Faculty and Staff

JoAnne Johnson Adams, M.F.A.

• Lecturer
• joanne.adams@ucf.edu
• Office Hours: Monday 1 - 3:30PM, Thursday 1 - 2:30PM
• Campus Location: OTC5190

Working as a bench jeweler and as a ceramics sculptor and painter throughout her undergraduate study, Jo Anne Adams began her artistic career with a BFA in Painting from the University of New Orleans in 1984. Adams embarked on her 15 year career in the field of 2D animation through the traditional Ink and Paint Department at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida hand inking and painting cels for theatrical and television release in1989. Transferring to the Layout Department as the Blue Sketch artist granted exposure to many areas of the production process and the ability to learn the nuances of story and its visual development which are applied in her teaching at UCF. After achieving her MFA in Digital Media from the University of Florida in 2007, Jo Anne began her teaching career at the University of Central Florida in 2008. Examples of Jo Anne Adams' personal work encompassing drawing, painting, digital video and traditional animation can be viewed at www.joanneadams.blogspot.com

Education

• M.F.A. in Digital Media
• B.F.A. in Painting

Recent Research Activities

Ms. Adams directed two Character Animation projects for the Class of 2018, one of which in collaboration with the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group. The team developed a turtle centric story. "Night Light", teaching the importance of light environmentalism. The group was awarded a grant through the State of Florida Turtle Conservancy.

The second 2018 production, "Ukelayla", worked in collaboration with Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America, CASANA, to raise awareness of the speech disorder.

Ms. Adams also teaches in the Animation and VFX MFA program where she helps guide students through Story Development, Production Design, the Production Pipeline and Thesis Writing. 

Courses

• Spring 2022
• Fall 2021
• Summer 2021
• Spring 2021
• Fall 2020
• Summer 2020