Ken Robkin

Ken Robkin is a filmmaker, animator, illustrator, and sculptor whose professional work spans animation, visual effects, games, and narrative art. Before joining the faculty at Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts, he worked professionally in the animation industry, including several years as a character animator at Sony Computer Entertainment and work with Digital Domain. His animation credits include projects for the game and entertainment industries, and his work has ranged from character performance and cinematic animation to digital sculpture and visual development.

Robkin joined Florida State University in 2011 and currently serves as Filmmaker in Residence in Animation. His teaching focuses on character animation, character design, digital sculpting, and the development of characters and creatures for animated filmmaking. During his time at FSU, he has helped develop the animation curriculum while continuing to emphasize the connection between traditional artistic principles, storytelling, and contemporary digital production. His approach to teaching draws heavily on professional production practices, with a particular emphasis on strong design, clear visual storytelling, iterative development, and preparing students to solve creative problems independently.

Alongside his teaching, Robkin maintains an active creative practice in illustration, sculpture, animation, and narrative work. His personal work is primarily rooted in fantasy, science fiction, and horror, with a particular interest in creature and character design and the intersection of storytelling and worldbuilding. His work has been selected for Infected by Art, and in 2023 he was a member of the team awarded a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award for the South Florida PBS documentary Changing Seas: Life in the Dark — The Polar Night. He is also a published fiction writer and continues to develop independent projects combining writing, illustration, animation, and sculptural work.

Robkin earned his M.F.A. from Florida Atlantic University, where his graduate work focused on animation and digital media. His broader creative interests include animation, visual storytelling, games as a storytelling medium, digital sculpture, illustration, and the ways in which character and creature design can communicate narrative before a character ever speaks.