Shawn Kelly is an animator of movies and was a co-founder of the company Animation Mentor, an online animation school with student/mentor relationships at its core.

Life and career

Born in Sonoma County, Calif., and raised in Petaluma, Kelly set his sights on working at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) at age five when the movie Star Wars hit the big screen. Under the tutelage of animators Bill Hennes and John Root, he studied

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

and computer software throughout high school, attended community college, and Academy of Art University in San Francisco. A summer internship at ILM introduced Kelly to another influential mentor, animation director Wayne Gilbert. It was through Gilbert that Kelly realized that he wasn’t learning what he needed at school. Kelly left the academy in 1996 for a job as a character animator at former video game and educational company Presage Software, but continued his studies with Gilbert twice a week. In 1998, Kelly fulfilled his lifelong dream and landed a job at ILM. Since that time, he has worked on numerous films including '' War of the Worlds'', for which he animated tripods and probes; '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith'', where he helped develop and animate the vulture droids and animated Yoda in a pivotal sword fight; and '' Rango'', where he was the Lead Animator for both the Mayor of Dirt and the Spirit of the West. Kelly also worked as Lead Animator on all five Transformers movies. Kelly’s credits feature 29 films including ''

Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk' ...

'', the Star Wars prequels, '' AI: Artificial Intelligence'', and ''

The Avengers Avenger, Avengers, The Avenger, or The Avengers may refer to: Arts and entertainment In the Marvel Comics universe * Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes ** Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes o ...

''. Because Kelly realized his dream to animate films with the help of three mentors who took a personal interest in his career, he became convinced that animation lovers everywhere should have the same opportunity, and he co-founded Animation Mentor, an online animation school with student/mentor relationships at its core. Kelly works with Bobby Beck, Animation Mentor’s CEO and President, and cofounder Carlos Baena to help define and shape the school’s overall direction. Kelly balances his Animation Mentor role with his work as a senior animator at Industrial Light & Magic. Kelly lives in California with his wife Jen, and writes short films.

Awards

*Kelly received the 2007 award for the ‘ Best Single Visual Effect of the Year’ by the

Visual Effects Society The Visual Effects Society (VES) is an entertainment industry organization representing visual effects practitioners including artists, animators, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and pr ...

(VES), an organization dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences and the application of visual effects. Kelly’s winning effect was for the desert highway sequence of Transformers, in which

Bonecrusher Bonecrusher may refer to: * Bone crusher, a machine used to crush animal bones * Bonecrusher (horse), a New Zealand racehorse * Bonecrusher (Transformers), a fictional robot supervillain character in the Transformers robot superhero franchise. * Bo ...

skates through traffic, destroys a bus, and fights Optimus Prime. *Kelly has developed curriculum and taught at the Academy of Art University and was on the team that earned the 2000 CLIO award for Best Computer Animation for a Pepsi/Star Wars “Alien” campaign.

Filmography

* '' Jack Frost'' (1998) (CG character animator: ILM) * ''

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace ''Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' is a 1999 American Epic film, epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It stars Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Dan ...

'' (1999) (character animator: ILM) * ''

The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle'' is a 2000 American live-action/animated adventure slapstick comedy film directed by Des McAnuff and produced by Universal Pictures, based on the television cartoon of the same name by Jay Ward. An ...

'' (2000) (character animator) * '' Artificial Intelligence: AI'' (2001) (animator: ILM) * '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' (2002) (animator: ILM) * ''

'' (2003) (CG character animator) * '' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'' (2003) (animator) * '' The Day After Tomorrow'' (2004) (animator) * '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) (animator) * '' War of the Worlds (2005 film)'' (2005) (animator) * '' Eragon'' (2006) (character animator) * '' Transformers'' (2007) (lead animator: ILM) * ''

The Spiderwick Chronicles ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' is a series of children's fantasy books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into the Spid ...

'' (2008) (animator) * ''

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' is a 2008 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and the fourth installment in the ''Indiana Jones'' series. Released and taking place 19 years after the previous ...

'' (2008) (animator: ILM) * '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' (2009) (lead animator: ILM) * '' Rango'' (2011) (post-production) (lead animator: ILM) * '' Transformers: Dark of the Moon'' (2011) (post-production) (lead animator: ILM) * ''

'' (2012) (animator) * ''

Battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

'' (2012) (animator) * '' G.I. Joe: Retaliation'' (2013) (animator) * ''

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The ''Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire. List of co ...

'' (2013) (animator) * ''

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

'' (2014) (lead animator) * '' Transformers: Age of Extinction'' (2014) (animator) * '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (2014) (animator) * ''

Jurassic World ''Jurassic World'' is a 2015 American science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Derek Connolly from a story by Jaffa and Silver. It is the first installment in the ...

'' (2015) (animator) * '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows'' (2016) (Associate Animation Supervisor) * '' Warcraft'' (2016) (animator) * '' Transformers: The Last Knight'' (2017) (lead animator) * Avengers: Infinity War (2018) (Associate Animation Supervisor)

References

External links

Shawn Kelly's Animation Tips And Tricks Website
*
Shawn Kelly
at New York Times
Animation Mentor Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Shawn American animators Living people Academy of Art University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)

Life and career

Awards

Filmography

References

Further reading and listening

External links