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Courtesy of Andreas Deja 2023

Born: Andeas Deja
Birthday: April 1, 1957
Location: Gdansk, Pomorskie, Poland
Alma mater: Folkwang Hochschule
Occupation: Director, Animator
Years active: 1980–present

Andreas Deja saw Disney’s “The Jungle Book” at the age of 11 and was inspired to become an animator. He committed to becoming the best artist he could.

After graduation from Germany’s Folkwang Hochschule, Deja was hired by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His first contribution to a feature film was “The Black Cauldron” and he shared a cubicle with Tim Burton.

Retiring from Disney after 2011’s “Winnie the Pooh,” Andreas took up blogging about animation and wrote the 2015 book “The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques, and Inspirationfrom Disney’s Great Animators” based on his studies and interviews with the Nine Old Men over the course of his career.

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Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee has been creating animated cartoons online since 1999/2000 for his website flashcartoons.org. Many cartoons on the site have gained viral video status reaching millions of viewers online. In 2009, Lavalle started learning hand drawn animation from Don Bluth in his animation classes, as well as attending his Masterclasses in Arizona. He has also personally studied animation and visual effects from Veteran Disney animators in Orlando, FL.

Lavalle is widely known in the animation industry as the creator of the TraditionalAnimation.com website. After seeing that most animation sites were about all types of animation, not any specific to classical hand drawn animation, Lavalle knew Traditional Animation needed to be represented online. TraditionalAnimation.com has become the leading website and social media account for all things 2D. The website served as inspiration for “The Traditional Animation Show” in which Lavalle was both producer and host.

His partnership with Don Bluth began when he championed the Dragon's Lair Indiegogo campaign as lead project manager, editor, voice actor and in-betweener. The campaign reached $730,000 dollars to produce a 7-minute pitch video. In 2017, Lavalle brought the idea of creating a school to Don Bluth, and Don Bluth University was born. After a decade of learning from Don Bluth and working together on multiple pitches and business ventures, Lavalle accepted the position as Vice President of Don Bluth's new company Don Bluth Studios.

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