James McCampbell, B.F.A.
Department Head

University of Tennessee. Former senior animator, Rowland Productions, Inc.; former senior art director, animator and creative director, The McAmis Agency. Clients: TNN, A&E, HGTV, Time Warner, CBS, NBC, ABC affiliates, University of Tennessee. Recipient of numerous Addy awards. First Place Gold Award for Computer Animation, New York Festivals. Advisory Board: 3D Magazine.

Dominic Avant, B.F.A.

Rhode Island School of Design. Was employed at Cecropia Inc. in Orlando, FL where he was the Assistant Animator for the video game The Act. Dominic’s professional experience includes conducting painting and drawing workshops at Manor Gallery, and Breakdown Animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation in Orlando. Productions he has worked on include Mulan, Tarzan, Emperor’s New Groove, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear.  www.dominicavant.com

Robert Cooksey, B.A., M.A.

New College of Florida [History/Philosophy]; European Graduate School [Communication/Media Philosophy]; European Graduate School [Communication/Media Philosophy]. Professional experience: Adjunct Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ringling School of Art and Design; Technology and Systems Manager, Consultant for Media Convergence, and Technology/Instructor/Consultant for Radio and Television Production, University of South Florida. Publications include "I Walk the Open Road: Toward an Open Source Philosophy" in New York Studies in Media Philosophy. robertcooksey.net  

Tammy Daniel, A.A.

American Academy of Art [Illustration]. Tammy has seventeen years experience in the animation industry; her latest project was working on the feature film Curious George. Tammy has trained, supervised and mentored Disney trainees to prepare artists for feature animation projects. Clients include, but are not limited to: Universal Studios, Walt Disney Feature Animation, and Toyota.

Jamie DeRuyter, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design. Five years of 3D animation and effects production experience and eight years of education related to the Computer Animation industry. Former animator, The Pixel Factory; Lighting and Rendering Supervisor, Victory FX; Kleiser-Walczak Construction Company; and Visual BookProductions.

Jon di Venti, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design [Illustration]. Professional experience: Character artist, Animated StoryBoards, Ltd., New York, NY; freelance illustrator [editorial, book, advertising and character design].  Jon is the recipient of various awards, including two Best of Ringling Juried Student Shows and Best Junior Illustrator Award, Ringling College of Art and Design.

Ed Gavin, B.F.A., M.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design; Florida Atlantic University. Former animator, Blue Sky Studios; former lead cinematic artist, n-Space. Course director for computer animation at Full Sail Real World Education. Awards: First Place, USA Dallas; Experimental Video Award, Athens International.

Eric Gingrich, B.F.A.

Savannah College of Art and Design. A veteran Cinematics and Design Lead, Eric has thirteen years in the video game industry and has been credited with 15 titles across 11 platforms and 9 genres. A partial title list includes: Where the Wild Things Are (X-Box 360, PS3, Wii); X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Wii, PS2); Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (PSP); Call of Duty: Roads to Victory (PSP); Algorithmics Rock the World (L-Max); Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PC Unreal engine). Eric comes to Ringling from Amaze Entertainment in Kirkland, WA. www.ericgingrich.com

Deborah Healy, B.F.A., M.A., M.F.A.

College of New Rochelle; Montclair State University; MAT, Syracuse University; MFA, Rutgers University New Brunswick; post graduate doctoral work, Ed.D. Creative Art Studio ABD. Coordinator, Foundations of Disney Animation at Disney Feature Animation, Burbank, California; traditional animation lead, stop motion lead Disney Institute, Orlando, Florida. Independent filmmaker [animation]. Films licensed to Danish, Swedish and Italian public TV, and U.S. cable channels. Festivals include: Annecy, Zagreb, Ottawa, Lincoln Center, Vanderbilt, Sinking Creek, Chicago Art Institute, etc.. Clients include: Simon Schuster, HarperCollins, Forbes, New York Magazine, Atlantic, Boston Globe, Johnson & Johnson, Business Week, American Express, Grey Advertising, Foot Cone & Belding, Warner Bros., UNICEF, United Nations, The New Yorker, Paramount Studios, Farrar Straus, Giroux, Verlag Antije Kunstmann, Scholastic, Pocket, Doubleday, Random House, Monsanto, Hershey, etc.  [animation, animatics, storyboards, illustration, character design, environment design, concept development].  Awards/exhibitions: Society of Illustrators, M Gallery Sarasota, Aquavella, New York, Donnell, Newark Museum, New Jersey, New York Art Directors Club, etc. Fellowships, professional grants, interviews: Chicago Art Institute for animation Invitational; Vanderbilt, award for film, N.J. Council for the Arts fellowships [four]; Black Maria Film Festival, interview. Former President, Art Directors Club of New Jersey; former Chair, Moore College of Art & Design Illustration Department; Air Force Artist [work included in Pentagon Air Force Museum]. Who’s Who in American Art; International Who’s Who of Women.

