Nassos Vakalis

ASIFA-Hollywood has nominated me for an individuals achievement award for my storyboard work in the Dreamworks animated feature film "THE BEE MOVIE". ASIFA-Hollywood is the Los Angeles chapter of The International Animated Film Society dedicated to the advancement of the art of animation. Every year they award excellence in the field of animation through the Annie awards.

Crime time is a series of 28 hilarious animated short stories about a small time crook with the worst luck in the world. Anything this guy does goes wrong on him and backfires. Most of the times he either ends up in jail or gets into physical trouble. His two enemies a group of a fat and thin policemen with limited sense of compassion for his misfortunes.
I directed 26 of the 28 flash animation episodes which are produced by Feature Though productions in India and aiming for the internet and webcast market. My friend Kostas Christides is writing the music for the 26 episodes.
Eight of the episodes will premier at the Atom films website soon.

UPDATE: TO VIEW THE FILMS CLICK HERE

I just won my first EMMY AWARD. The show is called "Off-Mikes," and I did most of the animatic and storyboard work for the last 2 years.

Animax Entertainment, a leading animation production studio, won a Sports Emmy Award for "Off-Mikes," the weekly original animated series they produce for ESPN.com. Animax Entertainment and ESPN.com won for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms, a category that the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences debuted this year. This is Animax's & Nassos's first Emmy Award and it is also
quite likely the first time character animation has ever won a Sports Emmy Award.

On 2007 the series was nominted again for an EMMY and I received the animation director nomination.

Nassos Vakalis was born and raised in Athens, Greece. He demonstrated an interest in art, submitting his early work in various contests and winning numerous prizes and distinctions. During adolescence Nassos' interest turned toward character animation. He got his start working as a cartoon and graphics artist in Athens and later pursued his studies in art and animation in the U.S.A.
Nassos attended the Department of Film and Video at Pratt Institute, New York and acquired his B.F.A. in Fine Arts, majoring in Character Animation from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California. His senior year film "Don't Feed the Bear." attracted the attention of legendary animation director Don Bluth, who offered Nassos an animator's position on the films "Rock-a-Doodle", "Troll in Central Park" and "Thumbelina". Soon after he became Supervising Animator for the film "The Swan Princess" for Rich Entertainment and simultaneously worked as freelance animator fo many other productions. In 1995, when Warner Bros. opened its new animation studios in Los Angeles, he became Supervising Animator and he was assigned to design and animate "Kayley", the lead character in the feature animated film "Quest for Camelot". During his career in Warner Bros, Nassos also explored story, storyboarding and conceptual development and was involved with the pre-production of many other studio projects.
In 1998 Nassos joined DreamWorks and worked closely with Steve Hickner, director of "Prince of Egypt," with whom he formed a friendship. Between 1998-2000 at DreamWorks, Nassos completed storyboards and animation for "Joseph, King of Dreams" and the acclaimed "Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron". At the end of the 90s, during a professional trip in London, Nassos forged a friendship with Panagiotis Rappas, owner of Stardust studios. Together, they founded Time-Lapse Pictures. A year later, Time Lapse Pictures was relocated in Athens Greece, where Nassos returned to supervise animation and other production stages for several sequences of Sony's "Eight Crazy Nights" and Paramount's "Rugrats go Wild" as well as "El Cid the Legend" for the Spanish Filmax and "Jester Till" for the German Munich Animation, as well as many 2D and 3D commercials.
Though Time-Lapse Pictures is still operating in Athens Greece, in late 2004 Nassos returned to Los Angeles where he now lives with his wife. He is currently working for the story department of DreamWorks Animation Studios.

I still have many of the original Cafepress shop designs available to send to my customers for free. If you want to receive one of the drawings please go to my drawing page and select the drawing you like, then send me an e-mail with your name, address and drawing name. I will reserve that drawing for you and I will mail it to you for free after you do one of the following:
· Become a customer. This happens when you buy something from my store. If you buy something tell me what you bought and when. I will check my records and when the transaction is final you will receive my drawing for free. Please specify at your e-mail if you want me to sigh the drawing or not.
· Place a link with my banner or a text link at your web page or blog and send traffic to my shop. Again send me an e-mail with your web page and if I see my link in a visable possition for at least 30 days and I receive traffic from you I will send you the drawing you like for free.
Additional information can be found at the drawing page.