Prepare For
Adventure
Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure
Alfred North Whitehead
About Us
Lagoon Black is a multifaceted group of passionate and talented artists who are dedicated to their craft and use it to bring their client's visions to life. Our many collaborative and eclectic years have served to further stoke the flame for creating appealing art that inspires and evokes emotion.
We specialize in the areas of Branding & Design, 3D Content Creation, and Animation. Each new project is a creative adventure waiting to be explored, and we embrace the thrill and surprise of that adventure and look forward to helping you with yours.
Our Vision
Lagoon Black exists to be a leader in illumination adventures by combining art and highly talented people using the best technology available.
The Crew
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Jason Ryan
Head of Animation
Jason first fell in love with animation while growing up in Ireland. This love led him to study at the Senior College in Ballyfermont, followed by working at Don Bluth Studios, then serving as Supervisor for Disney Animation, and at Dreamworks, before becoming Animation Director at Cinesite. Jason is the founder of the highly respected online animation school iAnimate. Jason brings his years of passion for animation to the Lagoon Black Studios creative team.(Co-Founder) -
Larry Vasquez
Creative Director
Larry loves animation. While in college working on his communications degree and then his Masters, he began to hone his skills in 3D modeling and Architectural Visualization. Through his brother Darrell he developed a friendship with Jason Ryan, who began to teach him the skills in animation he now applies to every project. Larry has taught 3D modeling at the University level and serves as Media and Communication Manager for iAnimate.(Co-Founder) -
Darrell Vasquez
Supervising Animator
Darrell began college as an engineering major before completing his degree at Boston University in Interdisciplinary studies. Following college, while coaching wrestling at Harvard, the drawl of animation brought him to a message board where he encountered Jason Ryan who began to mentor him. From these beginnings, Darrell has worked in Animation for Magnetic Dreams, Insomniac Games, and ReelFX before arriving alongside his brother at Lagoon Black Studios.(Co-Founder) -
G.L. Vasquez
Chief Producer
G.L. heads up Lagoon Black studios with 30+ years of business experience. He graduated college Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Electronics Engineering and has since served as the CEO of a subsidiary of a Multi-billion dollar company and an Engineering Company. This experience provides the business acumen to guide Lagoon Black adventures.(Co-Founder) -
David came to Lagoon Black from the Stage. As he completed his Communications degree in college, he began to write, direct, and act in plays. In 2015, David became a Magician Member of the World Famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, Ca. He brings years of experience in writing, teaching at the University level and magic to the Lagoon Black team.David Wells
Screenwriter -
Mike is the master of software applications at Lagoon Black. In college, he studied photo journalism and graphic arts and has 30+ years of industry experience. He provides concept art, models, rigging and basically anything else artistically needed for a project to look amazing.Mike Borjon
Technical Artist -
Nathan joins his brother’s Darrell and Larry at Lagoon Black as the resident programming expert. He completed his degree in Software Engineering before pursuing his Masters emphasizing Game Development. He has extensive experience in App, Game, and industrial applications development.Nathan Vasquez
Technical Director -
Odei joins Lagoon Black as part of the technical advisory team which assists in providing feedback and recommendations with regard to applied engineering. This is invaluable when designing movement and structures in a 3D environment that have a real world authenticity.Odei Addo-Yobo
Technical Advisor -
Cathleen Flynn
Cathleen has scored feature films, dramedies, comedies, documentaries, shorts, children’s programs, commercials, trailers and games. She has also written songs and cues for several tv series and is a featured composer for Sacramento’s Capital Public Radio Show “The View From Here”. In addition to composing, Cathleen has worked on major feature films and tv series, both nationally and internationally as a music/vocal arranger, music editor, and copyist. Cathleen’s talent is an exciting part of the Lagoon Black Project team allowing for the feel of scenes to be magnified.(Remote Team Member) -
Victor Vinyals
Victor is an experienced Technical Director and character rigging artist based in beautiful Barcelona. Before joining the Lagoon Black team, he worked as an animator in Spain, then began in character rigging at Barcelona-based studio Furia Digital. Following this he moved to the UK to work in Aardman Animations as Senior Character TD and had the chance to work on different feature films co-produced with Sony Imageworks. His work in custom character rigs for visual effects, feature animation and video games have been utilized in projects around the world. He brings these years of passion, knowledge of industry standards to provide Lagoon Black the high quality rigs.(Remote Team Member) -
Juan Solis
Juan is a passionate character developer resolved to deliver clean and detail character models tailored to the design and use. His 20 year professional career expands into several production areas including Visual Effects, full CG feature films, commercials, game cinematics and video games. Having worked for some of the biggest studios including Walt Disney animation, Dreamworks, Ilion Animation and Blur Studios, he has been involved in projects such Frozen, ThrollHunters, Planet 51, League of Legends, Spiderman, and filled a diverse set of roles during my career, covering such as Character artist, Lead artist, Character supervisor.(Remote Team Member)
Recent Projects
Bland Solar Spring 2017 Commercial
We had a lot of fun developing the story through animation for this one. This is the third in a series of commercials we've done for the team at Bland Solar. In this commercial we really wanted to emphasize the benefits of Bland Solar's unique hassle-free showrooms in a fun and entertaining way.
Bland Solar 2017 Theater Commercial
This is the second in a series of commercials we've done with the team at Bland Solar. This commercial was unique in that it was designed to play for movie goers while waiting for their movie to start. Bland Solar is distinct in having solar show rooms where potential clients can casually discuss their solar needs. Bland Solar ran this promotion for a theater in Fresno, CA where they have a show room right across the entrance.