DreamWorks Animation Comes to London

DreamWorks Animation

Jeffrey Katzenberg may have left DreamWorks animation, the studio he founded back in the late 1990s, but the old place feels much the same, and just as busy as ever.

I was there this past week visiting Stuart Sumida, the paleontologist-turned-movie consultant, who has advised on the science behind animal locomotion and behaviour since The Lion King back in 1993.

Stuart Sumida Explains the "Five Most Important Anatomical Rules for Animators"

Stuart Sumida

Palaeontologist Stuart Sumida was at Escape Studios last night, demonstrating to our students "The Five Most Important Anatomical Rules for Animators".

Stuart is a world expert on animal anatomy and creature locomotion, widely consulted for his technical expertise on animated feature films like “Spirit”- Stallion of the Cimarron”, "Beauty and the Beast" “Lion King”, "Zootopia" and and “How to Train Your Dragon”.

Stuart Sumida to Escape Wed 12th December

We're delighted to host another "Afternoon With..." event at Escape Studios, this time with paleontologist and animal locomotion expert Stuart Sumida, on Wednesday 12th December at 4.30pm.

Stuart occupies a rare cross-over space between science and entertainment, having advised countless Hollywood studios on the development of movies such as "the Lion King" and Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron".

Stuart Sumida Comes to Escape Studios

Stuart Sumida

Paleontologist and animal locomotion expert Stuart Sumida was at Escape Studios yesterday; we hosted over 60 artists from Framestore at our Shepherd's Bush campus as they attended a masterclass in animal anatomy.

Stuart's lecture to our visiting animators and VFX artists was all about how to make more believable and authentic animals and creatures in film.

Animal Locomotion for Animators - Free!

Animal Locomotion for Animators is a free eBook by paleontologist and animal locomotion expert Stuart Sumida, which you can download from his website here.

The book is an excellent resource on animal locomotion, and very useful right now for our students - who are currently tackling animal and creature locomotion.

Stuart Sumida is a paleontologist who also works in showbiz; he has acted as advisor to countless Hollywood films including Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron, where he gave extensive talks to the animators (including me) on horse locomotion. To find the free download, follow this link. And to read more about Stuart Sumida's work, see this blog post.

http://www.stuartsumida.com/ANIMATION/LocomotionImages.pdf

Stuart Sumida Reveals the Secrets of Quadruped Locomotion.

Stuart Sumida

Stuart Sumida is one of the leading experts in Hollywood for animal locomotion on feature films, not just on traditional 2D pictures like “Spirit”- Stallion of the Cimarron”, or “Lion King”, but also modern 3D films like DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon”.

Stuart describes himself as “a paleontologist who gets to work with animators” and, in between teaching anatomy to medical students, he consults on movies for Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks. I was personally lucky enough to work with him both on "Lion King" and also on "Spirit".

At last week's VFX Festival in Dublin, Stuart showed what makes him such a unique resource for animators dealing with the challenges of animal locomotion.