Animator Quotes & Sayings

In college, I was a cartoonist at 'The Daily Northwestern.' So I draw myself. I was an animator. But basically, I went to Northwestern to major in English, wound up in college for two years. Studied animation there. Came to Disney. My first week at Disney was the week that 'Star Wars' came out. — John Musker

Literally overnight, I became an animator ... and one that was well-known. — Terry Gilliam

So you've probably already shown them Bernard and Bianca - The Rescuers." "Like every other mom." "That cartoon contains a subliminal image of a naked woman hiding in a window, at one point. A small personal quirk of the animator's, no doubt. Don't worry, it won't have any effect on your children's minds - the image is too tiny! The fact remains that no one ever saw it, in all the years that cartoon was being shown. — Franck Thilliez

My first ambition was to be an animator for Walt Disney. Then I wanted to be a magazine cartoonist. — John Updike

All the old great companies were run by guys who knew what an animator meant, and guys who knew how to draw. All the companies today are run by executives. — Ralph Bakshi

'In-between' is sort of - an animator does the key poses. He'll do extremes, you know, like a character reaching out for a glass of water and then another one of him drinking. And the in-betweener has to do all the drawings that goes between those two. You know it could be 12, 23 whatever in-betweens. — Pete Docter

I grew up near Disneyland, and my brother's an animator, so I was always really inspired by bright, cartoony colors and that whole feeling of happiness. — Gwen Stefani

Honestly, every person, every individual has a process, and my philosophy, whether it's an actor or an animator, is you try to understand the process that person has so you can get the most out of them, but I think you have to sort of manipulate that process with honesty. — Gore Verbinski

I still have the same outlook on things that I did 10, 20 years ago. As an animator, there's no career path that you can follow; there's very few people doing this that you can look to and pinpoint the mistakes. It hasn't changed since I was little. You have interests and follow them and strange things happen, organically or not. — Don Hertzfeldt

With my personal work I prefer not to work from storyboards because being a director, producer and animator in one person I don't have to communicate my idea to anyone else, I can keep the feeling of the story, the story arc and structure in my head. — Signe Baumane

I am in no sense of the word a great artist, not even a great animator; I have always had men working for me whose skills were greater than my own. I am an idea man. — Walt Disney

I wanted to be an animator originally. I went to art school; I went to art college and everything. But that screen was just calling me. — Damon Wayans Jr.

Short films really helped me develop as a story teller, animator, and as a director. — John Lasseter

It's a different way of getting across an emotion. You're trying to get it across to the animator because the animator is inspired by the voicetrack in terms of how to animate the character. — Dan Castellaneta

The swirling lines of snow were composed of separate flakes, and each flake was a cluster of separate ice crystals--scientists had counted over a hundred of them in a single flake. Under the microscope each minuscule crystal, colorless and transparent, revealed a secret symmetry: six sides, the outward expression of an inward geometry of frozen molecules of water. But the real wonder was that no two crystals were precisely alike. In one of this father's camera magazines he had seen a stunning display of photomicrographs, and what was most amazing about the enlarged crystals was that each contained in its center a whole world of intricate six-sided designs, caused by microscopic air pockets. For no conceivable reason, Nature in a kind of exuberance created an inexhaustible outpouring of variations on a single form. A snowstorm was a fall of jewels, a delirium of hexagons--clearly the work of a master animator. — Steven Millhauser

I've always drawn, for example, and I did consider when I was younger, it was either do I become an actor or do I become an animator cartoonist at that point. Do I work at Disneyworld or something and do animated cells or something? — David Hornsby

When I was at Pixar, I was in my hole. I was an animator, I had my shots and I was like, "Yeah, I've gotta make this perfect!" It's a very selfish thing. — John Kahrs

All new tools are useful to animators, but great animation comes down to great animators. — Dean DeBlois

Disney was not a good animator, he didn't draw well at all, but he was always a great idea man, and a good writer. — Chuck Jones

If I hadn't gone into acting, then I would have perhaps become an animator. — Russell Tovey

In a comic strip, you can suggest motion and time, but it's very crude compared to what an animator can do. I have a real awe for good animation. — Bill Watterson

At one point, I was hell-bent on being a Disney animator, and sort of got over that in college and wanted to do my own stuff. You know, towards the end of college I had actually planned to go to the Boston Conservatory of Music for musical theater. — Seth MacFarlane

To have a film where there's an evil figure and a good person fights against the evil figure and everything becomes a happy ending, that's one way to make a film. But then that means you have to draw, as an animator, the evil figure. And it's not very pleasant to draw evil figures — Hayao Miyazaki

I hired Bob at Terrytoons. He was my assistant animator, and then became an animator himself. He had just come from Boston with his family and was a brilliant draftsman as well as a great jazz guitarist. We had lots of fun nights in Greenwich Village together and then later hanging in LA. Bob worked on Fritz the Cat , Heavy Traffic , Coonskin , and on Wizards . I am terribly saddened by his passing and will miss him dearly. — Ralph Bakshi

