Last week the city of Burbank hosted the 15th CTN Expo, and the celebration of traditional animation afforded attendees the opportunity to witness some greats at a traditional animation desk.
Those who took time to enjoy the demonstrations sat back and watched, or took out their very own sketchbooks (or tablets, in some younger cases), and followed along with the greats. I was able to capture a few of these legendary artists as they showed off their craft, and you can check them out below.
Aaron Blaise
Aaron Blaise, spent 21 years at Walt Disney Feature Animation (now called Walt Disney Animation Studios), where he helped create some of the greatest animated films ever made. He contributed as an animator or supervising animator on The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan and was the co-director of Brother Bear, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
In the video above, he is animating a penguin from one of his independent short films, and he (known for his work with animals) gives a bit of an anatomy lesson when it comes to drawing various birds.
Andreas Deja
Easily the most recognizable name on this list, Andreas Deja is known for his characters from the Disney Renaissance, where he served as the supervising animator for Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin, and Scar in The Lion King. Named a Disney Legend in 2015, he has had his hand in nearly every 2D production since The Black Cauldron in one way or another. He even lent his efforts to the Touchstone Pictures classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
In the video above, Deja himself shares personal stories while sketching out his familiar characters, including a rarely seen form of Mickey Mouse, as he appeared in the short Runaway Brain, which Deja also worked on. The stories aren’t just about the art of animation, but rather the vocal talents of Jeremy Irons (Scar) and some little known info about the studio’s response to Runaway Brain and the Paris animation studio.
Sandro Cleuzo
While not the household name as other animators at the Disney studio, or even the CTN Expo, Sandro Cleuzo is remarkably talented and took his artistic efforts to the animation desk at the expo to be showcased. Our readers might recognize his work on the Theme Song Guy from The Emperor’s New Groove, Tarzan, and the Piano Concerto No.2 and Firebird Suite segments of Fantasia 2000. He even animated Prince Edward and Nancy in Enchanted, and contributed to a few characters in The Princess and the Frog. More recently, you can see his work in Mary Poppins Returns and Chip ‘N’ Dale Rescue Rangers. At the desk, you can see him working on a monkey character jumping, and you can see how fast he moves through his drawings and how beautiful the gestures are while simultaneously conveying classic animation techniques.