This week, VanArts has been privileged to have Bill Matthews, retired Manager of Artists’ Development at Walt Disney Animation Studios, here for his annual week-long visit to our animation department. For the past 16 years, Bill has come to share his stories and encouragement to our students, drawing upon his years at Disney and his extensive animation career. We also got to celebrate his birthday with him during this year’s visit!
Senior Animation Instructor Charles Phillips presented our annual Q&A session with Bill on Monday morning in our studio for our students, and throughout the week Bill has given demonstrations on effects animation, which he specialized in back in the 1950s at Disney on Sleeping Beauty. He has visited with our full-time students as well as our 1-month summer intensive students who are here learning about animation.
Thanks Bill for another great visit and for all the support you’ve given to our animation department at VanArts!
Bill Matthews has been a guest instructor and visiting industry professional at VanArts since 1996. He is one of the founding instructors and directors of the Sheridan College Animation Program and is recently retired as Manager of Artist Development and ongoing consultant for Walt Disney Feature Animation. Bill worked on effects animation for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and for NASA, and has been writing traditional animation curricula for public schools and colleges for over thirty years.