Iza's Portfolio

Izabela Melamed is an established character animator, storyboard artist and animation director. She gained artistic experience and film making skills while contributing to numerous international productions, including a rich diversity of countries and animation studios that spanned a wide variety of genres and techniques. Career highlights include her work at National Cartoon Animation Studio Sofia in Bulgaria, Anima Studios in Israel and Wild Brain in San Francisco, United States. Izabela currently enjoys residing in her native Bulgariaand works as a freelance animator.

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

2007 - Present

• Freelance 2D Animator for various projects from Egypt, GB, USA and Bulgaria.

2007 - 2009
Shugarshack Animation
Sofia, Bulgaria

• Animation Supervisor
• Storyboard Artist, Flash Animator and Creative Coordinator

2006 - 2007
Nightlife.bg / Net4You.bg
Sofia, Bulgaria

• Project Manager
• Concept Artist, Flash Animator, and Creative Supervisor of a web-based virtual reality site.

2005
Wild Brain
San Francisco, USA

• Storyboard artist for Higglytown Heroes, 3D animated series for Disney Channel, USA

2004
Luna Media
San Francisco, USA

• Freelance Animator, In-between Artist and Clean-up supervisor of Hope, mixed media independent film project.

2002
Destiny Films
NY, USA

• Character Designer for Pencil and Paintbrush pilot for a Flash animated TV series.

2001
Pitchi Poy Animation Productions, Ltd.
Tel Aviv, Israel

• Freelance Animator
• Production Coordinator: supervising the international co-production of the studio from in-betweens to clean-up.

2001
Plastelina Animation Studio, Ltd.
Binyamina, Israel

• Animation Producer for Israeli TV commercials.
• Animator and Animation Supervisor.

1997 - 2000
Disk-In Animation and Multimedia, Ltd.
Tel Aviv, Israel

• Animation Director, Animation Supervisor, and Head of the Pre-production Department
• Storyboard Artist, Concept Artist, Animation Director, and Production Coordinator of the animated drama Rashi, (55 min.) for Destiny Films, NY, co-production of USA, Israel, Great Britain, and Bulgaria Storyboard Artist and Creative Coordinator of the animated film Hassidic Stories, (22 min) for Destiny Films, NY, co-production of USA and Israel.
• Storyboard Artist, Animation Supervisor, and Animator for several animated commercials and short films for the Israeli TV.

1997
Pitchi Poy Animation Productions, Ltd.
Tel Aviv, Israel

• Production and Creative Coordinator for the Nickelodeon TV series Sniz & Fondue (13 x 5min.) in Israel and Bulgaria.

1992 - 1996
Anima Studios, Ltd.
Tel Aviv, Israel

• Animation Director, Storyboard Artist, Layout Artist, Animation Supervisor and Animator for more than 50 animated films, TV series, commercials and international projects in co-production with USA, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Bulgaria.
• Project Manager: supervising the production of one or more film projects at the one time.

1980 - 1990
National Cartoon Animation Studio "Sofia" (NCAS)
Kinocenter, Sofia, Bulgaria

• Animator, Apprentice Animator, In-between Artist, Ink and Paint Artist. Animator for a few traditional, stop-motion, and cut-out animated films.

EDUCATION

2002 -2004
DeAnza College
Cupertino, CA, USA

AA degree in Film/TV Production: Animation
GPA 3.96 out of 4.0

Various courses in Traditional Drawing and Computer Graphic Arts

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

• Winner in the category for traditional animation at the Media Arts Competition of the colleges in California, 2003-2004.
• Chad Okamoto Memorial Animation Media Award and Scholarship, 2004.
• Creative Arts Division and Broadcast Media Scholarships at DeAnza College, 2004.
• Certificate of Excellence, Film/TV Department at DeAnza College, 2004.
• Merit Award Winner in the category for traditional animation at the Media Arts

Competition of the colleges in California, 2002-2003.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

OS: Windows and Macintosh
Familiar with many applications for processing and editing images, video and audio for traditional and computer 2D animation, such as Photoshop, Flash , Premiere, etc.

OTHERS

Presently working on personal art projects including animation shorts and drawings.
Languages: English, Russian, Hebrew, Bulgarian (native).
References, Demo Reel, and Portfolio: Available upon request.