Mads Iden

Richard Williams Richard Williams is a Canadian-British animator, writer and voice actor who was born in 1933. He is well known for his work in progress feature film The Thief and the Cobbler as well as being the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit which he won two Oscars for. He is the author of the well known book The Animator's Survival Kit. Image from The Animator's Survival Kit  Richard Williams has over 250 International Awards for his different animations and writings. He is currently working on a series of animations which bring to life the lessons and teachings from his book The Animator's Survival Kit.

Bill Plympton Bill Plympton was born in 1946 and he is an American animator, cartoonist, filmmaker and graphic designer. In 1987 he was nominated for an Academy Award for a short animation that he created called Your Face .  Film Still from Your Face Your Face features a man sitting in front of the audience as he sings about another persons face. As he sings his face contorts to move along with the music in many different ways. It was later aired on TV which helped to spread it and gain popularity. The song was by Maureen McElheron but after it was recorded it was slowed down by one-third to give the sound the desired effect which also ended up making the vocals sound more masculine. The song was also made just for the short animation and the lyrics describe the beauty of someones face which works along with the visual changes that are happening to the man on screen.

Don Hertzfeld Figure 1: Billy's Balloon, 1998 Don Hertzfeld is an American animator, writer, independent filmmaker and artist who was born in 1976. He attended film school and whist there he used animation as a way to tell his stories due to the high cost of film equipment. All of his work has been showcased at different film festivals and he has over the years produced many different films.  He first started animating at the age of 15 were he taught himself to animate using a VHS camera. Figure 1 is a shot taken from one of Don Hertzfeld's short animations called 'Billy's Balloon' which he made in 1998. The animation is about a toddler who is attacked repeatedly by his red balloon which gets increasingly more violent as the animation goes on. It has won two awards and Hertzfeld has stated that he believes it to be popular due to it being silent which means that it can be enjoyed all around without the limitations of translating and language.  'Wor...