This was from an article about CG Spectrum and the educational services they offer teaching 2D and 3D animation online. Here's the section that talks about me!
The 2D Masters
2D Animator Jim Richardson–who worked on Scooby Doo, 101 Dalmatians, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid–grew up on a steady diet of Warner Bros, Hanna Barbera and Disney cartoons.
His first attempt at making his own animation was a clunky stop motion short using a ball of kneaded dough. He then moved onto flip books, hand drawn animation, claymation, and animated magazine cut-outs inspired by Terry Gilliam and Mike Jittlov. He began the mastery of his craft with his own evolution of animation techniques.
“I love showing students classics from Lotte Reiniger, Tex Avery cartoons, MGM Tom and Jerrys, Chuck Jones and anything else they need to know about. We have control now to study certain scenes frame by frame, learn how they made the drawings move, how they used dry brush and other techniques. There’s so much to learn from these films of the past.”
Jim sees a lot of anime influence in student work, and is amazed when he sees an original style from a student. There are so many styles of animation to draw from, the trick to originality is to master those styles and fuse them to discover your own style. This takes time, practice, and patience, but it is the road to true innovation.
DisneyDemo from Toondini on Vimeo.
Disney Junior, 2D animation by Jim Richardson
