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Casey Nelson

Chair, illustration

Education

  • M.F.A., illustration, Savannah College of Art and Design
  • B.F.A., illustration, Brigham Young University
  • A.S., graphic design/illustration, Brigham Young University

Credentials

  • Chair, illustration, 20239–present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
  • Associate chair/professor, illustration, 2019–2023, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
  • Freelance illustrator, Aug. 1997–present, Savannah, GA and Provo/Salt Lake City, UT
    Developed My Little Pony: The Movie art pool for books related to Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise. Illustrated children's books: He Is Born!, Heroes of the Book of Mormon, The Big Fib, The Boy Who Ate America, My First Book of Prophets, My First Book of Temples, and several of the "Believe and You're There" series for children. Many book cover and magazine articles. Designed the appearance of a restaurant including the menu and logo. Wrote lines for interactive toys for Ubooly.
  • Senior artist, Jan. 2002–May 2016, Disney Interactive/Avalanche Software Studios, Salt Lake City, UT
    Responsible for the story of the game or play set: developing premise, writing dialogue, directing, and editing scenes. Visited sets and met with directors and writers of Disney, Marvel, and Lucasfilm to learn about their projects, becoming property protector, ensuring that designers and artists maintained the feel of franchises within the game. Worked with producers and designers to come up with the story and flow of the video game throughout game development. Wrote the lines spoken by the characters and on-screen text viewed in the game. Drew storyboards for animated sequences in the game, then directed animation, VO, effects, and audio for each piece. Concept artist for many characters, objects, and worlds in the game. Projects included Rugrats Royal Ransom (concept art, modeling), Tak and the Power of Juju (concept art, texture artist), Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams (concept art), Tak: The Great Juju Challenge (story conceit, storyboards, layout concept art), Chicken Little (layout), Chicken Little 2: Ace in Action (story conceit, writer, storyboards, layout), Meet the Robinsons (writer, layout, storyboards),  Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour (game designer, story conceit, director), Bolt (layout), Disney Original Fantasy Project (shelved), Toy Story 3 (writer, concept art), Cars 2 (story conceit, storyboards), Disney Infinity: Pirates of the Caribbean (writer, storyboards, concept art), Disney Infinity 2: Guardians of the Galaxy (writer, storyboards, concept art), Disney Infinity 3: Twilight of the Republic (writer, storyboards, concept art)
  • Character voices, writer, editor, June 2014–Sept. 2014, Disney, Burbank, CA
    Met with clients in the toy, video game, Disney Parks, publishing, and other industries to discuss projects requiring character audio. Studied characters' speech, personalities, stories, and dialogue extensively for confident writing. Created audition sheets for both new and existing Disney characters. Wrote new dialogue and edited existing lines for these projects, ensuring that they stay true to character. This included exit/emergency spiels for park rides, letters to children from Disney characters, large production stage shows, holiday events, various toys, video games, and more.
  • Improv comedian, June 2000–06, ComedySportz, Provo, UT
    Performed weekly with a comedy troupe entertaining audiences of 50–1,000 people.
  • Instructor, June 2000–06, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
    Taught figure drawing to the advanced illustration, animation, and fine art majors. Focused on line, shape making, light, shadow, and modeling the human figure. Prepared lessons, performed drawing demonstrations, and graded sketchbook assignments. Worked personally with my students to help them understand and improve individually.