ABOUT THE ARTIST

My name is Nick Calandrillo and I have graduated with BFA from New York Institute of Technology. My concentration in the field is computer graphics. It all started when I was about 5 years old and I immediately found my passion in life, art. I’ve always been a traditional artist with a huge admiration for animated movies and cartoons, especially traditionally drawn movies by Disney and DreamWorks. My favorite movies are Treasure Planet, Atlantis the Lost Empire, The Road to El Dorado, Tarzan, and the Lion King. I may have grown up, but I definitely haven’t grown out of my love for animation.

I never touched a 3D program until I came to college. But once I got my feet wet, I immediately took to it and became one of the top computer graphics students in my year, receiving the Computer Graphics BFA Faculty Award at graduation. My favorite parts of animation are the pre-production stages: storyboarding and concept design for characters and creatures, but I enjoy modeling and have done very well in other areas of animation. I’ve always felt like going big or going home. I’ve worked my hardest and have always gone the extra mile to make my pieces better. I have a desire to learn and strive for perfection. And I take what others tell me to better myself over time. My proposal was one of three selected to be turned into an animation for our Senior Thesis class. As the lead of the project I was the rock that my team leaned on for the hardest problems, my opinion, and feedback, and I enjoyed doing as much as I could with my friends to make it happen. Our animation was shown on Broadway in front of industry professionals, and won Best of Fine Arts BFA Animation. Additionally, I submitted a second animation myself for another class, proving my ability to multitask and handle a large quantity of work at one time.

But I’m not all work and no play. Having played sports all my life, I felt the need to give back to the community that helped raise me. As a freshman in high school, I became a basketball coach for the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). I coach for my local parish and have been coaching since 2008 and have been a head coach since 2012. I work with young boys between the ages of 6 and 10, and have had a very successful career, both in helping them to understand the game, become better people on and off the court, and have fun, and in the winning regard, having been a three-time tournament championship coach.