Animation Faculty

Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, was instrumental in launching Animation Magazine, co-founded Cartoon Brew and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. He is on the faculty here at LCAD teaching animation history – and is currently editing two blogs, Animation Scoop (for news) and Cartoon Research (history).

Dave Bittorf has a BA degree from the University of Wisconsin, 17 years as a CG instructor with Platt College in San Diego, and an additional 3 years teaching for the Art Institute and the Digital Media Academy. In 2010 Dave was awarded "Teacher of the Year" and in 2012 he won a world-wide competition and was named "CG-VFX Instructor of the Year". He is currently working as a 3D modeler on a children's cartoon series and several apps have been developed using his complex 3D anatomical models. He has also worked with a team that created the box cover art to PS4's "The Order 1886". Dave has worked professionally doing CG modeling and rigging for almost 20 years. He is one of the ZBrush instructors at LCAD.

John Dubiel is a graduate of The California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Character Animation and extensive studies in the School of Theater, having previously studied Film and Animation at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts). He has several years of Animation Industry experience and has worked at Warner Bros. Animation, Universal Cartoon Studios, Film Roman, Hyperion, Mike Young Productions and Rich Entertainment, primarily as a Storyboard Artist. Projects worked on include: Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, The Mummy: The Animated Series, Family Guy, Toddworld, Chloe’s Closet, Care Bears, Life With Louie, HBO’s Happily Ever After, American Heroes: William Bradford, The Swan Princess and The King and I. He has done Live Action Storyboarding on a couple of projects for Generation Entertainment and Development work for The Disney Channel. He has also done Illustration Work on
Collectible Pin Designs for Disney.

John has been part of the adjunct faculty of Mt. San Antonio College for 20 years, having taught classes in Figure Gesture, Figure in Motion, Storyboarding, Character Development and Drawing Fundamentals among others. He has taught Fundamentals of Story and Storyboarding at Laguna College of Art and Design. He has lectured at California State University Northridge and Information Resource Systems. He has been a guest artist at The Haggin Museum in Stockton, CA.

John is also a Screenwriter and Playwright. He has written for Steven Spielberg / Warner Bros. Animaniacs and done script work on the animated feature, My Little World. John is a member of The Company of Angels, the oldest repertory theater company in Los Angeles where he co-facilitates the Playwrights Group and has worked as a director. He has had several theatrical plays produced.

Focusing on caricature and editorial Illustration Richard Ewing has been illustrating professionally since 1987. His black & white work is done in ink using a range of tools from various quill pens to brush; his color art is Acrylic, or Acrylic and Brush & Ink and various other media. His clients include: The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Magazine, AARP, BBDO(LA)-[Blue Cross], Ogilvy & Mather-[AmEx], Wells Rich & Greene-[Ford Motor Co], Merkley, Newman, Harty-[National Thoroughbred Racing Association], The Orange County Register, and LosAngeles Lawyer magazine among others.
Richard's original artwork is kept in private collections of notables such as Kurt Vonnegut and Englebert Humperdink. Richard Ewing is a native of Southern California receiving his BFA and MFA in Illustration from C.S.U. Long Beach in 1987 and 1998 respectively, studying under Richard Oden. Richard is currently living with his family in Long Beach.

At LCAD, Richard teaches figure drawing and anatomy in both the animation and drawing & painting department.

Rick Farmiloe has been animating childhoods for over 30 years, and is best known for breathing hilarity into iconic Disney sidekicks Scuttle, Lefou, and Abu in the beloved Academy Award winning films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.

During his 11 years at Disney, he animated on seven features and one short, which included The Black Cauldron, Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, and The Rescuers Down Under.
Beyond his work for Disney, Rick’s feature film credits include The Swan Princess, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Shrek, Rugrats Go Wild, Curious George, The Simpsons Movie, Boxtrolls, The Iron Giant: Signature Edition, and four Tom and Jerry DVD features. He also animated on numerous Snoopy commercials for Bill Melendez.

