Animation and Production

Jazno Francoeur’s career began in 1990, when he interned at the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio in Orlando, Florida. Upon graduating from Kansas City Art Institute in 1992, he began working at the Disney studios in Los Angeles, California. During that time, Francoeur worked on a number of films, including Lilo & Stitch, Tarzan, Mulan, Pocahontas, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Emperor’s New Groove, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Brother Bear, John Henry, and Roger Rabbit’s Trail Mix-Up, as well as the Aladdin video game for Sega Genesis and numerous other shorts, park projects, and commercials.

In 2004, Francoeur became an animation instructor at DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington. After transferring to DigiPen’s branch campus in Singapore in 2008, he was invited to a seven-month effects course at Lucasfilm Animation.

In addition to his career as an animator and educator, Francoeur is a performing musician (with his ensemble Mercymachine), a published poet, and an exhibiting photographer.

Film and Game Credits

• Brother Bear (2003)
• Lilo & Stitch (2002)
• John Henry (2000)
• The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
• Tarzan (1999)
• Mulan (1998)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
• Pocahontas (1995)
• The Lion King (1994)
• Trail Mix-Up (1993)
• Disney’s Aladdin for Sega Genesis (1993)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Pamela Mathues graduated with honors from the Columbus College of Art and Design with a major in illustration and minor in fine art. She worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation for more than 10 years, contributing to such films as The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear. She also worked on the 2D game The Act for Cecropia (now React Studios).

After that production, she moved west and became a Grand Canyon river guide and an award-winning photographer. She then moved with her husband to Washington to teach at DigiPen.

Film Credits

• Brother Bear (2003)
• Lilo & Stitch (2002)
• Mulan (1998)
• Pocahontas (1995)
• The Lion King (1994)

After watching various animated Disney films as a child, Richard Morgan was hooked on animation as an art form. In high school, he met two of his heroes, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, authors of The Illusion of Life, considered to be the bible of animation. They encouraged him to push for a sense of storytelling in his artwork.

In pursuit of his dream to be an artist, Morgan attended Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. During the weekends and summers, he worked with Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, the theatrical and live performance division of Walt Disney Imagineering. In his spare time, he would do extensive study — in figure drawing class, the local zoo, or even at the mall — to sketch people and animals from life. In doing so, Morgan soon had a portfolio that would earn him a much sought-after internship with Walt Disney Feature Animation. After graduating, he earned a full-time position animating on feature films including The Lion King, Pocahontas, Hercules, Mulan, John Henry, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, and others.

After more than a decade with Disney, he moved across the country to start his own company, Aspen Sienna Art Studio. Morgan and his wife opened a gallery and he painted plein-air/studio landscapes for five years in beautiful Montana. Before long, however, he realized he missed the energy and excitement of the animation industry (not to mention the warmer weather of Florida).

Teaching seemed like a good fit for him and he became an instructor of Design and Film Theory courses at his alma mater. He continued to paint and show in galleries throughout Northern Florida. Morgan eventually found his way to DigiPen Institute of Technology in Singapore. He taught there for three years before transferring to DigiPen’s Redmond campus as a senior lecturer.

Morgan enjoys the creative process and giving back to the next generation of artists and game and film developers. He currently teaches animation courses including Basic/Advanced Animation, Digital Painting, and 2D Film.

Film Credits

• Brother Bear (2003)
• Lilo & Stitch (2002)
• John Henry (2000)
• Tarzan (1999)
• Mulan (1998)
• Hercules (1997)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
• Pocahontas (1995)
• The Lion King (1994)

Brad Bradbury earned his MFA from Academy of Art University with an emphasis in 3D character animation. He joined DigiPen in 2016 and currently instructs courses in 3D animation production, CG computer graphics, and project development. His latest animation and artistic endeavors are in virtual reality art.

Brad has experience in games and animation working with clients like Warner Brothers and Hasbro Interactive. In addition to experience in game and animation production, Brad has over 15 years of teaching experience, instructing classes at the Art Institute of California, California State Fullerton, and University of California Irvine on a wide range of animation disciplines, including figure drawing, character design and storyboarding, traditional animation, Toonboom and Flash animation, 3D modeling, texturing, and 3D character animation. Currently, Brad is developing classes to create animation and art in new media, such as VR.

Rich Werner grew up with a love for all things art and animation. As a young boy, he would tell his parents he was going to work for Disney when he grew up. The junior high and high schools he attended in San Diego placed an emphasis on the performing arts. After moving to Washington, he attended the Art Institute of Seattle, where he received a degree in Visual Communications. His first professional art job was as a background pixel artist for Interactive Imaginations. In addition to working on backgrounds for the game Magi Nation, he also created the artwork for the collectible card game based on the same title.

Werner later worked at Amaze Entertainment, where he was a background artist for various licensed titles for the Gameboy Advance and SP including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Shrek SuperSlam, Robots, and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. After a small stint at McGraw-Hill, where he created art for children’s learning games, a colleague let him know about a new company called PopCap Games.

At PopCap, Werner produced art for various prototypes, creating assets for every aspect of the project, from character designs and backgrounds, to animations, VFX, and UI. It’s during this time that he served as Lead Artist for the up-and-coming game Plants vs. Zombies. In this role, he created all of the character art, UI, and VFX, as well as the title artwork and zombie speech font. Werner later left PopCap to work for himself and created all of the art and animation for the game Octogeddon with longtime friend and creator/designer of Plants vs. Zombies, George Fan.

Aside from making art for games, Werner is also an avid acrylic painter and has created many short story comics. At DigiPen, he is a lecturer in the Department of Animation and Production, where he uses 20 years of experience in the industry to share his knowledge of creating art and animation for video games to the next generation.

For examples of Werner’s artwork, visit www.richwerner.com.

Game Credits

• Magi Nation, Interactive Imagination
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Amaze Entertainment
• Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Amaze Entertainment
• Robots, Amaze Entertainment
• Shrek SuperSlam, Amaze Entertainment
• Bejeweled 2, PopCap Games
• Peggle Nights, PopCap Games
• Talismania, PopCap Games
• Peggle 2, PopCap Games
• Plants vs Zombies, PopCap Games
• Octogeddon, All Yes Good

Antony de Fato teaches both introductory and advanced animation theories and techniques at DigiPen. He graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis on drawing and a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics for housing design.

De Fato began his pursuit of an animation career in 1987 by moving to Los Angeles and landing his first job in the industry at Walt Disney Feature Animation. In 1994, he moved to Florida to work at Disney’s animation studio in Orlando. After that studio shut down in 2004, he worked on freelance animation projects, including Stitch’s Great Escape for one of the Disney theme parks. In 2005, he was hired by Cecropia, a Boston game company, and worked at their Orlando-based studio on The Act, a hand-drawn arcade game. After that studio also closed, de Fato moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, where his wife was a whitewater river guide in the Grand Canyon. He joined DigiPen near the end of 2008.

“I come from an industry rather than an academic background, and although I miss the excitement of the production atmosphere, I enjoy teaching a subject I am passionate about and sharing that passion with students,” de Fato says. “It is most gratifying to see students grasping new concepts and to watch their growth as artists and animators. Working in the animation field was always a dream of mine, and hopefully, in some small way, I can help the students to realize their dreams, too.”

Film and Game Credits

• The Act (2006), Lead Animator
• Brother Bear (2003), Assistant Animator
• Lilo & Stitch (2002), Assistant Animator
• The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Assistant Animator
• John Henry (2000), Assistant Animator
• Tarzan (1999), Assistant Animator
• Mulan (1998), Breakdown Artist
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Breakdown Artist
• Pocahontas (1995), Inbetweener