With Legenday Animator and Director James Lopez

Artists learn from artists and animators learn from other animators. And animator is different than a development artist, or a story artist or other artists in the pipeline. They see and understand emotion, expression and how to tell a story through acting creating what we refer to as creating the illusion of life. James is a master at all this and has experience with 2D, 3D  and other disciplines whether in house or freelance and anything inbetween in the animation pipeline. His longevity in the industry is attributed to his mastery of the medium. We are proud to share sometime with him 'In His Studio' where you can ask him anything and see and hear first hand LIVE in our CTN Zoom Room where you can ask questions and show your work.

James Lopez is a veteran Disney animator who has been working as a professional in the animation industry for 25 years. His credits at Disney include being a Lead Animator on films such as The Emperor's New Groove and Hercules and as an animator on the character "Dr. Facilier" in The Princess and the Frog and "Timon" in The Lion King. He has also worked for studios such as Warner Bros., Dreamworks and Nickelodeon in both television and features an has performed a variety of positions that range from Directing, Storyboarding, Layout, Art Direction, Production Design and Character Design. He is an alumni of CalArts where he recently taught drawing and animation to inspire a new generation of artists.