In 2011, Rick was an animator on two Annie Award productions: Adam and Dog, and Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five. He animated on yet another Annie Award winning commercial, Coca Cola’s Man and Dog in 2015. Recently Rick has been working with director, Henry Selick, on his new project, Wendell and Wild.

Peter Ferk is a 37 year veteran of the animation industry having worked with Disney, Discovery, Warner Bros. Film Roman, Universal, and Sony among others. Peter's career started with studies at the Ontario College of Fine Art in Toronto and Florence, Italy. His beginnings as a layout artist in Canada for "Teddy Ruxpin", Nightingale and "Meerkats" led to advanced responsibilities with “My Pet Monster” and "Care Bears" and setting the show style for "Babar". He also served as overseas supervisor for "Chipmunks Goes to the Movies", "Beetlejuice", "Batman The Animated Series", "Where’s Waldo" and "Hero 108". During his time overseas, he taught drawing and layout classes. Back in the U.S. Peter assumed directing responsibilities on "101 Dalmatians the TV Series", "Sabrina The Teenage Witch the Animated TV Series", and "Pigs Next Door" as well as "Camp WWE" for the WWE. Thus far he has worked on many animated series and direct to video projects including: "Superman", "Freakazoid", "Tutenstein", "Pinky and the Brain", "Animaniacs", "Dorothy of OZ", "Disenchanment", "Scooby-Doo","The Jetsons" and "Tom and Jerry", and most recently background design work for “Minnie Bow Toons”. Peter also produced the animated title sequence for the Christmas hit, Elf. Since 2019, he has been an adjunct professor for LCAD Animation sharing his knowledge and work experiences in Layout and Storyboarding. Peter has received three Emmy Nominations for his work on "Pinky and the Brain" and won his first Emmy for Discovery Networks "Growing Up Creepy".

Born in Gardena, California, James Fujii attended Santa Barbara City College majoring in Biology. During his time in college, James Fujii found his passion for Animation and decided to change majors. He attended CalArts and graduated from the Character Animation Program in 1983 with a BFA degree.

In 1984, Fujii started his first union job at Filmation and have been working in Animation ever since. James worked as an inbetweener at Filmation working on She-Ra and He-Man, and finishing his time there as an animator on Brave Star.

Fujii’s resume includes working on prop and character models for Muppet Babies at Marvel before going to Disney Feature Animation, where he started again as an inbetweener on Oliver and Company, The Little Mermaid, as well as Beauty and the Beast. He finished his story training working on Aladdin, Mickey’s Runaway Brain, Fantasia 2000, and Hunchback of Notre Dame.

In 1995, James moved to Dreamworks to work on Prince of Egypt, Antz, and Shrek. Since 2000, Fujii has worked at studios like Warner Bros TV Animation, Universal, Stars, Imagi, Paramount, and Netflix Animation Studios. As a result, James Fujii has contributed to over 40 theatrical features and over a dozen shots, direct-to-video animated features, and numerous TV series. James is currently working for Netflix Animation Studios on one of their feature productions.

Rick Hoppe is a 40 year professional artist and Disney character animator. Since starting in 1980 on the film "The Fox and the Hound", he has contributed his talents to most of the traditional Disney features up through "The Princess and the Frog" in 2009.

He majored in illustration at Art Center College of Design and later studied drawing and painting privately with Glen Vilppu. In his early years at Disney he trained with Disney veterans Eric Larson and Glen Keane. He has been known for his superb draftsmanship and acting ability, and has been much in demand by Directors.

During Rick's tenure at Disney, he had the opportunity to develop a training curriculum and lecture and mentor new artists. Much to my delight, I discovered that I am a natural teacher. Some of my fondest memories at Disney are mentoring assistants, fueling their enthusiasm and watching their talent flower. Many artists who Rick trained are now leaders in the industry.

Rick Hoppe is an excellent communicator. He is fully present to the needs of the student and is able to impart a clear understanding of the key skills of expressive drawing, fluid animation and eloquent acting. He inspires and empowers his students, "I'm committed to my students becoming top notch animators and leaving LCAD prepared to excel in the animation industry."

