What I Learned Working on "Pocahontas"

"Their skin's a hellish red, they're only good when dead"

One of the best experiences of my animation career was working at the Disney Studio in Los Angeles in the summer of 1994 on "Pocahontas", animating the villainous Governor Ratcliffe supervised by lead animator Duncan Marjoribanks. 

Duncan was a generous mentor, and I learned a huge amount under his guidance, as well as learning from directors Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg. 

Animating "Ruber" on "Quest For Camelot"

One of my YouTube subscribers recently asked me to talk about what it was like animating "Ruber" on "Quest For Camelot".  I worked on "Ruber" on "Quest" back in the late 1990s, when the animation industry was booming, and there was a lot of optimism about the future of 2D animation. "Quest" was a great experience for me; I got to be a lead animator on the villain, which was a big role, and a really fun one to do. Plus, I got to work with Gary Oldman, and I was even invited to draw him delivering the lines in the recording booth - drawings which I was later able to use for key poses in the scenes I animated.

Back to DreamWorks

DreamWorks Animation

Jeffrey Katzenberg may have left DreamWorks animation, the studio he founded back in the late 1990s, but the old place feels much the same, and just as busy as ever.

I was there recently visiting Stuart Sumida, the paleontologist-turned-movie consultant, who has advised on the science behind animal locomotion and behaviour since The Lion King back in 1993.

Andreas Deja, Scar and The Lion King

Disney Legend: Andreas Deja

Two weeks ago I was invited to participate in a panel discussion at CTN in Los Angeles about my father's work in animation. It was a nice way to honour his memory and talk about his work in an open forum with family, friends and colleagues.

While I was in LA, I also got to meet up at the Disney lot with Andreas Deja, lead animator and the man responsible for bringing "Scar" to life.

Tribute to Richard Williams Sat November 23

CTN Expo in Burbank, Los Angeles, is hosting a tribute to my father, the animator Richard Williams on Saturday November 23rd.

The tribute is titled "Life is on Ones", and the panel is being hosted by my old friend and colleague Tom Sito, who is an animator, director and professor - as well as the author of many books on animation. 

ASIFA Hollywood Helps Rescue Thief Artwork

Some good news at last for Richard Williams' lost masterpiece - The Thief and The Cobbler.  LA animation chapter ASIFA-Hollywood has donated the not-insignificant sum of $20,000 to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to assist with the curation and documentation of a big chunk of the movie's original production artwork.

Why Not Become a Volunteer at SIGGRAPH 2016?

Time for our students in the USA - and especially those in California - to sign up for the SIGGRAPH 2016 Student Volunteer Program! The deadline for team leaders is 12 January 2016, and the deadline for student volunteers is 9 February 2016.

But wait, why would students want to volunteer for SIGGRAPH? Simple - it's all about who you might meet.

Stuart Sumida Reveals the Secrets of How Animals Move

Stuart Sumida

Stuart Sumida is the go-to guy in Hollywood for animal locomotion. He has worked on many feature films, including “Spirit”- Stallion of the Cimarron”, “Lion King”, and DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon”.

Stuart says he is “a paleontologist who gets to work with animators” and, while his day job is to teach anatomy to medical students, he also consults on movies for Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks. I was personally lucky enough to work with him both on "Lion King" and also on "Spirit". On both pictures he helped the animators to push the levels of realism in our work.

At last week's VFX Festival in Dublin, Stuart showed what makes him such a unique resource for animators dealing with the complexities of animal locomotion.

The Perils of Freelancing in Los Angeles - The Taxes You Never Knew You Didn't Owe

LA City Hall. Wikimedia

Any animator who lives and works in Los Angeles needs to be aware of  the laws relating to freelancers in the City of LA.  These local rules are not well known and very easy to fall foul of, as I know myself from personal experience.

In a nutshell, if you do any freelance work at all while you live and work in LA, make sure you register with City Hall.  If you don't, scary penalties will follow.  Here's how the system works.