inception, the award's title has gone through several title changes, and one major category shift. First awarded in 2002, the award was titled "Best Character Animation in a Live Action Televised Program, Music Video or Commercial" and given to the best character animation in a televised program, with no specific character cited. This would change in 2004, when the category was re-titled "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program", and given to visual effects artists for work on a specified character. The category was again re-titled the following year, this time to "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program, Commercial, or Music Video". In 2008, it was titled "Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program or Commercial", but changed in 2014 to "Outstanding Performance of an Animated Character in a Commercial, Broadcast Program, or Video Game" and once again the next year to "Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project". In the title changed to "Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode or Real-Time Project" and, finally, in 2017 to "Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project"