Join us for a select day each month during the run of Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio for a day of all things animation, from demonstrations, to storytelling, to tours and lectures. Get a peek into the artistic, animation and storytelling process, as told by Shadowmachine animators and other Portland-based animators and scholars. All ages are welcome! Included with General Admission, Animation Art Days’ events are first come, first serve.
Animation Art Day events
Gallery conversations with the ShadowMachine Animation Department
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM, Crafting Pinocchio Exhibition Galleries (Main Building)
Catch up with ShadowMachine Animation Department artists in the galleries for one-on-one discussions around their work in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Come meet Lars Larsen (Lead Rigger), Kim slate (Lead Facial Animator), Jan Maas (Lead Animator), Savannah Steiner (Animator), Nick D’Agostino (Animator) and Brian Hansen (Animation Supervisor) with your questions.
Closing Program: On Set with Pinocchio Animators
2:30 PM-4:00 PM, Grand Ballroom (Mark Building)
Crafting Pinocchio Animation Art Day series comes to a close with this panel discussion that looks at the role of animation in bringing Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio characters to life. Building on all of the elements from previous Animation Art Day programs, this final program explores the techniques of animation. Join Animation Department artists Lars Larsen (Lead Rigger), Kim slate (Lead Facial Animator), Jan Maas (Lead Animator), Savannah Steiner (Animator), Nick D’Agostino (Animator) and Brian Hansen (Animation Supervisor) for a fun and in-depth look into their work.
Animation Art Day Participant Bios
Lars C Larsen served as stop motion Rigging Supervisor on Guillermo Del Toro’s Oscar award winning film, Pinocchio. Lars began his journey in the world of film at Cal Poly Humboldt University, where he studied experimental film techniques and ultimately earned a BA in Theater and Film Production. His passion for filmmaking led to a diverse professional career. In live action, Lars has worked on productions such as Portlandia, Leverage, and The Hunted. In animation his credits include Coraline, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link, Shivering Truth, Mike Judge’s In the Know, and currently, The Tiny Chef Show. As an experimental filmmaker, his films have been included in numerous film festivals, including the Chicago Underground Film Festival, Filmed by Bike, the Humboldt International Film Festival, Bend Film Festival, and the Northwest Animation Festival. Lars also enjoys spreading his love of film by leading educational workshops and organizing film screenings.
Kim Slate is an artist and animator living in Portland, Oregon. She began making stop motion short films as a teenager and continued to pursue her love of the medium in college. She earned a BFA in Character Animation at CalArts, and since 2007 she has been working on animated feature films such as Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio – with a specific focus on facial animation. When not animating, she spends her time creating sculptures and illustrations for gallery exhibitions.
Jan Maas is a character animator, animation director and storyboard artist currently based in Portland Oregon. His main focus for many years has been feature film stop-motion animation, most recently as a lead-animator on “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio”, which won the Animated Feature Academy Award in 2022, and for many years working at LAIKA, animating on films such as Missing Link (2019), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) and Coraline (2009).
He was awarded the 2016 Annie Award for Feature Animation for his work on Kubo by ASIFA-Hollywood. He was also one of the key animators on the Oscar-winning animated short Peter and the Wolf (2005). With an animation degree from Volda-College in Norway, and a strong background in drawing and anatomy, Jan works in Europe, Scandinavia, Australia and the US. Other noteworthy credits include The Boxtrolls (2014), ParaNorman (2012), The Pirates – Band of Misfits (Aardman 2012), $9.99 (2008), Max & Co (2006), as well as animation directing/animating on the much-loved TV series Pingu (2005). Jan is currently splitting his time between being a dad, writing a book on animation and stop-motion work at the Portland based studio Shadowmachine. For information on availability and rates, as well as other animation-related services such as consulting, teaching, mentorships and speaker engagements, Jan can be reached at janimations@icloud.com or via Instagram and LinkedIn.
Savannah Steiner is an American based stop motion animator born and raised in the Chicago, IL area. She’s animated on many stop motion productions including Guillermo Del Toro’s Oscar winning ‘Pinocchio’ (2022) and Aardman’s ‘Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget’ set to release in December (2023). Steiner has animated on the Emmy winning children’s show Tumble Leaf, Netflix projects like Chef Show & Alien Xmas, Katy Perry’s ‘Cozy Little Christmas’ music video, and streaming platforms like, Apple TV, YouTube, Hulu, Crackle, Peacock and Amazon Prime. She has animated for Instagram ads, commercials for big companies, independent short films and ultimately directed Barbie’s first ever stop motion animated mini series for Mattel.
Nicholas D’Agostino is known for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022), Blind Mice (2018) and Psycho Psalms (2021).
Brian Hansen has been involved with Stop Motion for over 20 years now and he is from Denmark. Originally trained as a chef, Hansen has always been an animator at heart, and just before turning 25, he applied for and got into an animation course at the The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. In this course, Hansen met lots of talented artists, both teachers and students, and began his second career. Since then, Hansen has worked on TV shows, Ads and lot’s of Feature Films where he met a ton more extraordinary people. Throughout it all, his real enjoyment comes from the process of animating, of taking a still object and giving it life. Hansen enjoys the performance, being the offscreen actor, bringing the words and action from the script to life. His latest endeavor was GDT’s Pinocchio, the sets and puppets of which are currently on view at the Portland Art Museum. This work was an immense undertaking that he is proud to have been a part of.