Caroline Hu has been in the animation and consumer products industry for over 20 years and is happy to be working at LCAD. She has worked at WB studios, Disney, and is a freelance animator and designer.

Pixote Hunt is a director, art director, animator and designer in the film industry with more than 40 yearss of experience in animation. A BFA graduate of the School of Visual Arts in media communications. His experience in combining 2D and 3D animation with live action began in 1977. In 1979 he started his career at the Walt Disney studio in Burbank CA. In 1994 he directed, and art directed THE PAGEMASTER and designed the 3D opening and interstitials for FANTASIA 2000.

Eyvind Earle, Walt Peregoy, and Eric Larson were a few of the mentors in his animation Career.

Pixote is now working as an instructor, visual development artist and background painter. His unique achievements in film and music have garnered him the honor of being a voting member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Grammys/Recording Academy.

Brad Kuha has worked professionally as a Character Animator for the past thirty years. Originally trained in the classical Disney Character Animation technique, Brad began his career with Disney, animating on such films as “Rescuers Down Under”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin”, “Lion King”, “Pocahontas”, and “Hunchback of Notre Dame”, as well as the Dreamworks features “Prince of Egypt”, and “Road to El Dorado”. Brad has also worked as Supervising Animator for over a decade at Wiki Wiki Cartoons, animating in various techniques, including full animation and digital puppetry. Brad has also animated in CG, working on the original “Scooby Doo” live-action/ animation feature as well as five years at Electronic Arts, creating animation assets for video games.

Dani Michaeli teaches Story Structure, Screenwriting and Visuals for Laguna College Art and Design. Michaeli’s first staff writing job was for “South Park” in 2004, followed by five years writing for "SpongeBob SquarePants". After “SpongeBob”, Dani became a story editor/head writer on shows such as “The Aquabats Super Show!”, “Harvey Beaks”, “Little Big Awesome” and “The Mighty Ones” which Dani also helped to
develop. Simultaneously, beginning in 2015, Michaeli taught writing for animation at Art Center College of Design for four years. Dani’s latest credits are as Supervising Producer on Apple TV‘s “Strange Planet” executive produced by Dan Harmon, and the “Blippi and Meekah’s Road Trip Podcast”. Dani has three Primetime Emmy nominations, one Daytime Emmy nomination, and one Annie Award nomination.

Industry Veteran 3D Animator - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719799

Tim is an art director, visual development artist, and background designer with over 25 years of experience in the animation industry. He received a BA in Studio Art from St. Olaf College and also attended the Kansas City Art Institute. Tim started out as a traditional animator in Minneapolis before moving to Los Angeles in 2000. In 2010 he transitioned from animation to design and visual development. Notable projects include Cosmos, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Bojack Horseman, Elena of Avalor and Teen Titans Go to the Movies. In 2015 he was hired to art direct Bunnicula and two Lego DC Superhero Girls films at Warner Brothers. Freelance clients list includes Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, Cartoon Network, Bento Box, Renegade, Oddbot, Six Point Harness, Titmouse, Nickelodeon and The Mayo Clinic. Currently he is doing visual development and design on a new series for Disney Junior and teaching background painting at LCAD.

Eric Walls has had a career in animation for over 30 years, with an extensive and versatile background in both traditional hand-drawn and CG animation for animated & live-action film and theme park attractions. His animation has been featured in many projects for Disney, DreamWorks, and Warner Brothers, including The Lion King, The Prince of Egypt, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, and the Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi theme park. His scope of work includes character animation, effects, illustration, digital cut-out animation, and a considerable list of previsualization projects.

Through his career, Eric has had the opportunity to teach and mentor new artists, including serving in Disney Animation’s prestigious Apprenticeship Program, training several artists now in prominent roles in the field.

Eric’s goal is to help students become clear communicators with their art, while building on their skills to reach their career goals.