Animation artist draws on expertise for BGSU visit

The University’s Digital Arts program welcomes animation industry expert John Nevarez to campus this weekend for workshops and a public lecture.

Nevarez, an animation artist providing story and art for Sony Pictures Animation, will speak from 5-6 p.m. Saturday (April 8) in 204 Fine Arts Center. His talk is free and open to the public. Free parking on the weekends is available in Lot N, north of the William T. Jerome Library. Nevarez also will present two workshops for BGSU students during his visit to campus.

For the past 18 years, Nevarez has worked for a variety of animation companies. He started at Disney Television as a storyboard revisionist and storyboard artist on such shows as “Pepper Ann” and “Kim Possible,” where he then transitioned over as a designer for DisneyToons, where he worked on “Tinkerbell,” “Kronk’s New Groove” and “Brother Bear 2.”

For five years, he worked at Pixar Animation Studios where he provided designs for “Cars 2,” “Monster’s University,” “Inside Out” and Lee Unkrich’s Thanksgiving 2017 release “Coco.” He worked for Rovio Animation for “The Angry Birds Movie” and provided design work for Google’s Spotlight Stories. He also had a hand in the storyboards for the promotions group of Illumination Entertainment for “The Secret Life of Pets.”  

Nevarez has hosted workshops for The Animation Workshop in Denmark, The Icon Academy in Manila, The Animation Collaborative in Emeryville, CGMA Online, The Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, the Nemo Academy in Florence and the Animation Centrifuge in Scotland.