Neil Bonsteel

Senior Animation Instructor

Neil graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology’s school of Film and Animation, where he got a rounded education in all aspects of the animation pipeline, in addition to creative writing and computer science. For his thesis, he unwisely created a 13 minute solo hand drawn short film, which will die with him, unless very specific ransom demands are made of him before then.

His career started in Los Angeles working on video games as an animator, but soon worked his way up to being team lead. After three years and many jobs, he moved back to the east coast to settle in Massachusetts to be a lead animator at an indie studio that specialized in LEGO cartoons. There he did everything from animating to storyboarding, editing, writing, and directing for over six years. When the studio shut down he started his new animation journey in Canada, where in a course of a few years worked his way up to be where he is now: as a supervisor animator at Bardel!

Of the notable projects and companies he’s lent his talent to: Red Dead Redemption, Assassin’s Creed, LEGO Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Spyro Reignited, Horizon Zero Dawn, Disney, Marvel, Roblox, Scholastic, Nickelodeon, Telltale Games, Play-Doh. He is most proud and shameful of working on Star Wars: Kinect.

Bryan Ferland

Senior Animation Instructor

Shaun Bartoo

Animation Mentor

Shaun is a Vancouver based animator with 7 years of industry experience. Growing up with 90s era Disney and Studio Ghibli films ignited his lifelong passion for animation. He got his Bachelor’s Degree in Animation from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2016. Since then, he’s worked at a number of prominent Vancouver studios including Bardel Animation and Icon Creative, working on many shows including “Elena of Avalor”, “T.O.T.S.”, “Super Kitties”, “Maya and the Three” and most recently “The Search for Wondla”.

Shaun’s teaching style is encouraging and analytical. He brings his positive energy and enthusiasm to each critique session he leads at Centre for Arts and Technology. Shaun loves talking about acting for animation and providing detailed notes and draw-overs for student animation.

Jett Walts

Animation Instructor

Jett is a Senior Animator at Bardel Entertainment where he’s been cooking up cartoons since he graduated from CAT in 2017.

Creatively expressing himself through projects such as “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, “Gen:Lock”, and currently, “Sausage Party”, Jett finds joy in orchestrating believable performances to immerse his audience into this magical medium of art.

Jett strives to motivate and inspire our next generation of animators along their journey of self-development. With his arsenal of industry knowledge, Jett takes pride in molding his students’ passions into their professions.

Roland Baron

CG Instructor

Roland is an alumni of the 3D program at CAT and it’s lead CG instructor for the last 7 years.  He has been very active as a digital compositor, modeling, and texture artist over the last decade.  He has worked for Lizard Brain Animation as a compositor and Unity Broadcasting as the lead model-maker as well as other graphic artist duties.  Further, he has several film credits as an animator, compositor, and model-maker, winning several independent film VFX awards.  He is currently serving as an instructor for our CG and Graphic Design courses.

Norm Roen

Traditional Animation Instructor

Norm Roen graduated from Sheridan College’s three-year animation program as a traditional animator. He’s done a variety of work all over the world from South Korea, Taiwan, and China. For these careers, his clients consisted of Disney, Universal, and Studio Bin Vancouver. Norm also worked as an overseas director in Shanghai for the Berliner Film Company. His jobs have included animator, layout artist, background painter, director, and overseas director. Norm has had an exciting teaching career at Harbin University of Science and Technology in China and now passes on his wealth of knowledge and expertise in 2D animation, to students at the Centre for Arts and Technology.

Elizabeth Dykosky

Life Drawing Instructor

Internationally Renowned Artist and Art Instructor.

Elizabeth Dykosky’s work is unique and shows extraordinary colour use and remarkable talent wielding the brush or the pallet knife. Her work has been exhibited at various galleries throughout the world, among others in Italy (Rome), Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Kelowna), the USA (Detroit), as well as the United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Salalah). Her paintings belong to the private collection of the Vatican, Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, and Shanfari Group of Companies in Salalah, UAE.

Her pieces capture the essence of the subject to a degree that leaves a lasting impact on the viewer.

Samuel Streit

Digital Animation Instructor

Samuel is an alumni of CAT’s 2D Animation program from 2015 and has worked as a professional 2D animator and freelance artist, specializing in Toon Boom Harmony, ever since. He has worked on multiple TV shows at Kelowna’s own Yeti Farm Creative, including D.N.Ace, Camp Lakebottom and Pete the Cat. He loves the art of animation and storytelling, and now enjoys passing on what he has learned to the next generation of 2D artists.

Nicole Gauss

Drawing/Design Instructor

Nicole graduated from Capilano University two year animation program in 1999, Soon after graduating she started her first Job at Atomic Cartoon Inc. Working as a character designer, Prop designer, and clean up artist on various TV shows such as “Zeta project”, ‘Braceface’ and “Atomic Betty”. Working on such a variety of cartoons made for a very wide adaptation in her design skills. Animation clean-up is another skill she learned along her journey when working on the Voyage of Sinbad for Bardel in league with Dreamworks. Attending over a dozen Comic conventions and speaking as a guest on character design and what to expect when pursuing a career in animation. You will still find her doing most of her artwork traditional and encouraging others to embrace bringing art to life on paper.

Damon Gregory

Acting for Animation Instructor

Damon Gregory (Millar) grew up in Tucson, Arizona as the youngest of 4 children to father, Gregory Millar (b. Prince Albert, Sask.), a celebrated symphony conductor/ tenor, and mother, Roslyn Frantz (b. Portland, Ore.), an equally talented concert pianist. Damon attended various private arts schools and was active in a variety of sports. He was an early adventurer into the mountains near his home on foot, bike or horseback. In the mid 1970’s he and his brother started a skateboard business and became a big part of the skate scene in southern Arizona, sponsoring a skateboard team and demonstrating their sport with a mobile 1/2 pipe at local events. After graduating high school, Damon moved to California and took a job with a sales promotion company and traveled the west running phone sales rooms with local radio promotions. In 1981 he moved to Kelowna, BC Canada and took to the local ski hill for a few years working in hospitality and created events and entertainment for a small on-hill ski bar/ restaurant that was then named one of Canada’s top 50! After many years managing restaurants in BC, and AZ, Damon ended his hospitality career in the late 90’s after guiding a small seafood restaurant in Tucson to one of Arizona’s Best 50 as rated by AAA. Damon had always worked on and off in construction and eventually became a licensed contractor and an expert in luxury home building. Damon now resides in BC and continues to study music and voice while pursuing his acting/ performing career.

Patrick Baumann

Instructor

Patrick graduated from Humber College in 2018 and the University of Gloucestershire 2019, where he became familiar with all the steps in the animation pipeline. Starting his animation career in Toronto working on shows such as Paw Patrol and S.M.A.S.H, he soon moved to Kelowna to work for Bardel Entertainment, where he quickly worked his way up to Senior Animator. Patrick hopes to motivate, inspire, and build his students up as they progress on their animation journey, just as others have done for him.