A celebration of the talent and legacy of important animated projects with the creators who made them happen.
You may not realize it, but FernGully: The Last Rainforest was a movie full of firsts; not only was it one of the first animated features to mix traditional and computer animation, one of the first films produced with remote artists, Robin Williams’ first animated role, but also the first film ever to be shown at the UN General Assembly.
Celebrate 30 years of FernGully with some of the team behind the animated classic, which carries a message as important today as it was three decades ago. Join director Bill Kroyer, woman-of-many hats Susan Kroyer, production designer Ralph Eggleston, lead animators Kathy Zielinski and Doug Frankel, head of checking Pat Sito, and producer Brian Rosen, as the group reminisces on the making of the film and share some amazing stories from the production which, along with long hours of work, included epic rubber band fights, volleyball games, and Greco-Roman wrestling in the hallways.
MODERATOR
Bill Kroyer
Director of Digital Arts // Chapman University
(The Lion & the Lamb, FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Computer Warriors, Technological Threat)
Bill Kroyer is an American director of animated and CG commercials, films, and title sequences.
Bill began his animation career in 1975 at a small commercial studio. By 1977, he was an animator working under the Nine Old Men at Disney Studios. There, he met director Steven Lisberger, who was working on Animalympics and with whom he would collaborate on Tron. Thereafter, Bill decided to pursue computer animation instead of traditional animation while at Robert Abel and Associates and Digital Productions.
In 1986, he and his wife Susan started Kroyer Films, Inc. where they developed their pioneering “combo” technique, bringing together computer animation and hand-drawn animation. Their first short film, Technological Threat, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1988. In 1989, Kroyer Films produced the title sequences for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Troop Beverly Hills, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. In 1990, Bill directed Computer Warriors and animated the main titles for the TV show Bobby’s World. In 1993, he directed the animated fantasy film FernGully: The Last Rainforest.
Currently, he is Director of Digital Arts at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. He is also a Governor of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and also serves as Co-Chair of the Academy’s Science & Technology Council.
SPEAKERS
Doug Frankel
Animator // Pixar Animation Studios
(Luca, Soul, Toy Story 4, Incredibles 2)
Doug Frankel is an animator who currently works at Disney•Pixar. Before Pixar, he worked as an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
From 1998 to 2003, before Pixar Animation Studios, Frankel joined as a character layout artist and one of the animators in three Rugrats films.
Susan Kroyer
Producer, Animator // Independent
“When I was very young, my parents used to make stop-motion movies”, says Sue Kroyer. “This was in the Fifties, so my Dad and Mom were always using cigarettes and cigarette packs as props. They had so much fun, and it is no coincidence that my sister and I are now both animators.” Kroyer worked in graphic design in Wisconsin for a few years before moving to California to work in animation.“
Her resume includes feature animation work at Disney Studios, Richard Williams Studio, Don Bluth Productions, and Warner Brothers. She also has worked for Brad Bird on Family Dog, the Simpsons, and Kurtz & Friends Studio. Kroyer and her husband Bill started Kroyer Films in 1987. They produced the Academy Award-nominated short film, Technological Threat and the feature film FernGully: The Last Rainforest, as well as TV commercials and title sequences for Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Pink Panther, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and Cartoon Network.
Brian Rosen
Software Engineer // x, the moonshot factory
(Up, Ratatouille, The incredible, Finding Nemo)
One of the first hires for Pixar's Toy Story, Brian is a technologist, performer, and creator passionate about impacting individuals and the culture as a whole with emotionally resonant and meaningful experiences.
In his 25 years at Pixar, he was responsible for foundational technologies including RIDIY, the dynamic scene description filtering and transformation system that was a building block for the entire rendering pipeline. He was also active in looks development and execution of many main characters and sets as well as rendering optimizations for massively complex scenes. He was also part of a team of production engineers overseeing the shading pipeline, integrating in-house and third-party tools over an ever-evolving technology platform.
In the art world, he is the creator of Snapshot, the new opera series produced in collaboration with West Edge Opera and Earplay that presents developing works from Bay Area composers. The San Francisco Chronicle's Joshua Kosman has called recent programs "...a marvellous achievement" and the program an "invaluable" addition to the San Francisco art scene. He was also instrumental in envisioning and implementing the online virtual residency commissioning program Aperture, where he serves as a curator.
