The April 17th session of the Animation 21 Lecture Series is dedicated to two presentations: Character Design and 2D Animation & Game Development. In the first session, Phil Mendez will demonstrate the techniques and essentials of character design. Phil Mendez started the comic strip in the Mercury Shopper’s Guide at the age of sixteen; he was hired by Dancer – Fitzgerald – Sample at the age of eighteen as an assistant art director on the General Mills account; he freelanced on comic books in 1966 for Charlton Press and DC Comics; and worked as a storyboard artist, head designer and layout director for Totem Productions “Voyager” (NASA). In 1970 he worked at Disney Studios on the feature film “Robin Hood.” He then worked for Fred Calvert Productions and Ron Campbell Films on projects including “Nanny and The Professor,” “Sesame Street” and the IBM specials “The Great Blue Marble.”
Mendez designed presentations and layout work for Hanna-Barbara Productions on “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons,” “Scooby-Doo,” “The Yogi Bear Show,” “Hong Kong Phooey,” “The Buford Files,” “The Partridge Family,” “The Banana Split Show” and more. He was hired by Mark Davis in 1975 as his assistant to design attractions for Disneyland where he worked on Fantasyland rides, Epcot Center and concept work for future Disney Projects.
He started his own company, Phil Mendez Productions, in 1982 where he designed the original presentation and characters for “An American Tail” and “Rose Petal Place.” He created the children’s shows “Kissyfur” and “Foofur,” and he wrote The Black Snowman which won the Martin Luther King “Living the Dream Award” in 1991 (to date the book has sold over 1.7 million copies.)
In the second section of the Animation 21 Lecture Series, members of IGDA, Los Angeles Chapter, will study the use of 2D Animation & Game Development.
• For more information about these events please contact Bijan Tehrani at (818) 613-4227 or btehrani@cinemawithoutborders.com
Game Center partners supporting Animation 21 Lecture Series: Alias, AMD, Animation Magazine, Autodesk Inc., Softimage, F. Dice, (IGDA) International Game Developers Assn., Luminetik Animation Studios, Motion Analysis Corp., Nvidia Corp., PC Unlimited, Peachpit Press, Pioneer (USA), Seagate Technology, SilverStone, Tyan Computer Corporation, wondertouch and ViewSonic.
Please also check: http://philmendezartist.com/