Capilano University’s animation program has always done a great job of promoting and keeping tabs on their alumni. Don Perro recently sent me a link to a post they ran about a couple of their grads who played key roles in the production of the highly acclaimed Disney short, Paperman. Here’s the post (original can be found here):
Capilano University Animation Grads Win Big at the Oscars
Walt Disney’s “Paperman” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at this year’s Acadamy Awards. Two members of the creative team are graduates from the 2D Commercial Animation program at Capilano University.
Sarah Airriess graduated in 2002 and found work at Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver as a 2D animator. She moved to Los Angeles and works at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank. Sarah apprenticed as an animator on the feature, “The Princess and the Frog” in 2009 and then animated on “Winnie the Pooh” in 2011. She helped out on the short film, “Adam and Dog”, which was also nominated for an Oscar this year.
Paperman uses a unique process that incorporates a hand drawn line over a 3D computer animated character (see link below). Sarah was the supervising animator of the 2D line work.
Sarah comes back to speak to Cap’s current animation students whenever she’s in town and was here last October.
Another Commercial Animation grad, Clio Chiang contributed to Paperman as one of two story artists, helping to develop the visual narrative of the film. Clio has been working as a storyboard artist since graduating in 2005. She first worked at Atomic Cartoons and then at Studio B Productions (now DHX Media) in Vancouver before joining Walt Disney Animation as an intern. Clio was a story artist on “Winnie the Pooh” and is currently working on a new Disney 3D animated feature, “Frozen” to be released later this year.
Sarah’s sister, Lauren Airrieiss is also a graduate of the Commercial Animation program (class of 2007) and also found work right after graduating, at Disney Animation Studios. Lauren worked on the 3D animated feature, “Tangled” as a visual development artist and her designs can be found in the “Art of Tangled” book. Lauren is now a Sketch Artist at Pixar Animation in Emeryville, California.
Way to go !
Yeah !