In remembrance of the wonderful Ollie Johnston, I thought I would share my story of meeting him, as well as pass along some of his poignant animation knowledge.

I met Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas when they came to give a lecture at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts). Being a student of animation, I was completely awestruck, and in situations like that you tend to forget what you wanted to ask. Having grown up wanting to be a Disney animator, I was very familiar with these two men and the work they had done. Since I was a teacher’s assistant, I was in charge of getting all of their AV materials set-up and ready to for their presentation, so I was privileged to sit and talk with them for a little while as they handed all of their materials to me. As soon as the head of the program introduced me as Rusty Mills, Ollie immediately responded with, "You should get that fixed.” Then Frank added, “It’s better than rusty nails,” to which I responded by looking at my fingers and replying, “Well, not yet.” We continued to joke as Ollie made light of the fact that he and Frank were beginning to get rusty under the nails. Their quick wit and humor really helped break the ice and made talking with them much easier.

They had just released their book, "Disney Animation: the Illusion of Life," and this was their first stop outside of the Disney studio to give a speech. They were still refining their talk, and as an early audience member I was fortunate enough to have them both sign my copy. I asked them a few questions about the best way to approach a new scene, and Ollie said, "Know your character before you ever put pencil to paper.” Frank added, “Understand how they think. Once you know them, begin to experiment drawing them with that knowledge in mind.” This advice has stuck with me over all of these years and I have always approached my scenes that way. The one thing I will always remember about Ollie and Frank is that no matter what amazing things they had accomplished, they were just two great people who were very willing to share their industry knowledge.

If there is one particular phrase attributed to Ollie over and over, it is, “What is the character thinking?” As an animator, that can be one of the most daunting, yet helpful assessments of a scene. Glen Keane once said that when he was showing some CG animation to Ollie, his response was, “…But what is she thinking?” Ollie often gave that same critique to many young animators.

Though we mourn the loss of such a great animator and individual, we can be comforted in the fact that he left behind an abundance of knowledge that we all can learn from and carry on. For continued Ollie inspiration, check out FrankandOllie.com, where you can find some of his anecdotes and advice, along with other site and book recommendations.

Goodbye Ollie, we’ll miss you.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am and is filed under Rusty's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.