Simon Otto | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Swiss |
Alma mater | Gobelins, l'École de l'image |
Occupation(s) | director, animator, storyboard artist. |
Years active | 1997–present |
Employer | DreamWorks Animation (1997–2019) |
Known for | Head of character animation on How to Train Your Dragon |
Honours | VES Awards for 'Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature' |
Website | http://www.simonotto.com |
Simon Otto (born 12 June 1973) is a Swiss film director and animator. He is best known for working as the Head of Character Animation of the Oscar-nominated How to Train Your Dragon film trilogy for DreamWorks Animation.
Otto was born in Switzerland and grew up in Gommiswald, in the canton of St. Gallen.
After completing a banking apprenticeship, [1] he started his career in the arts by carving commercial snow sculptures [2] in nearby resort towns and drawing news cartoons for his hometown newspaper, "Die Suedostschweiz". [3]
He studied art formally at the F&F Schule fuer Experimentelle Gestaltung in Zurich. [4] In 1995, Otto left Switzerland to study animation at the Gobelins Animation School [5] in Paris, France where he also received additional animation training through an internship with Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris.
His professional animation career started in 1997, when he was hired by DreamWorks Animation in Los Angeles to work as a traditional character animator on their first 2D animated feature The Prince of Egypt. He then spent 21 years as part of the character animation team working on both 2D and CG projects for the studio. Otto is particularly known for his work as the Head of Character Animation for the How to Train Your Dragon movie franchise and has been instrumental in developing the look of the characters, their personalities [6] [7] and the overall style of animation for the films, and was rewarded for his achievements with the VES Awards for 'Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature e' in 2011 by the Visual Effect Society. [8] [9] Simon Otto designed a number of characters in the film including Toothless and Lightfury and did storyboarding work on the second and third films. [10] He was a key contributor to the development of Premo, [11] [12] [13] the animation software developed at DreamWorks Animation that won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement. [14]
Involved as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, [15] Simon participates in numerous of events, talks and interviews highlighting the work of the animator in the feature film industry. [16] In 2016, Otto founded LuMAA [17] (Lucerne Master Academy of Animation) with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Lucerne, Switzerland where animation industry veterans teach a 6-week summer course [18] for up and coming talents.
In the fall of 2019, after 21 years working for DreamWorks Animation, Simon left the company. He now works as an independent director on various film and television projects. [19] His first released project after leaving the studio is the episode ‘The Tall Grass’ he directed for the Netflix TV series, Love, Death & Robots Season 2.
On 14 June 2021 it was announced that he will direct That Christmas , based on the book of the same name by Richard Curtis, produced by Locksmith Animation for Netflix. [20]
Year | Title | Format | Status |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia – To Catch a Changeling (Episode) | TV series | Broadcast |
2016 | Dragons: Race to the Edge- A Grim Retreat (Episode) | TV series | Broadcast |
2016 | Dragons: Race to the Edge – Crash Course (Episode) | TV series | Broadcast |
2021 | Love, Death & Robots – The Tall Grass (Episode) | TV series | Broadcast |
2024 | That Christmas | Movie | Directorial debut |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1998 | The Prince of Egypt | Animator |
2000 | The Road to El Dorado | Animator |
2002 | Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron | Animator |
2003 | Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas | Animator |
2004 | Shark Tale | Animator |
2006 | Over the Hedge | Additional character designer |
2006 | Flushed Away | Supervising animator |
2007 | Enchanted | Additional animator |
2007 | Bee Movie | Additional animator |
2008 | Kung Fu Panda | Additional animator |
2010 | How to Train Your Dragon | Head of character animation |
2014 | How to Train Your Dragon 2 | Head of character animation & Story Artist |
2015 | Home | Additional supervising animator |
2018 | Bird Karma | Animator |
2019 | How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World | Head of character animation & Story Artist |
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA) (also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The studio has released a total of 46 feature films as of June 2023, 44 of which were theatrically released. Their catalogue includes several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release. The studio's first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film was Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken on June 30, 2023; their upcoming slate of theatrical films includes Trolls Band Together on November 17, 2023, and Kung Fu Panda 4 on March 8, 2024.
Christopher Michael Sanders is an American filmmaker, animator, illustrator, and voice actor. His credits include Lilo & Stitch (2002) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010), both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with Dean DeBlois, The Croods (2013) with Kirk DeMicco, and The Call of the Wild (2020). He is also known for creating the story behind Lilo & Stitch and for creating and voicing its latter title character in the film and its franchise.
Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, it was directed by John Stevenson, in his feature directorial debut, co-directed by Mark Osborne and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. The film stars the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Jackie Chan. The film, set in a version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, centers on a bumbling panda named Po (Black), a kung-fu enthusiast. When a notorious snow-leopard named Tai Lung (McShane) is foretold to escape at Chorh-Gom Prison, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior"—a prophesied hero worthy of reading a scroll that has been intended to grant its reader limitless power.
Dean Allan DeBlois is a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is best known for writing and directing the Oscar-nominated animated feature films Lilo & Stitch for Walt Disney Animation Studios, the How to Train Your Dragon film trilogy for DreamWorks Animation, and directing the documentary Heima about the Icelandic band Sigur Rós.
Shrek is an American media franchise made by DreamWorks Animation, loosely based on William Steig's 1990 picture book Shrek!. The series primarily focuses on Shrek, a bad-tempered but good-hearted ogre, who begrudgingly accepts a quest to rescue a princess, resulting in him finding friends and going on many subsequent adventures in a fairy tale world. It includes four computer-animated films: Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010). A short 4-D film, Shrek 4-D, which originally was a theme park ride, was released in 2003. Two television specials, the Christmas television special Shrek the Halls (2007) and the Halloween television special Scared Shrekless (2010), have also been produced. Two spin-off films were made centered around the character Puss in Boots: 2011's Puss in Boots and its sequel, 2022's The Last Wish. Additionally, a stage musical adaptation was made and premiered at Broadway for more than a year (2008–2010).
How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 American animated action fantasy film loosely based on the 2003 book of the same name by Cressida Cowell, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois from a screenplay by Will Davies, Sanders, and DeBlois, and stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig. The story takes place in Berk, a mythical Viking village; Hiccup, an undersized teen wishing to become a dragon slayer like the other Vikings, injures a rare Night Fury dragon but is unable to bring himself to kill it. He instead helps and befriends the dragon, and quickly discovers that things are not exactly as they seem in the conflict between Vikings and dragons.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a 2014 American animated action fantasy film loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the sequel to the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon and the second installment in the trilogy. The film was written and directed by Dean DeBlois, and stars the returning voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig, along with Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou, and Kit Harington joining the cast. Set five years after the events of the first film, the film follows twenty-year-old Hiccup and his friends as young adults as they encounter Valka, Hiccup's long-lost mother, and Drago Bludvist, a madman who wants to conquer the world.
How to Train Your Dragon is an American media franchise from DreamWorks Animation and loosely based on the eponymous series of children's books by British author Cressida Cowell. It consists of three feature films: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019). The franchise also contains five short films: Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010), Book of Dragons (2010), Gift of the Night Fury (2011), Dawn of the Dragon Racers (2014), and How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming (2019). A live-action reboot from Universal Pictures is in development and scheduled for release on June 13, 2025.
Since the early 2000s, DreamWorks Animation, an American animation studio, owned by NBCUniversal, has had an involvement in the creation and theming of amusement park rides and attractions. This article details the ventures of DreamWorks Animation in amusement parks.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a 2019 American animated action fantasy film loosely based on the book series by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is the sequel to How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and the third and final installment of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. Written and directed by Dean DeBlois and produced by Bonnie Arnold and Brad Lewis, the film stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, and F. Murray Abraham. The film follows Hiccup seeking a dragon utopia known as the "Hidden World" while coming to terms with Toothless' new bond with a female Fury, as they deal with the threat of a ruthless dragon hunter named Grimmel the Grisly.
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(FR) Il se lance ensuite dans l'élaboration de nouvelles bandes dessinées pour un journal local, Die Südostschweiz. / (EN) He start then creating new cartoons for a local newspaper "Die Südostschweiz."
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)DreamWorks CTO Lincoln Wallen went to the company's artists, asking them to daydream what kind of tools they would like to use in a perfect world. "I recall it very well," Simon Otto, head of character animation for Dragon 2, tells me in a suite at the studio's Glendale headquarters.
Nach 21 Jahren verlassen Sie die Dreamworks-Studios. Was haben Sie als Nächstes geplant? Otto: Ich bin jetzt «vogelfrei» (schmunzelt). Ich weiss, was ich möchte, aber noch nicht wo: Mein nächstes Ziel ist es, in der Regie von Animationsfilmen Fuss zu fassen. Wohin es mich genau verschlägt, ist aber noch offen.