Paris’ Gobelins School Announces Character Animation Program

GOBELINS, l’ecole de l’image, an applied arts, print and digital media school in Paris, is known for its award-winning student films that have won many international prizes. GOBELINS is organizing for the seventh time an international summer school to enable students and professionals from around the world to gain a better understanding of what makes for successful character animation.

The 2012 program “Character Animation” will offer master classes and workshop activities with instructors who teach at GOBELINS, including animation professor Fred Nagorny who has taught many animation professionals, as well as Kyle Balda, 3D animator who has in the past worked for ILM and Pixar before moving to Europe where has worked mainly for Mac Guff. Kyle recently co-directed the box office hit Lorax. Also, former DreamWorks animator Alexandre Heboyan (Kung Fu Panda, Monsters Vs. Aliens), now directing an animation feature film in France, will also share his tips on acting and performance in character animation. They will be joined by Robert Bennett, acting and mime performer and Yoshi Tamura who will share his valuable experience on numerous feature films for Disney and Dreamworks, including Hercules (1997), TARZAN (1999), Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), A Sharktale (2004), Over The Hedge (2006), Flushed Away (2006), and The Princess And The Frog (2009. Yoshi was recently director of animation on the 2D French animation feature film Zarafa released this year.

The master classes will be given in English or in French with simultaneous translation in English.

The course runs in Paris from July 2nd to July 13th, 2012. For more Information and sign-ups, visit www.gobelins.fr/summerschool or contact summerschool@gobelins.fr

GOBELINS will also be organizing in 2012 for the first time in Hong Kong a second summer school program from August 13th to August 24th in partnership with the Hong Kong Design Institute. This 2012 program will be built around two master classes, one devoted to character design and one to character animation, and given by GOBELINS teachers who are active professionals in world renowned animation studios including Annie Award nominee Patrick Maté for character design and Ludovic Bouancheau, recently nominated for a VES award in character animation. These master classes will include workshop activities with hands on practice of both disciplines. For more Information, contact summerschool@gobelins.fr