Matthew Luhn | |
|---|---|
 Luhn in 2017 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Academy of Art University (BFA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1992–present |
| Spouse | Valerie LaPointe |
| Children | 2 |
| Writing career | |
| Genre |
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| Years active | 2009–present |
| Website | |
| matthewluhnstory | |
Matthew Luhn is an American storyboard artist, animator, and director for Pixar and The Simpsons . He is also known for serving as a creative writing instructor and keynote speaker. [1]
Luhn attended the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. In 1993, he directed his student film Starship Spacehustle, and was offered his first animation job. He dropped out of CalArts, and at the age 19, he was the youngest animator hired to work on The Simpsons . His work includes the episodes: "Kamp Krusty" (1992), "Lisa's Pony" (1992), "Homer Alone" (1992), "Colonel Homer" (1992), "Homer Defined" (1992), and "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" (1992). [2]
Shortly thereafter, Luhn joined Pixar Animation Studios, becoming one of the first 12 animators on the studio's feature film, Toy Story (1995). [3] He stated, "I loved working on Toy Story, but the part that really interested me was the big picture – the story part ... But I wasn't able to make the transition over from animator to storyteller easily." [3] Luhn was told that he was not experienced enough to become a storyboard artist. He left Pixar to gain experience as a freelance storyboard artist and copywriter for several commercial studios. After a year, he sent his storyboard portfolio to Pixar, and he was rehired as a storyboard artist for Toy Story 2 (1999). [3]
Outside his career as a story artist and animator, Luhn is also a keynote speaker who has trained chief executive officers, marketing teams, directors and other professionals how to craft and tell stories for Fortune 500 companies. [3] [4] [5] [6] Matthew also gave a TEDx Talk at the University of California, Santa Barbara. [7] [8]
Luhn is married to Valerie LaPointe, and he has two daughters. [9] [10]
| Year | Title | Story Artist | Animator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Casper | No | Additional animator: ILM | |
| Toy Story | No | Additional | ||
| 1999 | Toy Story 2 | Yes | No | |
| 2001 | Monsters, Inc. | Yes | No | |
| 2003 | Finding Nemo | Additional | No | |
| 2006 | Cars | Yes | No | Uncredited |
| 2007 | Ratatouille | Yes | No | |
| 2009 | Up | Yes | No | |
| 2010 | Toy Story 3 | Yes | No | |
| 2013 | Monsters University | Yes | No | |
| 2019 | Toy Story 4 | Yes | No | Uncredited |
| 2020 | Onward | Yes | No | Uncredited |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Story Artist | Animator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Starship Spacehustle | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Student film |
| 2013 | Toy Story of Terror! | No | No | Yes | No | |
| 2014 | Toy Story That Time Forgot | No | No | Yes | No | |
| 2017 | Lou | No | No | Yes | No | |
| 2021 | Sprite Fright | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Toy Story is a 1995 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the franchise of the same name, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. The film was directed by John Lasseter, written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow based on a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft, produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Jim Varney.
Pixar Animation Studios, known simply as Pixar, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, a segment of the Walt Disney Company.
John Dezso Ratzenberger is an American actor. He is best known for playing the character Cliff Clavin on the comedy series Cheers, for which he earned two Primetime Emmy nominations. Ratzenberger also played the role in the short-lived spin-off The Tortellis and in an episode of Wings, which was made by the same creators. He has voiced various characters in several Pixar animated feature films including Hamm in the Toy Story franchise, The Abominable Snowman in the Monsters, Inc. franchise, Mack in the Cars franchise, The Underminer in The Incredibles franchise, Fritz in the Inside Out franchise, and many others.
Tin Toy is a 1988 American animated short film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter. The short film, which runs for five minutes, stars Tinny, a tin one-man band toy, trying to escape from Billy, a human baby. The third short film produced by the company's small animation division, it was a risky investment: due to the low revenue produced by Pixar's main product, the Pixar Image Computer, the company was under financial constraints.
John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, and animator. He has served as the Head of Animation at Skydance Animation since 2019. Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Joseph Henry Ranft was an American animator, screenwriter, and voice actor. He worked for Pixar Animation Studios and Disney at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Television Animation. His younger brother Jerome Ranft is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar films.
Robert Peterson is an American animator, director, screenwriter, storyboard supervisor, and voice actor who works at Pixar. He was hired at Pixar by Roger Gould in 1994 as an animator for commercials, before subsequently becoming an animator on Toy Story (1995). He was the co-director and co-writer for Up (2009), in which he also voiced the characters Dug and Alpha. His work as a writer for the films Up and Finding Nemo (2003) earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He was also a co-writer on Cars 3 (2017) and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program for his work on Forky Asks A Question (2020).
Ralph Eggleston was an American animator, art director, storyboard artist, and production designer at Pixar Animation Studios. He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for For the Birds.
Jill Culton is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and screenwriter. With her directorial debut on Sony's first animated film, Open Season, she became the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-generated feature.
Francis Glebas is an American keynote speaker, writer, film director, storyboard artist, and teacher. He also directed in Fantasia 2000 (1999) and Piglet's Big Movie (2003). He worked in films such as Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Dinosaur (2000), Treasure Planet (2002), The Incredibles (2004), Space Chimps (2008), Rio (2011) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012).
Doug Sweetland is an American animator and filmmaker. He wrote and directed the Pixar short film Presto (2008), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Toy Story is an American media franchise created by Pixar Animation Studios and owned by The Walt Disney Company. It centers on toys that, unknown to humans, are secretly living, sentient creatures. It began in 1995 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, which focuses on a diverse group of toys featuring a classic cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody and a modern spaceman action figure named Buzz Lightyear.
Jeff Pidgeon is an American animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist and voice actor at Pixar.
Joshua Cooley is an American filmmaker, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He is best known for directing the films Toy Story 4 (2019) and the upcoming Transformers One (2024), the former of which won for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Inside Out (2015), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Sanjay Patel is an American animator, illustrator and author who has worked in the animation department of various projects, most of them animated films released by Pixar.
Daniel Chong is an American animator, storyboard artist, writer, director, and producer. He is best known as the creator of Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears (2015–2019). He also directed, wrote and executive produced We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020).
Sharon Calahan is an American cinematographer who was director of photography on the Pixar films A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), and Finding Nemo (2003), and was lighting director for Ratatouille (2007), Cars 2 (2011), and The Good Dinosaur (2015). She took part in the early rise of computer animated feature film making and the acceptance of that medium as cinematography. Calahan is the first member of the American Society of Cinematographers who was invited to join on the basis of a career entirely in animated film. She was nominated, with Bill Reeves, Eben Ostby, and Rick Sayre, for a 2000 BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects for A Bug's Life.
Jim Capobianco is an American film director, animator and screenwriter. He has worked as a story artist and storyboard artist for films such as The Lion King (1994), Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Finding Dory (2016).
Valerie LaPointe is an American director and storyboard artist for Pixar Animation Studios.
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