Travis Blaise

Under the premise that “animation is the greatest form of visual storytelling”, Travis Blaise co-founded the SketchToAnimate initiative, where he is also director and instructor. Through that platform, he has created workshops, tutorials, online classes, and demos covering a wide range of topics like character design, animation, storyboarding, and building an animation portfolio.

In 2008, he was an adjunct professor of an experimental 2D animation class at Cal Arts (California, U.S.). Then from 2017-2021, he was a mentor, instructor, and adjunct professor at Digipen Studios, training students in animation and storyboarding.

With over 30 years of experience, Travis Blaise has participated in a wide range of movies and TV shows throughout his career in storyboard artistry such as Disenchantment (2021), Big Mouth (2017), Disney's Penn Zero (2014), and his animation work with Brother Bear (2003), Lilo and Stitch (2002), Mulan (1998), and The Lion King (1994).

He worked for Disney from 1990 to 2004, where he worked as an in-between artist and animator in films and video games. After his time at Disney, he worked for Project Firefly Animation Studios, Cartoon Network, Digital Domain, DisneyToon Studios, The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Animation.

He has been a global lecturer and speaker about the production of digital art, animation, and storytelling projects in Cal Arts, Digipen, Toon Boom, Wacom, Disney, the Orlando Museum of Art, the Annecy Festival, and the Bangkok Comic Con, to name a few. 

Travis Blaised joined Tecnológico de Monterrey as Distinguished Visiting Professor in Animation and Storytelling for the School of Architecture, Art and Design. 

• Illustration, Ringling School of Art and Design
• Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida (two internships)

• Latest tutorials and courses from Travis Blaise about storytelling, animation, and storyboards: https://sketchtoanimate.com/