Wayne Gilbert

Wayne Gilbert is a Canadian working in Vancouver, British Columbia, now Head of the Character Animation Program at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VanArts). He was the Senior Animation and Art Director for EA Blackbox, where he directed and animated in-game and cinematics for the ground-breaking video games "skate and skate2". Before EA, Wayne lived in Northern California, working at ILM as a Senior Lead Animator and Animation Area Manager. He worked on Star Wars, Attack of the Clones, The Mummy Returns, E.T. re-release, Jurassic Park 2, and Bounty Hunter. He storyboarded and animated numerous commercials with two Clio Awards. His animated short Let Go won a Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival. It was his second film created with friends while working at ILM. The first was CPU. Before that, he created 2D shorts entitled Bottoms Up and Traffic Jam, accepted into the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. As The Animation Area Manager, he had aesthetic input for animation dailies and headed the Animation Training Department. He was an advocate for thorough planning, which received opposition for a long time.

Wayne authored two highly respected books, Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation and Planning Character Animation, available through amazon.com, amazon.ca, and www.anamie.com/shop. @waynefrederickg Instagram and X - Twitter. Wayne is currently writing and illustrating picture books, has completed two middle-grade fantasy novels, and developing a unique NFT project. Paul Durante, the CEO of Artwave, represents him. https://ArtWave.co/

Wayne coordinated and taught in the renowned Classical Animation and International Summer-school of Animation Programs at Sheridan College. Before that worked as a Background Illustrator and Assistant Animator at Leach Rankin Studios on Witch's Night Out, then at Nelvana Ltd, an Animator and Background Illustration on seven half-hour television shows and numerous commercials. He took on the roles of Background Illustrator and department head on the feature, Rock and Rule. Wayne twice served as an art director at Wang Films in Taiwan. In 1996, Lenora Hume, Sr VP at Walt Disney Studios, brought Wayne on board to help set up the Disney Canada Studios by supervising creative staffing and professional development. He was asked to co-direct the studio's second DVD feature but opted for a move to ILM.

Gilbert graduated from Sheridan College's Classical Animation Program. He has lectured at schools and universities and media events around the world.

Gilbert has an MFA (Master of Film and Animation) USA accreditation.