Nassos Vakalis

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Nassos Vakalis is an Emmy awarded animation director and animator.[1]

Nassos Vakalis was born and raised in Athens, Greece. Since childhood, he demonstrated an interest in art, submitting his early work in various contests and winning numerous prizes and distinctions. During adolescence Nassos’ interest turned toward character animation. He got his start working as a cartoon and graphics artist for several advertising agencies and small studios in Athens and later pursued his studies in art and animation in the U.S.A. Nassos attended the Department of Film and Video at Pratt Institute, New York and acquired his B.F.A. in Fine Arts, majoring in Character Animation from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California. During his senior year at college, Nassos participated in the Short Film Festival of Drama Greece where he premiered his animated debut film “Don’t Feed the Bear.” This film attracted the attention of legendary animation director Don Bluth, who offered Nassos a permanent position with his company. In Sullivan-Bluth Studios, Nassos began as an animation assistant but scant weeks later he was promoted to an animator. In that position he completed the production of the films “Rock-a-Doodle”, “A Troll in Central Park” and “Thumbelina”, developing his talent and skills under real production conditions and requirements. Soon after he became Supervising Animator for the film “The Swan Princess” for Rich Entertainment and simultaneously worked freelance on many advertising spots, shorts and other feature films. In 1995, when Warner Bros. opened its new animation studios in Los Angeles, he became Supervising Animator and he was assigned to design and animate “Kayley”, the lead character in the feature animated film “Quest for Camelot”. During his career in Warner Bros, Nassos explored story, storyboarding and conceptual development and was involved with the pre-production of many projects the studio had in development at the time. In 1997, Nassos was appointed by his alma matter, the California Institute of the Arts, to teach Character animation. A year later he joined the newly founded DreamWorks where he worked closely with Steve Hickner, director of “Prince of Egypt,” with whom he formed a friendship. Between 1998-2000 at DreamWorks, Nassos completed “Joseph: King of Dreams” and storyboards for the films “Outlaws”, “Tusker”, “Tortoise and Hare” and the acclaimed “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”. At the end of the 90s, during a professional trip in London, Nassos forged a friendship with Panagiotis Rappas, owner of Stardust studios. Together, they founded Time-Lapse Pictures LLC and signed a deal with Klasky Csupo for the production of the Paramount release “Rugrats in Paris” . A year later, Time Lapse Pictures was relocated in Athens Greece, where Nassos returned to produce and supervise animation for several sequences of Sony’s “Eight Crazy Nights” and Paramount’s “Rugrats go Wild” as well as “El Cid the Legend” for the Spanish Filmax and “Jester Till” for the German Munich Animation, as well as many 2D and 3D commercials for the Greek and international market. Though Time-Lapse Pictures is still operating in Athens Greece, in late 2004 Nassos returned to Los Angeles where he now lives with his wife. He is currently working for the feature animation development unit of DreamWorks Animation Studios. In 2006 Nassos was awarded by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with an Emmy for outstanding achievement in content for non-traditional delivery platforms for the ESPN show "Off Mikes".