Animation Faculty

Anthony Scalmato

Title Associate Professor | Chair
Department Animation
Phone 216.421.7325

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Degree BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art

Anthony Scalmato has created more than 100 published works which have been viewed on television, web and mobile devices. Before joining CIA, Scalmato worked as a Senior Creative Developer at American Greetings where he provided animations, illustrations and art direction for products that are viewed globally by millions of people every month. He created the very first animated greeting card for Taylor Swift and worked on custom greetings and designs for clients such as Applebee’s, Disney, Pixar, Sony, UPS, Taylor Swift, Walmart, M&M’s, Ferraro Chocolates and many other Fortune 500 companies.

In 2011 Scalmato was awarded the American Greetings Chairman’s Award for Creativity and Innovation. He has also received over a dozen “Best Animation” awards from film festivals around the world.

In 2016 Scalmato oversaw the creative production for the web series Care Package Chronicles featuring the Care Bears. This short comedy series follows the Care Bears in their toy forms as they travel in a “care package” to deliver caring and good will to all they visit. Production was done at the Cleveland Institute of Art in collaboration with American Greetings.

In addition to teaching, Anthony oversees the productions in the Animation Community Projects course at CIA where students and employers collaborate on projects. These partnerships and projects are vital to a student’s education as they get firsthand experience working with clients and partners on a shared vision while applying the research and skills learned in the classroom to real-world projects. Clients have included: American Greetings, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Disney Home Entertainment, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Twin Sisters Media and Deck of Dice to name a few.

Anthony continues to work as a freelance artist and contractor for studios while continuing his work with American Greetings on their digital brands.

Degree BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art, 1998

Lincoln Adams has worked for 20 years as an illustrator, storyboard artist and designer. His projects have included magazines, television shows, character design, book covers, and greeting cards and was selected to the 47th Annual Society of Illustrators West Show in Los Angeles.

He as worked on popular animated shows such as Hasbro's Hanazki, Barbie: Spy Squad and Reboot the Guardian Code ( currently on Netflix), Disney XD's Max Steel, Slugterra, Monster High (Netflix), Veggie Tales, Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins, Nickelodeon's Shimmer and Shine as well as Happos a BAFTA Award-nominated series for Turner Broadcasting's Boomerang Channel.

Additionally, Lincoln has worked on three animated features. Henchmen for Bron Animation, 100% Wolf for Flying Bark Animation and the highly anticipated Ron's Gone Wrong for Locksmith Animation.

Lincoln moves fluidly back and forth between traditional, tactile mediums and digital mediums to execute ideas— often times incorporating both within a piece. A firm believer that the traditional informs the digital, he continues training and experimenting in both. Lincoln's primary tactile mediums include oils, wax crayon and colored pencil, and monoprints. His digital expertise includes the use of the Cintiq via Photoshop and InDesign, and Storyboard Pro.

However, even with all of the various approaches to technique and execution, one thing stands out as the most vital component in Lincoln's work— Story. And it is what is what he espouses in all of the courses he teaches as the chief ingredient toward success in the entertainment art world.

Client List:

Nickelodeon Animation
Locksmith Animation
Flying Bark Animation
Dreamworks Television Animation
Bron Animation
Netflix
Walt Disney Television Animation
Titmouse Studios
Turner Broadcasting
Lucasfilms
Acclaim Entertainment
Big Idea Entertainment
Nerdcorps Entertainment
Rainmaker Entertainment
Arnold Worldwide
Brown Bag Films
Spider Eye Animation
Zack Petroc Studios
American Greetings
General Motors

To learn more about Lincoln read his interview at Animation Insider!
http://www.animationinsider.com//?s=lincoln+adams
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm8555511/

Hal Lewis

Title Assistant Professor
Department Animation
Phone 216.421.7000

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Degree BFA, Long Island University

Hal Lewis studied painting and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York and finished his BFA in painting at Long Island University.

"Early in my career I designed imprinted graphics for children’s wear and men’s sportswear at a variety of clothing companies in New York.

I went on to work at a small computer software company developing and selling 2D and 3D design software for about seven years, before jumping to one of our customers –Dreamquest Images in California.

Dreamquest Images had recently been bought by the Walt Disney Company so, after working on several live action pictures there including George of the Jungle, Gone in Sixty Seconds and Mighty Joe Young, I moved over to Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, California.

At Disney Feature Animation, I worked on three animated feature films—Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons and Bolt; creating the CG characters. During my stay there I also worked on two animated 3-D “ride films” for the Disney theme parks in Orlando and Tokyo- the Magic Lamp and Mickey’s Phiharmagic.

I worked at Sony Imageworks where I helped on the completion of the Animated Feature film Arthur Christmas.

I was then hired by Digital Domain and moved to Florida, to help build an animation studio there. Our first picture was scheduled to be The Legend of Tembo-- I was the character model lead on this film. To this date, the film has yet to be completed.

Recently I have been doing freelance work for the Disney Consumer Products division; helping to create new Marvel Comics based toys and action figures."

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2490524/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1

Jeff Simonetta

Title Assistant Professor
Department Animation
Phone 440.537.1570

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Degree BFA, Bowling Green State University

Jeff Simonetta began his path into animation by attending Bowling Green State University. While attending Jeff was active as the chair of the BGSU ACM SIGGRAPH Student chapter for two years and worked to restore the digital arts community at BGSU. In 2011 he received a BFA in Digital Arts specializing in Animation.

After graduation he completed animation workshops through ianimate.net, studying with some of the best animators in the industry to further refine his craft. From here was part form Photonic Studios, a CGI visualization firm in Cleveland.

Jeff is currently Creative Director of Halo Media Works, an Animation, Games, and Visualizaiton studio in Solon, OH.

Jeff continues to help build his community with teaching and collaboration. He loves animation of all sorts abd has become a master of his craft. He wishes to spread his passion to new generations of animators.

Matthew Brownstein

Title Adjunct Faculty
Department Animation
Phone

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Courses  Digital Color: Style + Representation in Science | Digital I

Degree MFA, Rochester Institute of Technology
BFA, Muhlenberg College (Pennsylvania)

Owner of mb2media, Matt has more than 25 years of experience in the creation and creative direction of visual media for the medical, pharma, and tech industries. He has done work for many companies, including Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Alcon, Medtronic, Kaiser Permanente, Pfizer, Genentech, Amgen, Boston Scientific, Temple University, and Thomas Jefferson University. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in medical illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s degree in biology with a concentration in fine art from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. He is a Certified Medical Illustrator and a longstanding member of the Association of Medical Illustrators.

Courses  Intro to Animation

Working as a storyboard artist, Greg Leysens has been active in the animation industry since 2014. He has also done work as a 2-D animator and as a stop motion animator. Studios include, Dreamworks, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros, Titmouse, and Pencil Test Studios.

Margaret Li

Title Adjunct Faculty
Department Animation
Phone 216.421.7000

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Degree BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art

Margaret W. Li, a visual artist who specializes in illustration. I devoted my time to creating art with any artistic style or medium that caught my interest.

As I was completin my BFA in Video Game Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art, I continued my freelance career and co-founded Digital Morphnie Games in 2015. To make myself more technologically adaptable, I received front-end web design education and received online marketing experience.

By blending my artistic and technical skills, I’ve been able to take on various roles and tasks. I created game concepts/assets, logos and emotes, animations, marketing materials and album covers. With the time I have left, I provide drawing lessons for young students and work on personal animation projects.

Courses  Experimental Animation

Degree BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art