Brian is also a prolific composer, having contributed his talents within Pixar as well as working with the New York choral ensemble, Choral Chameleon, as well as his 10-year tenure as the songwriter and music director for the Webby award-winning a cappella ensemble, The Richter Scales. His choral series The Google Variations uses Google Translate technology to transform classic poetry into modernist text which he then set for voices. His mini-opera/theatre piece Death of a Playboy explores the legacy of Hugh Hefner through the eyes of a rueful former playmate asked to speak at his funeral.
Brian is also active with Burning Man as a shift lead with the Black Rock Rangers, a large team of volunteers that circulates throughout the 80,000 person city 24 hours a day. As a shift lead, he is the primary escalation point for the currently on-duty ranges and regularly coordinates operations with other emergency services, law enforcement, and the Burning Man organization.
Pat Sito
Pat Sito has been a veteran of animated film production since 1980. A specialist in Ink & Paint, quality control and production, she has worked for many of the top animators of our time, including Richard Williams, Chuck Jones, Ralph Bakshi, and the Walt Disney Studios. At Disney, her credits include The Little Mermaid, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Pocahontas. She has done TV commercials and TV series such as Ren & Stimpy. At DreamWorks, her talents contributed to The Prince of Egypt, Spirit, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, as well as FernGully, Cats Don’t Dance, Cool World, and SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water. Her live-action credits include Mrs. Doubtfire, Captain America, Wolverine, Pacific Rim, Iron Man 3, X-Men, and Mary Poppins Returns.
Pat has guest lectured at the Japan Digital and Animation Festival (JDAF) Nagoya, The Beijing Film Academy, Cartoon Masters in Erfurt Germany, Loyola Marymount University, and the University of Southern California. She is married to animator Tom Sito.
Ralph Eggleston
Filmmaker // Pixar Animation Studios
(Incredibles 2, Inside Out, Wall-e, Finding Nemo)
Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ralph Eggleston was asked to join Pixar Animation Studios in 1992 as the Art Director of Toy Story, which earned him the International Animated Film Society’s Annie Award for Best Art Direction. Following Toy Story, he helped develop Monsters, Inc. for production. Eggleston also wrote, designed, and directed the Oscar® and Annie Award-winning short film For the Birds, which was his directorial debut.
Eggleston contributed his talents to a number of Pixar’s Academy Award®-winning films — Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, WALL•E, Up, Inside Out, Finding Dory, and Incredibles 2. His work on The Incredibles, WALL•E, and Incredibles 2 was recognized with nominations by the Art Directors Guild for “Best Production Design” and he earned an Annie award for Best Art Direction for Finding Nemo and Inside Out as well as a nomination for WALL•E. Eggleston most recently worked as the production designer on Disney•Pixar’s feature Incredibles 2, which received an Annie Award nomination for “Best Production Design.”
In 2019, at the 46th Annie Awards, Eggleston was bestowed the Winsor McCay Award by ASIFA Hollywood in recognition of his career contributions in the field of animation.
Eggleston began his career as a storyboard artist, animator, and designer on various projects, including commercials, television, movie titles, and various “special projects.” He has also contributed to the writing and development of several feature films both at Pixar and elsewhere in the industry.
He is currently working on upcoming Disney•Pixar film projects in development.
Kathy Zielinski
Animator
(The Simpsons, The Umbrella Academy, Zootopia, The Flash, Frozen, The Croods)
Kathy Zielinski was among the first women in CalArts’ animation program. Born and raised in Southern California, Kathy got her first taste of the animation industry with a short working stint at Filmation when she was 19 years old, but her full-time entry into the business came when she was recruited by Walt Disney Feature Animation.
The first project on which she animated was Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and she has worked on dozens of theatrical features since, everything from The Black Cauldron and The Little Mermaid to the first and second iterations of Kung Fu Panda.
After working on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Zielinski left Walt Disney Animation Studios and went to work for DreamWorks Animation SKG on films, such as The Prince of Egypt as an animator, The Road to El Dorado as a supervising animator for the villain Tezekel Khan, an animator on the main character Spirit in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and as an animator on Over the Hedge, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Croods.
Zielinski returned to the Disney studio in late 2013 as an animator for Frozen.
