Jason Martinsen
Mentor at Animation Mentor
Senior Character Animator at Ilion Animation Studios
Jason was born in Cambridge, Minnesota and grew up in Bayfield, Wisconsin on Lake Superior. He spent much of his time with his younger brother pretending to be a superhero. He also spent a lot of time drawing, reading comics, and playing video games.
He wanted to be a marine biologist, but the film Jurassic Park sparked his interest in animation. A few years later he decided to go north of the border to study classical animation at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. His student film MT. EHN won the Teletoon: Most Promising Student award, and led to a job with Naughty Dog Studios. Three years in California followed, animating characters in the hit game series, Jak and Daxter.
In 2005 Blue Sky Studios hired Jason and he was fortunate enough to work on Ice Age 2, Horton Hears a Who and Ice Age 3. He also became a mentor for Animation Mentor. In July 2008 he left New York to pursue his lifelong dream of traveling the world.
Currently he is working on Planet 51 at Ilion Animation Studios in Madrid.
Check out http://travelingmentor.blogspot.com and http://jmartinsen.com to learn more about Jason.