Animation Program

Max Hulburt

Professor & Chair of Visual Arts

Max is a JPCatholic alumnus and was one of the first students of the school’s Animation and Game Development programs. He received his MFA in Animation and VFX from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Max worked for CBS Interactive - GameSpot.com, creating motion graphics and animations in addition to live video and graphics production at E3 and ComicCon. Max works as a 3D artist for 'Junior Giants Foodiecats,' a series of educational, animated short films for the San Francisco Giants youth program. He specializes in 3D modeling and texturing with additional skills in rigging, lighting, animation, and rendering.

Christopher Riley

Professor of Film

Chris is one of the most authoritative figures for the official screenplay format of Hollywood. He is a screenwriter whose first film, After The Truth, an award-winning courtroom thriller written with his wife, Kathleen Riley, sparked international controversy when it was released in Germany. Other credits include 25 To Life, a dramatic thriller for Junction Entertainment and Touchstone Pictures; The Other White House, a political thriller for Sean Connery's Fountainbridge Films and Intermedia; Aces, an action-adventure romance for Paramount Pictures; and a screen adaptation of the book Actual Innocence for Mandalay Television Pictures and the Fox television network.

A veteran of the Warner Bros. script department, Riley is the author of The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style. From 2005 through 2008, he served as director of the acclaimed Act One Writing Program in Hollywood, which trains Christians for careers as writers and executives in film and TV. Chris holds a BS in Telecommunications from Oral Roberts University and was a National Merit Scholar.

Jacqueline Gold

Professor of Art

Jacqueline provides instruction in Life Drawing, Portrait Drawing and Painting and Anatomy in her San Diego studio and provides instruction with life drawing and anatomy to the in-house animators at Sony Online Entertainment. She has worked as an illustrator for a product manufacturing company whose clientele included such well-known motion-picture studios as Disney, Warner Brothers and Lucas Films. There she applied her talents to designing products related to such films as The Little Mermaid, Hercules, Pocahontas, Winnie the Pooh, and the Star Wars Trilogy.

Jacqueline received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration under the direction of Dick Oden at California State University Long Beach, and an MFA from the Laguna College of Art and Design.

Eric Van Hamersveld

Adjunct Professor of 2D Animation

Eric has worked for over 30 years in the entertainment industry as an animator with Warner Bros., Walt Disney, J. Ward Productions and Hanna-Barbera studios. His credits include: "The Pink Panther"; "Road Runner"; "Speedy Gonzalez"; "George of the Jungle"; numerous TV series; and several commercials including "Capt'n Crunch" and "Star Kist-Charlie The Tuna". For the Walt Disney Company as an "Imagineer", Eric produced visual special effects for EPCOT, Disneyland, and Tokyo Disneyland theme park projects. Currently, he is an Animator/Animation Director working on children's games and direct-to-videos for Mattel Toys, Fisher-Price Toys, McGraw/Hill Publishers, Paramount Pictures, and an illustrator for several children's books. Eric has a BFA Degree in Television and Film Production from Texas Christian University.

George Castro

Adjunct Professor of Animation

George is a Lead Technical Animator at High Moon Studios, where he has worked since 2006 on franchises such as Destiny and Call of Duty. His career has spanned both the video game and animation industries. He began his career in 2003 working in pre-viz and character animation for Sony Cinematics Solutions Group. He worked for Omation Studios as a Character Finaler on the animated feature The Barnyard. He then returned to Sony (SCEA) before moving to High Moon Studios, where he has worked as a cinematic artist and animator. George seeks to create content with a positive message that can express God's will in his life and to share His message of hope and love for all.

Colin Brady

Visiting Professor of Animation

Colin is the Chief Creative Officer at AMGI Studios. He is a director, creative producer and animation supervisor who has worked at Pixar, Industrial Light and Magic, Imagi Studios, Rhythm and Hues, and Pixomondo. Colin graduated from California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Character Animation. Colin has directed animation for Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ang Lee, John Lasseter and Martin Scorsese. Colin directed on such films as Everyone's Hero, Astro Boy, TMNT, and Toy Story 2. He supervised scenes for The Hunger Games, Hugo, Green Lantern and Spiderman. Married for over two decades, Colin draws much of his inspiration from his 7 children. Whether directing Pixar characters or furthering performance capture techniques, Colin’s passion is the fine-crafting of narrative, dialogue, humor and nonverbal acting that make good stories great through the art of animations.

Brian LaFrance

Adjunct Professor of Animation

Brian has been creating CG imagery for over 30 years in games, animation and live action visual effects. Currently working for Industrial Light and Magic, he has also worked for Atari, Blizzard, Disney, DreamWorks and others on projects including the Star Wars franchise, Stranger Things, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Trolls 2, Destiny 2, and many others. Starting his career focused on look development and lighting, he is now a generalist focusing on environment creation. Brian received a BA in Art from Thomas Edison State University. He lives near Temecula with his wife and five children.

Nate Sjogren

Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design

Nate is a Creative Director and Founder of Akimbo Studio. He has almost a decade of experience in branding, design and animation. He was a motion designer at Drive Studio, which is a design and production resource specializing in network branding, identity creation, show packages, promotion and new media outlets. During his time at Drive Studio, he has worked incredible projects such as FOX Sports Super Bowl LIV insert, Bleacher Report UEFA Champions League, 2018 FIFA World Cup, TNF on FOX and others.Nate holds a BS in Communications Media from John Paul the Great Catholic University.

Carlos Vázquez

Adjunct Professor of Visual Development

Born and raised in Guayama, Puerto Rico, Carlos M. Vázquez is a San Francisco-based graphic designer, illustrator and visual development artist with a focus on character design. He has held positions as Character Designer, Art Director, and Visual Development Artist for companies and clients such as Enemy Spawn, Big Grin Productions, mobile gaming company Playstudios, Salesforce, and Cartoon Network / Warner Bros. Animation (Animaniacs). He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Escuela de Artes Plasticas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and graduated in 2015 with a Master of Fine Arts in Animation and Concept Art from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.