Savannah Dittman - Rising Star

We have many students who are talented and are progressing towards a professional standard with their art. Among those at the head of the pack is Savannah Dittman. Savannah has been with us for a few months now completing Character Design 1 and 2 and is currently embarked upon conquering Visual Development. When Savannah started with us I could see she had promise right from the get go. Here's something she created at the very beginning of her experience with Character Design 1... 

Take a look at the improved quality of her work and in the confidence of her drawing and design appeal as a result of her dedicated efforts...

Savannah continues to move ahead with her design abilities and basic skills as she embraces more sophisticated and complex subjects...

I'm happy to have this opportunity to share Savannah's work and introduce her to the community via the Academy's blog. I'm excited about her prospects and looking forward to what we'll be seeing from her in the future. You can follow her progress by visiting Savannah Dittman's blog at this this link.

Richard Chavez has a website

One of the industry's great Visual Development artists finally has a website available for all to see and enjoy. I've known Richard Chavez since he was a 19 year old kid way back in our days at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri. Since that time he's grown to become one of the greatest design talents of the modern animation industry. If a "Who's Who" exists in this business for super artists in our community he would be a name at the top of the list.

He's been behind the creative scene in a great many of the biggest and most significant animated productions of our time. One of the original 5 Disney artists invited by Jeffrey Katzenberg to form DreamWorks Feature Animation in 1994. His production credits are stellar in a career that's spanned more than 30 years.

And finally... He has a website!

Click here to see the magnificent art of my friend and colleague Richard Chavez.

Click here to access his blog.

The Importance of Creative Productivity

Hello to our visitors here on the Academy's blog!

I've been recording videos lately for our venues and have started to share them on the Academy's Facebook page as well as on the AnimationNation Forums. They're intended to mentally prepare incoming students as well as motivate our current students and anyone else who may view the videos. This is the first in the upcoming series. It concerns an all important topic. That being your commitment to Creative Productivity as a means of advancing your art and your career. It got a great response on FB so let's feature it here too. I hope you find this helpful!

Charles Zembillas
The Animation Academy
Burbank California
USA