A celebration of the talent and legacy of important animated projects with the creators who made them happen.
You may not realize it, but FernGully: The Last Rainforest was a movie full of firsts; not only was it one of the first animated features to mix traditional and computer animation, one of the first films produced with remote artists, Robin Williams’ first animated role, but also the first film ever to be shown at the UN General Assembly.
Celebrate 30 years of FernGully with some of the team behind the animated classic, which carries a message as important today as it was three decades ago. Join director Bill Kroyer, woman-of-many hats Susan Kroyer, production designer Ralph Eggleston, lead animators Kathy Zielinski and Doug Frankel, head of checking Pat Sito, and producer Brian Rosen, as the group reminisces on the making of the film and share some amazing stories from the production which, along with long hours of work, included epic rubber band fights, volleyball games, and Greco-Roman wrestling in the hallways.
MODERATOR
Bill Kroyer
Director of Digital Arts // Chapman University
(The Lion & the Lamb, FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Computer Warriors, Technological Threat)
Bill Kroyer is an American director of animated and CG commercials, films, and title sequences.
Bill began his animation career in 1975 at a small commercial studio. By 1977, he was an animator working under the Nine Old Men at Disney Studios. There, he met director Steven Lisberger, who was working on Animalympics and with whom he would collaborate on Tron. Thereafter, Bill decided to pursue computer animation instead of traditional animation while at Robert Abel and Associates and Digital Productions.
In 1986, he and his wife Susan started Kroyer Films, Inc. where they developed their pioneering “combo” technique, bringing together computer animation and hand-drawn animation. Their first short film, Technological Threat, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1988. In 1989, Kroyer Films produced the title sequences for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Troop Beverly Hills, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. In 1990, Bill directed Computer Warriors and animated the main titles for the TV show Bobby’s World. In 1993, he directed the animated fantasy film FernGully: The Last Rainforest.
Currently, he is Director of Digital Arts at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. He is also a Governor of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and also serves as Co-Chair of the Academy’s Science & Technology Council.
SPEAKERS
Doug Frankel
Animator // Pixar Animation Studios
(Luca, Soul, Toy Story 4, Incredibles 2)
Doug Frankel is an animator who currently works at Disney•Pixar. Before Pixar, he worked as an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
From 1998 to 2003, before Pixar Animation Studios, Frankel joined as a character layout artist and one of the animators in three Rugrats films.
Susan Kroyer
Producer, Animator // Independent
“When I was very young, my parents used to make stop-motion movies”, says Sue Kroyer. “This was in the Fifties, so my Dad and Mom were always using cigarettes and cigarette packs as props. They had so much fun, and it is no coincidence that my sister and I are now both animators.” Kroyer worked in graphic design in Wisconsin for a few years before moving to California to work in animation.“
Her resume includes feature animation work at Disney Studios, Richard Williams Studio, Don Bluth Productions, and Warner Brothers. She also has worked for Brad Bird on Family Dog, the Simpsons, and Kurtz & Friends Studio. Kroyer and her husband Bill started Kroyer Films in 1987. They produced the Academy Award-nominated short film, Technological Threat and the feature film FernGully: The Last Rainforest, as well as TV commercials and title sequences for Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Pink Panther, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and Cartoon Network.
Brian Rosen
Software Engineer // x, the moonshot factory
(Up, Ratatouille, The incredible, Finding Nemo)
One of the first hires for Pixar's Toy Story, Brian is a technologist, performer, and creator passionate about impacting individuals and the culture as a whole with emotionally resonant and meaningful experiences.
In his 25 years at Pixar, he was responsible for foundational technologies including RIDIY, the dynamic scene description filtering and transformation system that was a building block for the entire rendering pipeline. He was also active in looks development and execution of many main characters and sets as well as rendering optimizations for massively complex scenes. He was also part of a team of production engineers overseeing the shading pipeline, integrating in-house and third-party tools over an ever-evolving technology platform.
In the art world, he is the creator of Snapshot, the new opera series produced in collaboration with West Edge Opera and Earplay that presents developing works from Bay Area composers. The San Francisco Chronicle's Joshua Kosman has called recent programs "...a marvellous achievement" and the program an "invaluable" addition to the San Francisco art scene. He was also instrumental in envisioning and implementing the online virtual residency commissioning program Aperture, where he serves as a curator.
