#55 - Mike Mattesi - Dyanamic Drawing Force - Salt Lake Animation Expo ~ D.A. Livecast

Directing Animation Livecast

Posted on YouTube May 31, 2024. Audio edited by Kiara Horowitz.

At DrawingFORCE.com, Mike Mattesi, author of the FORCE drawing books and creator of the FORCE drawing theory teaches his drawing approach. Scott Wiser sat down with Mike at the Salt Lake Animation Expo for this challenging conversation about navigating the industry as an artist and about his love for animation and teaching! Mike Mattesi attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City to pursue a career in the comic book industry and found my way into Walt Disney Consumer Products and Walt Disney Feature Animation where Mike had the amazing fortune to work on "The Lion King." MikeI then moved to the west coast where he entered the video game industry and then returned to New York where he taught at SVA and many other studios and schools in the tri-state area. After many years teaching I decided to write a book called FORCE that would wrap up my teaching career. Mike launched a company called Contagious Concepts, an art resource company for the video game industry. This lead to work with Microsoft, Origin, Electronic Arts and other developers on many exciting titles. After starting a family, they all then moved to Los Angeles where Mike taught at Nickelodeon, Electronic Arts and Art Center. This lead Mike to opening his own art school, Entertainment Art Academy, the first of its kind in the world! After four challenging years Mike closed the Academy and moved to San Francisco where he reentered the video game industry and worked primarily as an Art Director across numerous game studios, Zynga my latest. Now Mike returns to teaching through DrawingFORCE.com, teaching at art colleges and entertainment companies in the Bay area such as , Pixar, The Academy of Art University, California College of the Arts, and Mike travels around the world hosting FORCE Drawing Workshops. Interviewer Scott Wiser is currently supervising at Steamroller Studios (supervising Lego Fortnite and animating on Spice Frontier) and has written and directed for Spacestation Animation. He is the creator of 15 deeply meaningful feature film pitches and counting. 3 of these are Kickstarted Books and one is a short film. Any producers or executives interested in collaborating or funding on Scott Wiser's projects can peruse these pitches through the application at: www.scottwiser.com/collaborate