First of all, computer animation is certainly a tremendous and viable medium today. But the warmth and personality derived from 2-D animation, in my opinion, cannot be surpassed. Certain stories lend themselves well to 3-D animation and I won't labor this with naming them, but in my bones, I still respond more emotionally to the artists feel in 2-D. You feel the 'actor' in the animator more personally ... it's hard to explain. — Richard Sherman

An actor uses his body as a tool and an instrument. In the same way a musician plays an instrument, the actor uses his body to convey feeling and emotion. An animator uses a pencil or a computer to create the same thing, the same exact way. An actor is taking words that are not his own, and he has to bring some kind of authentic life to those words. It's the same goal, to create this authentic life. Even if it's a drawing, or if it's a cartoon, you're still trying to create authenticity because, if the character emotes authentically, it has a power to connect with the audience. — Rob Minkoff

I am an animator. I feel like I'm the manager of a animation cinema factory. I am not an executive. I'm rather like a foreman, like the boss of a team of craftsmen. That is the spirit of how I work. — Hayao Miyazaki

Pixar has invented much of computer animation as it's known today, and I've been very lucky to be the first traditional animator to work with computer animation. — John Lasseter

When I was four years old, some friends of my family took me to see 'Fantasia' and I was totally blown away. From that minute on I wanted to be an animator. — David Bolinsky

Mostly I wanted to be a writer, though for a couple of years there I wanted to be an animator, because I loved drawing and capturing beautiful movements. — Catherine Jinks

I've been very lucky. I've had three separate careers: freelance illustrator, then set designer, puppetteer and animator, and now fine artist. I just bluffed my way into every one of 'em! — Wayne White

Being an animator, and I've directed tons of mo-cap, which really is about how do characters move through space. — Timothy Miller

I knew from the moment I heard you, the moment I saw the gun and realized that this lovely, petit woman was the executioner, that you would never die waiting for me to save you - that you would save yourself. — Laurell K. Hamilton

Luckily, I went to school at CalArts, and then ended up here at Disney, starting in the Animation Building and working my way up. I started as an animator, and then did character designing and storyboarding, and eventually, directing. — Chris Buck

Look what Disney's done to their animation department. There wasn't an animator in charge of their animation unit! — Ralph Bakshi

We argue that the role of teachers is becoming less that of a knowledge transmitter, and closer to that of an "animator of collective intelligence" who provides analytical tools (the proverbial "fishing rod") rather than simply giving away raw information ("fish"). — Marcos C. Lima

I decided I wanted to be a painter, and then that moved into wanting to be an animator. By adolescence, I just wanted it to be something that was important ... something that would make a difference in people's lives or leave an imprint in history. — Evangeline Lilly

I was an animator for a while early on, but a 2D animator. — Dan Scanlon

Walt was a dreamer, but one who pursued his goals with clarity and an almost ferocious intensity." JACK KINNEY DISNEY ANIMATOR — Pat Williams

Every animator is really an actor performing in slow motion, living the character a drawing at a time. — John Lasseter

Nine times out of ten, I'm trying to meet someone else's expectations, whether it's the director or the writer or the animator, when I go back in to re-record a line. I'm the icing on the cake, but the cake is the thing. I'm really just a hood ornament on a very solid vehicle. — Adrian Pasdar

I do not draw any of the pictures for my movies as an animator. The reason for that is that I am terribly lucky to have many staff members who I look up to, and who are overflowing with talent, that work with me on each project. — Mamoru Hosoda

I'm a big fan of pantomime storytelling, being an animator. — John Lasseter

What we do sometimes when we're in the sessions recording the dialogue is we'll set up a video camera and we'll video the whole session. So then the animator, if he wants, can draw upon those tapes to pull expressions, mouth shapes, maybe some gesturing that happens. — Kevin Lima

Theresa strode over to us in a swish of cloth. "Enough of this, animator. He can't do it, so he pays the price. Either leave now, or join us at our ... feast."
Are you having rare Who-roast-beast?" I asked.
What are you talking about?"
It's from Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. You know the part, 'And they'd Feast! Feast! Feast! Feast! Feast! They would feast on Who-pudding and rare Who-roast-beast.'"
You are crazy."
So I've been told. — Laurell K. Hamilton

And as particles are living digital elements, moving on their own according to the various attributes (such as weight, speed, shape) given to them by the animator, we don't know what the visual result will be until everything is completed. This result can often be unsatisfying, obliging us to repeat the process all over again, with new features. — Martine Epoque

An animator is an actor with a pencil. — Chuck Jones

I've always wanted to be an animator. That's an ultimate art form, right there. — Jason Marsden

You know, I love stop-motion. I've done almost all the styles of animation: I was a 2D animator. I've done cutout animation. I did a CG short a few years ago, 'Moongirl,' for young kids. Stop-motion is what I keep coming back to, because it has a primal nature. It can never be perfect. — Henry Selick

You draw the character from all angles - side, profile, back, etc. so the animator has this character in all the ways it looks like. — Marjane Satrapi

Maybe it's not to much to hope that the Disney Company might one day get over its self-imposed fears and finally find its own Laughing Place.
-Floyd Norman
Disney Legend
June 2012 — Jim Korkis