Brian is also a prolific composer, having contributed his talents within Pixar as well as working with the New York choral ensemble, Choral Chameleon, as well as his 10-year tenure as the songwriter and music director for the Webby award-winning a cappella ensemble, The Richter Scales. His choral series The Google Variations uses Google Translate technology to transform classic poetry into modernist text which he then set for voices. His mini-opera/theatre piece Death of a Playboy explores the legacy of Hugh Hefner through the eyes of a rueful former playmate asked to speak at his funeral.
Brian is also active with Burning Man as a shift lead with the Black Rock Rangers, a large team of volunteers that circulates throughout the 80,000 person city 24 hours a day. As a shift lead, he is the primary escalation point for the currently on-duty ranges and regularly coordinates operations with other emergency services, law enforcement, and the Burning Man organization.
Pat Sito
Pat Sito has been a veteran of animated film production since 1980. A specialist in Ink & Paint, quality control and production, she has worked for many of the top animators of our time, including Richard Williams, Chuck Jones, Ralph Bakshi, and the Walt Disney Studios. At Disney, her credits include The Little Mermaid, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Pocahontas. She has done TV commercials and TV series such as Ren & Stimpy. At DreamWorks, her talents contributed to The Prince of Egypt, Spirit, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, as well as FernGully, Cats Don’t Dance, Cool World, and SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water. Her live-action credits include Mrs. Doubtfire, Captain America, Wolverine, Pacific Rim, Iron Man 3, X-Men, and Mary Poppins Returns.
Pat has guest lectured at the Japan Digital and Animation Festival (JDAF) Nagoya, The Beijing Film Academy, Cartoon Masters in Erfurt Germany, Loyola Marymount University, and the University of Southern California. She is married to animator Tom Sito.
Ralph Eggleston
Filmmaker // Pixar Animation Studios
(Incredibles 2, Inside Out, Wall-e, Finding Nemo)
Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ralph Eggleston was asked to join Pixar Animation Studios in 1992 as the Art Director of Toy Story, which earned him the International Animated Film Society’s Annie Award for Best Art Direction. Following Toy Story, he helped develop Monsters, Inc. for production. Eggleston also wrote, designed, and directed the Oscar® and Annie Award-winning short film For the Birds, which was his directorial debut.
Eggleston contributed his talents to a number of Pixar’s Academy Award®-winning films — Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, WALL•E, Up, Inside Out, Finding Dory, and Incredibles 2. His work on The Incredibles, WALL•E, and Incredibles 2 was recognized with nominations by the Art Directors Guild for “Best Production Design” and he earned an Annie award for Best Art Direction for Finding Nemo and Inside Out as well as a nomination for WALL•E. Eggleston most recently worked as the production designer on Disney•Pixar’s feature Incredibles 2, which received an Annie Award nomination for “Best Production Design.”
In 2019, at the 46th Annie Awards, Eggleston was bestowed the Winsor McCay Award by ASIFA Hollywood in recognition of his career contributions in the field of animation.
Eggleston began his career as a storyboard artist, animator, and designer on various projects, including commercials, television, movie titles, and various “special projects.” He has also contributed to the writing and development of several feature films both at Pixar and elsewhere in the industry.
He is currently working on upcoming Disney•Pixar film projects in development.
Kathy Zielinski
Animator
(The Simpsons, The Umbrella Academy, Zootopia, The Flash, Frozen, The Croods)
Kathy Zielinski was among the first women in CalArts’ animation program. Born and raised in Southern California, Kathy got her first taste of the animation industry with a short working stint at Filmation when she was 19 years old, but her full-time entry into the business came when she was recruited by Walt Disney Feature Animation.
The first project on which she animated was Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and she has worked on dozens of theatrical features since, everything from The Black Cauldron and The Little Mermaid to the first and second iterations of Kung Fu Panda.
After working on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Zielinski left Walt Disney Animation Studios and went to work for DreamWorks Animation SKG on films, such as The Prince of Egypt as an animator, The Road to El Dorado as a supervising animator for the villain Tezekel Khan, an animator on the main character Spirit in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and as an animator on Over the Hedge, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Croods.
Zielinski returned to the Disney studio in late 2013 as an animator for Frozen.
