Faculty members in the Animation Program are drawn from the Bay Area's talent-rich animation studios, digital graphics firms, film studios, and advertising industry.

Mark Andrews, CCA visiting artist, graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 1993 with a BFA in Film. He then attended Disney's summer internship program under such mentors as Glen Kean, Ed Gombert, and Steve Huston. After completing the Disney program, he began his career in the animation industry working freelance (in development) for Chuck Jones Film Productions and in television (he storyboarded five episodes of The New Adventures of Jonny Quest).

Andrews moved into feature animation storyboarding on Quest for Camelot, the first animated venture from Warner Brothers, followed by the critically acclaimed Iron Giant, for which he received an ANNIE award for outstanding individual achievement in storyboarding. Andrews soon after became head of story on Osmosis Jones. He then moved toward live action storyboarding, working on the box office blockbuster Spiderman. He returned to animation, teaming up with Pixar Animation Studios' Brad Bird, as head of story on The Incredibles.

During this time Andrews kept busy working as a freelancer in animation for television doing boards on Samurai Jack and Star Wars-Clone Wars, for which he earned an Emmy. He received an Oscar nomination for his animated short film "One Man Band," which opened for Cars worldwide. He again teamed up with Brad Bird as head of story for Ratatouille and is currently developing his own feature he plans to direct at Pixar.

Andrews lives in Oakland with his wife, four kids, three dogs, and cat. In his copious amounts of free time he works on his comic books, fences all three weapons, and practices Kendo. He has also just picked up the penny whistle.

Ravinder Basra has over 12 years of experience teaching design-related subjects in undergraduate and graduate programs alike in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Basra's background includes teaching web design, motion graphics, and print design, as well as extensive curriculum development. Additionally she has worked on several design projects for the San Francisco Center for the Book, University of San Francisco, and International Executive Rental Agency.

Basra is currently education chair on the board of directors of the San Fracisco office of the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA). She earned a master's degree in visual communication, majoring in multimedia design from the University of Central England in Birmingham.

Katya Bonnenfant, CCA visiting artist, studied graphic design, fine art, and philosophy in Paris. She has been a freelance designer since 2ooo. Her work emerges in a continual conversation between her practice as a designer and her visual-art research, through web design, sound, animations, installations, video, and performing art.

Bonnenfant likes to explore the frame of commissioned works the same way she does her own projects, creating little narrations in a baroque and humorous proliferation: what is subject and what is ornament? Must entertainment and leisure conflict with function and usage? How can politics be engaged in a poetic process, giving place to accidents, fortuitous encounters, improbable sharing? For her the design, and the fellow of our every day life, can only attempt to encourage collective cheerfulness.

Bonnenfant currently teaches multimedia design at the Nationale Fine Art School of Lyon in France.

Patrick Danaher is a CCA adjunct professor who graduated from James Madison University in Virginia with a BA in fine art (with a printmaking focus). He then joined The Academy of Art College in San Francisco to pursue earning his master's in computer arts and animation, where he developed a focus on character animation. While finishing his degree, he took his first job as an animator at Cinemaware, where he provided rigging and animation for its main project, a video game for Playstation 2.

After attaining his degree, he moved on to Maxis to work on Sims 2, and then four additional Sims-related titles as a character animator. In October of 2005 he joined BlueSky Studios to contribute to Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. Upon completion he moved to Tippett Studio in Berkeley, where he has contributed character animation to such feature film projects as Cloverfield, Enchanted, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. He is currently animating for one of Tippett's new projects. BFA, James Madison University

Andrew Gordon, CCA visiting artist, has been animating characters professionally for over 10 years. He joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997, where he has been an animator on A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. (Mike Wazowski), Finding Nemo (Gill), and The Incredibles (the costume designer Edna Mode). In 2007 he worked on Ratatouille.

Prior to Pixar Gordon worked in the Looney Tunes division of Warner Brothers. He was awarded "Outstanding Character Animation in an Animated Motion Picture" by the Visual Effects Society for his work in Finding Nemo.

Gordon studied art and animation at Vancouver School of Animation and Multi Media and at William Paterson University. He has been teaching animation in California since 2000. He has lectured around the world on animation, including New York University (NYU) and Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA), as well as in Hong Kong, Madrid, and Singapore. He is one of the creators of Spline Doctors, a blog/podcast dedicated to animation education.

Andrew Lyndon, associate professor, is an Oakland-based videographer, animator, and filmmaker who makes stand-alone video, freelance multimedia work, video theater sets, and narrative film. He is the digital imaging and video instructor at Pixar Animation Studios and was the editor for the SIGGRAPH 2005 Computer Animation Festival (CAF), producing and editing the festival trailers. BFA, Bennington College; MFA, Yale University

Lyndon is the recipient of a 2008 NEA Artist in Residence grant to work with the San Francisco Exploratorium. He recently finished animation and titles for the documentary Making Whiteness Visible, motion graphics for the Ella Baker Foundation, forensic animation detailing the replication of DNA, and his video/animation Cat Black Sea was included in the Milkbar International Film Festival in 2007, which screened in San Francisco and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Steve Segal, CCA visiting artist, started his film career by opening a traditional animation studio in his hometown of Richmond, VA where he and his staff made commercials and educational films for 10 years. He produced several independent short films that have garnered awards at film festivals internationally: Cannes International Film Festival, Zagreb Animation Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Sinking Creek Film Festival (now renamed Nashville Independent Film Fest), and the Los Angeles Animation Celebration film festival.

Segal worked as an animator and cartoon curator for the innovative "Pee Wee's Playhouse" television series; a musical film for "Sesame Street," and contributed animation to Pixar's Toy Story. While at Pixar he worked on several projects, including Toy Story-based CD ROMs; It's Tough to Be a Bug, a 3D film for Walt Disney World and California Adventure; the short film "Geri's Game"; and commercials, including one he directed and animated.

Segal's films also have been included in theatrical packages, such as The International Tournee of Animation, The Computer Animation Show, Futuropolis, and Timeless Tales of Fantasy.

Doug Sheppeck, CCA visiting artist, is a character animator who has worked on most of Pixar's films, including, Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille. Doug also went to New Zealand for two years to animate for Wetefx on The Lord of the Rings. Doug is currently animating for Pixar's film Wall-E. BFA, Calarts

Current Courses

See the Course Schedule for current courses and their descriptions.

Student animation