Sean McLaughlin, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design. Professional experience: Worked for 12 years at Dreamworks Feature Animation as a Lead 3D Character Animator and FX Developer/Animator, assisting in the creation of the Computer Graphics department as well as transitioning Animators from 2D to 3D. Sean also taught part-time at AnimationMentor.com. Screen credits include the Dreamworks feature films Bee Movie, Over the Hedge, Shark Tale, Shrek 2, Sinbad: Legend of the 7 Seas, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Road to El Dorado, and Prince of Egypt.  

Billy Merritt, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design. Billy has been animating at Pixar Animation Studies for over eight years, and has been teaching animation part-time to graduate and undergraduate students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He also taught part-time at AnimationMentor.com. His experience in film at Pixar includes working on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars. In addition to feature work, he has also animated on Toy Story 2 commercials, Monsters Inc. ABC Television interstitials, and the short film Boundin’. 

Martin Murphy, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design. Martin has sixteen years of experience in the entertainment industry.  He has contributed his talents to feature films, numerous broadcast design packages and commercials, and to the creation of more than twenty games ranging from the arcade and SEGA Genesis era to the current console systems. He comes to Ringling from the position of Senior Producer at Midway Games, where he assisted in the development of an original, multi-platform game concept to a playable prototype ready for production. Prior to his position as Senior Producer, Martin was Midway's companywide Director of Art, shepherding the transition of almost three hundred artists to current generation technologies and fostering collaboration across five development studios to improve product quality and reduce development costs. He previously was an adjunct professor at Columbia College in Chicago where he taught computer animation and portfolio development.

Keith Osborn, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design. Currently a freelance animator working for Lasso the Moon, LLC in St. Petersburg, FL. Over four years professional experience which includes Animation Supervisor, Animator and Digital Modeler with Reel FX in Dallas, TX and Animator, Digital Modeler and Storyboard Artist with Peculiar Pictures, Sarasota, FL. Worked on numerous projects for film, video, commercial and game work including Disney’s The Wild, Boz the Bear video series, G.I. Joe Valor vs. Venom DVD, and game cinematics for Halo 2. Contributed storyboards, modeling, texturing, rigging, and animation for Hermie, the Common Caterpillar and Flo, the Lying Fly.

Gary Schumer, B.F.A., M.F.A.

Washington University [Painting and Drawing]; Ohio University [Painting]. Previously, Gary has been the Academic Department Director of the Art Institute of Tampa, teaching Drawing and 2D Animation. He has worked as a freelance drawing instructor for Electronic Arts video game producers. Gary worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation from 1996-2004 as Effects Animator, Assistant Animator, Manager of Training Department and Training Coordinator. He has worked on Brother Bear, Mulan, Tarzan, Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch. He has more than 13 years teaching experience at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Bowling Green State University, and has numerous exhibitions and several publications.

Karen Sullivan, B.F.A., M.F.A.

University of Massachusetts. Cover editor, SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Quarterly. Chair, SIGGRAPH Art Gallery 2002. Published focus issues on Visual Literacy, Concept Development for Computer Animators; former department head, Art and Visual Communications, Hood College; former department head, BioMedical Communications, University of Connecticut Health Center. Numerous national shows and publications.

Heather Thomson, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design. Former animator, The Pixel Factory, Orlando, FL. Former character animator, Lightpoint Entertainment. Former character setup supervisor/senior animator, Victory FX. Clients include Planet Hollywood, Orlando Magic, Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios, Six Flags, Sea World, MGM Studios, Disney Cruise Line, Hard Rock Cafe, ABC, MasterCard, IMAX, and PBS.

Ron Zeitler, B.F.A., B.F.A.

Louisiana Tech University [Graphic Design]; Ringling College of Art and Design [Computer Animation]. During his senior year at Ringling, he received the Best of Ringling Juried Student Exhibition President's Award in computer animation. Mr. Zeitler comes to Ringling from Walt Disney Feature Animation. His feature film credits include Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Emperor's New Groove, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, and The Little Matchgirl.