Students at the University of Abertay Dundee are to get tips from a leading Hollywood professional who has directed animation on cartoon blockbusters such as Beavis & Butthead and Ice Age.
Yvette Kaplan is travelling to Dundee next weekend (24-25 November) to deliver a workshop on Creating and Defining Memorable Characters.
The visit is part of The Animation Finishing School a partnership between Abertay University and Perth-based Mark Grindle Associates.
Yvette has worked as an animator, character designer, director, producer, writer and story consultant in animated television and features. She was supervising director on the MTV mega-hit Beavis and Butthead, co-directed the full-length feature, Beavis and Butthead Do America, and was Head of Story on 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age. Yvette has taught character development at NYC’s School of Visual Arts.
She said of the Animation Finishing School: “I am thrilled and delighted to be part of this workshop. There is nothing more exciting than the back and forth, the give and take, the meeting of minds and hearts that bring a character to life.”
The workshop was designed to help Scotland’s up and coming animators and screenwriters to create and develop their own products and form digital media companies around them.
“Scotland’s creative industries need talent with real practical commercial skills – and that requires focused mentorship from practitioners with real practical and commercial experience,” commented Mark Grindle.
Participants attending next weekend’s workshop include representatives from some of the most dynamic and innovative companies in Scotland, including Realtime Worlds, Axis, Ink Animations, Kolik, Once Were Farmers, Super Umami, Denki; as well as trainees from Scottish Screen’s New Animation Talent scheme and high-level freelance screenwriters.