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Do you know who are the 10 Best Animators of all time? We need to define what makes someone the finest in their industry before we can select who should be included on the list of the greatest animators of all time.
The following criteria are used to rank the animators in this list:
- Over their careers, each animator has produced a number of finished works.
- Not only have their works been commercially successful, but both critics and fans have praised them.
- Each of these animators has made a significant contribution to animation and culture in general.
10 Best Animators of all time
Max Fleischer
In the early 1900s, the American animation industry benefited from the creative work of animator and director Max Fleischer. His contributions to the discipline helped animation advance both artistically and in terms of new production techniques.
Fleisher produced many movies that are now regarded as classic animated works and were most well-known between roughly 1918 and 1960. Fleischer started making movies in the silent film era with characters like Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, and Popeye the Sailor in an animated form.
Max Fleischer frequently employed a distinctive animation style that resulted from his innovative rotoscope method. The rotoscope allowed for fluid and realistic movement, in contrast to the sluggish and artificial movements found in many early animated films.
The rotoscope made it possible for an animator to turn a live-action movie into an animated one by projecting the video onto a drawing board and tracing it. Despite the fact that the traditional rotoscope rig is no longer in use, rotoscope-style animation is still used in movies, television shows, and music videos.
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John Kricfalusi
John Kricfalusi, the creator of Spümc, is best known for his Nickelodeon program Ren & Stimpy. But his approach to and style of animation are what have had such a profound impact on the sector. He has given both novice animators and seasoned professionals alike a ton of advice on his art blog.
Not to mention how his contributions to the animation industry influenced the visual aesthetic of numerous contemporary cartoons. The outrageous fashion of Ren & Stimpy will probably be remembered by everyone who grew up in the 1980s or 1990s.
These timeless works are the ones that have a lasting impact on culture and animation.
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Matt Groening
Matt Groening is unquestionably one of the greatest animators of animated television, and animation is known for its use in both feature films and television.
The Simpsons, created by Groening, is the longest-running American sitcom as well as the longest-running animated television series of all time.
The series, which continues to be produced today, has won the hearts of several American generations with its sarcastic perspective on daily life.
In addition to The Simpsons, Groening is also well-known for Futurama, a program with a dedicated fan base despite having a smaller audience than The Simpsons. Futurama is so well-liked that it has twice been brought back from the brink of extinction. More than 20 years after the show’s debut, a new season is scheduled to debut the following year.
Groening currently oversees no fewer than three animated series, including The Simpsons, Futurama, and the most recent addition, Disenchantment.
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Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane is undoubtedly one of the most well-known animators in the world because he founded an entire empire of animated series.
Seth’s college project Life of Larry served as the inspiration for the creation of Family Guy. That ultimately became Larry and Steve, a children’s short that was later turned into a primetime animation and pitched to Fox.
Family Guy was canceled following season 3 despite gaining a sizable fan base. This was reversed a few years later when the program returned to television together with American Dad, a more recent program created in the same animation style as Seth’s!
Both programs, which are still in production, take precedence over his less well-known spinoff The Cleveland Show.
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Brad Bird
One of the most important people at Pixar Animation Studios, Brad Bird is also the man behind some of the studio’s most well-liked movies.
Bird spent his early years as an animator at Disney, where he worked on movies including The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron, before moving on to Pixar. After enjoying early success, he went on to make his directorial debut with The Iron Giant.
Later, Bird joined Pixar, where he wrote and directed Ratatouille, the author’s all-time favorite movie, as well as The Incredibles and its sequel. In addition to these features, Bird has contributed to a number of short films at Pixar and has been a member of the senior creative team for practically all of the studio’s productions.
Even though Bird has since ventured into live-action movies, his contribution to the establishment of one of animation’s most illustrious studios has kept his reputation alive.
John Lasseter
John Lasseter, one of the founding animators responsible for Pixar’s success, is arguably the towering figure of animation behind the studio’s classic movies.
He influenced the way 3D animation entered popular culture and was present during the creation of Toy Story. Toy Story, which debuted as the first totally digital movie, quickly topped the box office rankings after its release.
That speaks something about the movie in general, not simply its use of 3D animation. However, it’s also about the narrative, the writing, the voice acting, and the characters.
Both John Lasseter and Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, the other two co-founders of Pixar, contributed to the animation industry’s acceptance of 3D.
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
It might seem unjust to include two people in one entry, but these two animators’ careers are so closely related that it is acceptable to include both of them. The extremely successful Hanna-Barbera animation studios were founded and are currently run by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Hanna-Barbera was formerly the biggest TV animation studio in the business and produced hundreds of television shows and films between the 1950s and the early 2000s. The studio once created approximately two-thirds of all animated television series that were broadcast, and it went on to influence animated television’s aesthetic for years.
Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, and other popular Hanna-Barbera inventions are a few examples. Some of the studio’s numerous series is still produced in contemporary iterations today, in addition to the numerous movies, video games, and toys that have been made and published throughout the years.
After William Hanna passed away in 2001, the studio was merged into Warner Bros studios, which still owns the IPs.
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi is well recognized for being an animator and director who deviated from the norm for the majority of animated movies of the time. Shows like South Park, Family Guy, and King of the Hill ushered in an era of adult animation in the early 2000s.
Despite the genre’s allegedly recent emergence, Bakshi established himself by producing more mature and adult-oriented animated films in the 1970s.
The first X-rated animated movie was Fritz the Cat, which he directed and was based on a comic strip by R. Crumb. When it was first released, the movie drew harsh reviews, but it also aided Bakshi’s career.
He directed numerous additional movies in his grim manner over the following 20 years, including Heavy Traffic and Cool World, Wizards, and an animated Lord of the Rings adaption.
Bakshi has semi-retired from animation in his latter years, although he has continued to work on smaller projects, taken jobs instructing animation and art, and pursued his passion for painting.
Chuck Jones
You should be familiar with the name Chuck Jones if you have ever viewed any vintage Looney Tunes cartoons.
He is a notorious animator who oversaw the direction of the majority of well-known Warner Brothers cartoons in the 1950s. Chuck produced a lot of the cartoon cliches that we’ve all come to recognize, such as funny expressions, motions, positions, and overall wacky shenanigans.
The amazing thing about Chuck’s work, though, is how well it still holds up today. You may watch videos like Pronoun Trouble and laugh out loud even if you’re an adult. Not a simple task, that. That, in my opinion, is evidence that Chuck was a fantastic animator and filmmaker who was much ahead of his time.
Tex Avery
Another well-known character from Warner Bros. animation that everyone ought to be familiar with is Tex Avery. He collaborated with several endearing characters, including Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and Bugs Bunny.
But he also directed numerous well-known clips for MGM Cartoons. One particularly well-known example is the wolf who growls at the performer at the nightclub.
Although Tex’s work is varied, if you look through cartoons from the golden age of animation, I’m sure you’ll find a lot of things with his name on them that you’ll know.
Conclusion
Above is our list of 10 Best Animators of all time. The majority of the films and television programs you like were animated by hundreds of people whose names you would never know. But some animators stand out in particular.
Because of their contributions to the animation industry, the characters they developed, and their devotion to the craft, they are nearly household names. What about your thoughts about our list? Which animators are your favorites?
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