Practitioners in Detail

Aardman Animation

Aardman is a leading animation studio in producing stop motion, as well as other productions in CGI, Flash and mixed media. The company was founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, starting out with making animated children’s shows. They then managed to move clay animation towards a more adult focused audience. Nick Park joined the company in 1985 bringing along world known characters Wallace and Gromit.

The company produces independent films, collaborating with other companies such as Dreamworks and Sony. The physical process they use is shooting clay animation frame by frame to create well known feature films such as Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
The work produced by the company is viewed worldwide, with box office success and many films recieving critical acclaim. Aardmans first feature length film Chicken Run grossed $224,834,564, becoming the highest grossing stop motion animated film to date.

 

 MacKinnon and Saunders

MacKinnon and Saunders is a puppet making company set up by Ian MacKinnon and Peter Saunders. They work across short films, commercials, television and feature films, the most prominent being Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox.
The models created by the company are amazingly detailed, with the sculptors and modellers working from sketches that directors have given to them so that perfection is achieved and the correct model is created for that specific project.
MacKinnon and Saunders specialise in mechanical movement inside the head of the puppet which enables very detailed and exact movements in the models face.

 Glen Keane

Glen Keane is an animator and illustrator, most well known for his work at Disney and his character animation in feature films such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan and Tangled. After working 38 years at Disney, Glen Keane left the animation studio to further explore the vast possibilities of animation.

Keane's interest in art first emerged when as a child he observed his father's work, who was a cartoonist. Keane had not originally planned to become an animator, wanting to work as a painter or sculptor instead. However due to a mix up, his portfolio was sent to the Program in Experimental Animation, then called Film Graphics. This began his successful future in animation.
Keane worked his way up in the Disney company, starting out just aged 20 and became lead character animator. It was in this post that he was responsible for animating some of Disney's most memorable characters.

He incorporates elements of his life into the animations he creates, for example the part in Tarzan when Tarzan first sees Jane, Keane had got the inspiration from when he first was his baby daughter and the strong connection and the design of Tarzan came out of Keane watching his son skating, sparking an idea to have Tarzan as a tree surfer. He also puts so much life and emotion into his drawings, loosing himself when he's sketching, creating all the expressions and feelings in his own face and actions.