Character Design in Photoshop

Matt Sveum graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Character Animation. Later he received a certification from Animation Mentor, working with top industry professionals from studios such as Dreamworks and BlueSky. In his career, he has directed short films and animated for Netflix. Growing up, Matt was drawn to anime and manga such as Mobile Fighter: G Gundam and Rurouni Kenshin.

These works also inspired him to pursue martial arts, which he taught for 11 years. In his free time, he enjoys writing fantasy and science fiction novels. His preferred tools are Autodesk Maya, Adobe Premiere, Photoshop and good old pencil and paper!

James Parris was born in New York City, attending the High School of Art and Design and Pratt Institute before migrating to Los Angeles to become a multi-hyphenate filmmaker.

Cutting his teeth in traditional animation during the 90’s Disney animation renaissance, his traditional animation credits include The Lion King, Mulan and Tarzan. He later migrated to CG visual effects for blockbuster features like Spider-Man, I, Robot, Transformers 2 and The Oscar-winning Curious Case of Benjamin Button. James is also an Animation Director on popular TV series like Apple’s Doug Unplugs, as well as an avid live-action filmmaker and storyboard artist, directing short films and music videos, while developing feature and series content through his production company, Paper Tiger Films.

Stella Abelaez was born in Cali, Colombia and arrived in New York City at the age of fifteen, when she was accepted to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Arts as an art major. She continued her artistic development by attending the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT-SUNY) for Fashion and Fine Arts Illustration. In her senior year, Stella took part of a painting class at Scoula Polimoda in Florence Italy, which exposed her to academic painting from the masters. Stella graduated with honors and was recognized as a top competitor by The Society of Illustrators for her pastel portraits and acrylic paintings.

After graduation, Stella furthered her life drawing skills at The Art Students League of New York while freelancing in the fashion illustration field. She was then invited to join the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio in Orlando, Florida as an animation intern and later as a special effects artist. Stella was part of the “Pocahontas Animation Discovery Tour”, where she drew on stage demonstrating the art of animation to audiences in 13 countries while promoting Disney’s “Pocahontas” before its global release. Eventually, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked for other studios as a 2D special effects artist.

While raising a young family in Burbank, Stella became a homeschooling mother and freelanced props for a variety of TV and film productions. She pursued a certificate in Early Childhood Education from UCLA and volunteered her talents and time to worthy causes such as Girl Scouts.

Stella is now located in central Florida, where she is focused on following her artistic vision and working on private commissions.

Amanda Moldovan is a skilled animator, painter, illustrator, graphic designer, and professional weirdo. In school, she crawled her way through the jungles of the amazon to get her BFA in Animation. Being a University of Central Florida student taught her what it was like to work in a studio environment and create a short animated film. Since then she has had animation jobs around the US, started her own art business, directed a short, and worked as a painting instructor.

In her first job as an instructor she taught people of all ages how to get creative and pick up a brush. She has animated on short films, music videos, video games, YouTube series, and Television shows. She also is an avid member of Women in Animation, where she was lucky enough to be in a mentorship group under a head of animation at Pixar.  Her hobbies include Dungeons and Dragons, rock and roll, and re watching old Muppet show episodes. Raised in the state of Florida (home of the mouse himself), she found herself inspired by the world around her and began to create. The world hasn’t been the same since.