Biography
Jason Hopkins is an animation educator and industry professional with over 25 years of teaching, mentorship, and production experience. He works with students to develop both foundational craft and advanced technical fluency across the full animation production pipeline鈥攆rom concept development and story structure through modeling, rigging, lighting, rendering, compositing, and final delivery.
His approach emphasizes strong visual storytelling, classical animation principles, and production-ready workflows designed for today鈥檚 digital landscape. Jason integrates industry-standard tools such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and Autodesk Maya alongside emerging technologies, including AI-assisted short-form filmmaking (Pika, ElevenLabs, Suno, ChatGPT). His courses balance aesthetic theory with practical pipeline design, preparing students to work independently or within collaborative studio environments.
Jason鈥檚 professional background spans award-winning independent films, medical and scientific visualization, and commercial animation for major brands including McDonald鈥檚, Hotels.com, Coca-Cola, Nestl茅, Hershey鈥檚, and Gillette. He has worked with studios including Anzovin Animation, Noodlesoup Productions (The Venture Bros.), and Calabash Animation, and served as lead rigger and animator at Studio One in Chicago on the Effie Award-winning Hotels.com 鈥淪mart鈥 campaign.
He holds a BA in Fine Arts from Amherst College and both a BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Jason continues to mentor emerging artists while developing curricula that bridge traditional animation craft and contemporary production technologies.
Instructional Areas
I enjoy teaching all aspects of digital art and history from topics including graphic design, motion graphics, 2D animation of all varieties, in addition to the full 3D production pipeline, including compositing and visual effects.
Creative Practice and Research Interests
As an commercial artist, animator, instructor, and independent digital consultant, I am constantly researching and working to solve various technical and aesthetic problems for students and clients alike.
Degrees
B.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2002
M.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2004