Nicolás P. Villarreal

Nicolás P. Villarreal was born and raised in La Plata, Argentina. He studied at the Escuela of Animacion y Cinematografía de Avellaneda, where he earned a degree in 2D Animation. While studying animation, Nicolás was taken under the wing of Miguel Alzugaray, a well-known Argentinian artist. Nicolás graduated with honors from the Master’s program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2002, and has worked as a traditional animator, character designer, sculptor and visual development artist for films and video games, including Walt Disney Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, Jim Henson Studios, Sega, Reel FX, Digital Domain, Duncan Studios, and Amazon Studios, among others. He has given presentations at Pixar Animation Studios, Dreamworks Animation, Apple, Stanford University, Sydney Opera House, and several universities in South America and Europe, as well as a TEDx talk. Nicolás is the co-founder of Red Clover Studios, where he is currently developing his first feature film, The Aces. He is also the writer and director of the awarded animated and live action short films Pasteurized, Nieta, and co-writer and director of The House of Colors and Things are looking up. Nicolás is currently Director of Visual Development & 2D Animation at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.