* Click on images for pop-ups

Jamie Oliff is an animation addict pure and simple. From an early age he has had an almost sick attraction to the cartoon. Whilst munching on the delectable honey and peanut butter sandwiches of which he adores, he spent countless hours in front of the black and white television, mesmerized by the antics of Bugs, Daffy, Tom and Jerry and other wacky animals. Thinking that this must surely be the most fantastic thing ever, he proceeded to fill the Readers Digest condensed books (hard cover, about 3 inches thick) with scores of spastic, ill conceived attempts at animation. But it was enough to light a spark which glows to this day.

After graduating from the infamous Sheridan College of Socialist Animation in the year 1983, he quickly learned to push a broom in a factory, as animation was, at that time, in one of its inevitable slumps. Not to be deterred, he eventually traveled to Ottawa, the worlds capital of culture and animation, finally finding employ at the renowned Crawley Film Co. as a animator of the fledgling variety. Exactly one year later, having exhausted all aspirations of ever drawing another aardvark or raccoon, he made his way to Montreal to tackle the wonderful world of commercials at Productions Pascal Blaise. Exactly one year later (pattern forming here) armed with a plethora of French cuss words, he began a series of cross Canada jaunts that included Toronto, Vancouver and finally Ottawa (again). Such projects as The Nutcracker Prince, directing the award- winning half-hour The Woman Who Raised a Bear as Her Son and animation direction on the acclaimed Ren and Stimpy Show filled the years with laughter and good cheer.

Then in 1994, the Disney people called, and it was off to sunny California to work with some of the best animators around. Jamie was lucky to work with such luminaries as Dave Pruiksma, Tony Fucile, Nik Ranieri, Ken Duncan, Andreas Deja, as well as some mighty fine directors such as Roger Allers, Kirk Wise, Gary Trousedale , Ron Clements and John Musker. What followed was an education par- exellance in the art of classical animation. After spending almost 7 years at the drawing table at Disney Feature Animation, Jamie decided to make the leap to the C.G. world on Disney’s ill-fated Wild Life project. But every cloud has a silver lining and the opportunity to work on Mickey’s Philharmagic was a great way to learn about this challenging new tool. The Philharmagic show was a theme park show utilizing many of Disney’s most beloved characters in a C.G. environment. Mickey, Donald, Ariel, Jasmine and Simba were just a few of the characters that made their jump to C.G. at this time also.

Alas all good things must come to an end, so after a brief spell on Kangaroo Jack it was off to new challenges. Stints at Rhythm and Hues and Asylum followed and also a spell at Warner Brothers with Eric Goldberg and many old friends in the 2D world. Jamie now finds himself at Fox, storyboarding on a popular television series, filling any spare time with freelance animation and writing. His work with co-author Angie Jones on their new book, ‘’Thinking Animation’’ has been an all consuming project for the past two years and he is looking forward to its release. With input from over forty of the top people in animation in L.A. it should be a welcome addition to every animator’s bookshelf.

Jamie's thoughts on production:
Ah...production where the rubber meets the road. All that thinking, planning, re-thinking, re-planning, researching and goofing off is over. Now, it is time to apply all that you know in one concerted effort. The hours days and month ahead are the road to fame an fortune. Well, maybe not fame, and definitely not fortune, but what you do here is what gets on the screen. So, go forth and kick butt. And remember, that scene will be subjected to the steely gaze of all of your peers for the next thousand years to come. No pressure there.

Like the Feature?