Burny Mattinson

Back in June, I was very privileged to be invited to Disney Legend Burny Mattinson's 65th anniversary event at the Grand Floridian Hotel, along with talented friends from work (Alex Maher, Fabiola Garza Villalobos, and Lon Smart). It was a special luncheon for D23 Gold Members, and we were invited as "luminaries" to help them all honor this amazing story artist, animator, director and producer. He was hired in 1953 in Burbank, and has worked continuously as the Walt Disney Company's longest-serving Cast Member; his film credits include "Lady and the Tramp" all the way up to the latest film, "Ralph Breaks the Internet". He wrote, directed and produced one of my absolute favorites, "Mickey's Christmas Carol" in 1983, as well as "The Great Mouse Detective" in 1986. The next day, there was a special screening of 1973's "Robin Hood", on which he animated under Ollie Johnston I believe, at the AMC theater in Disney Springs. It was so cool to get to applaud as his name appeared on the opening credits, and with him in the audience.

Animation pencil test - Turner Internship (Hanna Barbera) 1993

I thought it would be fun to repost this little animation test from a 1993 summer internship in Hollywood. Our assignment was to show a character caught steeling cookies from a cookie jar, and "Jurassic Park" had recently been released. When everyone's tests were completed, the instructors held a literal gong show, complete with a little gong for the tests that were less-than-par. Thankfully, I survived that one!

Shortly after, I brought this pencil test along as part of my reel and portfolio to Industrial Light and Magic (ILM); they had flown me up to be interviewed as they ramped up the CG animation in "Casper". It was so awesome to meet people like Spaz Williams, who had recently built and animated the groundbreaking digital T-Rex in the aforementioned "Jurassic Park"... and there I was timidly showing this little guy to them!

After I then finished my second year at CalArts, on June 6, 1994, I was hired at Disney Feature Animation in Glendale. Ten years later, when the Florida studio was closing, ILM was one of the many studios that came down to look at prospective artists, and once again I showed them my work.

Student film - Matterhorn

One of my student films, from 20 years ago. I'd love to finish animating it someday; a good majority of it is still storyboards, and the sound and video quality is poor. I just wanted to make a fun tribute to my favorite thrill ride - the only one both conceived of and ridden by Walt himself, back in 1959. The Abominable Snowmonster, added in 1979, was nicknamed "Harold" by the Cast Members. 

This is sort of a "what if..." type of thing.

Films and shorts

Films I've worked on, including three direct-to-DVD, some shorts, and one for Universal. ("A Few Good Ghosts" was the last feature we were ramping up for at the Florida Studio, before its cancellation.)

dinosaur pencil test

In the summer of 1993, I was in an internship at Hanna Barbera in Hollywood (specifically Turner Pictures, which had just released "The Pagemaster" and was gearing up for "Cats Don't Dance"). One of our assignments was to animate a character getting into a cookie jar. The studio was walking distance from Universal City Walk, where I'd recently seen the premiere of "Jurassic Park" and was thoroughly blown away by the realism of the dinosaurs. Later that fall, Industrial Light and Magic flew me up to San Francisco to see my animation reel - they were looking for students who could potentially help out on the film "Casper" - and I had the incredible privilege of meeting some of the "Jurassic Park" animators. That was a cool year!

pencil test

One of my rough scenes from "Curious George", prior to cleanup. This was back in 2005, while at Project Firefly.

Fun game!

Back in 2005, I had the opportunity at Project Firefly (assisting a company called Cecropia) to animate on a video game featuring traditional animation, named "The Act". We had a blast working on it, and the assumption at the time was that it would soon be playable as a tabletop arcade game and eventually on a home game. As it turned out, technology took a few years more to catch up, and it's now an app you can play on your smartphone!

 Here's a link to their site if you'd like to see the trailer: http://www.theactgame.com/

Also, click here to see an early pencil test of one of my scenes (just hit play): http://roncohee.blogspot.com/2009/05/rough-animation-act-cecropia-2d-game.html

Pencil test

One of the highlights of working at a small studio (I was at Project Firefly in Orlando from 2004 to 2007, following the closing of the Disney Florida studio) was getting to wear different hats for different projects. On the "Curious George" film, I was one of the character animators (both rough and clean up) - and it was an absolute joy. Every scene, such as the one here shown in an early pencil test, presented new challenges for me. I was thrilled to have had the opportunity.

It's funny - whenever I draw Woody from "Toy Story" for a children's book or on theme park merchandise, I have to be careful not to start drawing Ted (the Man with the Yellow Hat), whose features I  find to be slightly similar in some regards. 

Another pencil test from "Curious George"

One of the interesting things about working on this film was that you animated every character in the scene, instead of being assigned to one particular character. It was also the first time I'd had the opportunity to animate professionally. After a decade of working as a clean-up animator at Disney (embellishing the rough drawings of the animators), it felt good to loosen up a bit. Also, working together at Project Firefly - formed after the Florida studio had closed - felt very much like the old days at CalArts. Definitely a lot of fun!

Pencil test - Curious George

Here is a pencil test for a scene I animated in the 2005 film "Curious George" (Universal), while working at Project Firefly in Orlando.

"Curious George" rough animation

I recently watched the "Curious George" film again, and recalled how much fun it was to work on (for Universal Pictures, via Project Firefly). Here's another of my scenes. While I had always enjoyed the embellishing precision of clean-up animation (which I did for a decade at Disney), the opportunity to animate in rough was an absolute joy! This was the first film for which I'd animated professionally, as opposed to final line, clean-up animation.

Rough animation - "The Act" Cecropia 2D game

While working at Project Firefly (2004-2007), I animated on a hand-drawn video game called "The Act", along with many other artists from the recently closed Disney Feature Animation Studio in Florida. This was a lot of fun. These are rough animation tests, before cleanup and in-betweens.

Rough animation - "Curious George"

Walt Disney Feature Animation 1994-2004