Based in the US
Damon Bard - For 22+ years now, Damon Bard has been working as a freelance artist in the entertainment industry primarily as a sculptor but also as a character development artist and designer of characters and creatures. Since then, he has contributed to nearly 30 films and other various projects during his career. Damon has also been fortunate enough to have worked along side some of the most talented, acclaimed and awarded artists and directors in the industry and on a few of the most successful films ever made; Kung Fu Panda II, How To Train Your Dragon, Coraline, Kung Fu Panda, Ratatouille, Shrek 2, Star Wars: Episode 3 and Madagascar to name a few.
Bruce Bickford - Bruce Bickford was born in 1947 in Seattle Washington. He began animating clay in the summer of 1964 at the age of 17. He graduated from high school in 1965; and engaged in military service from 1966 to 1969. Upon his return he resumed animation, and did his first line animation in 1970, then in 1973 he went looking for work in Los Angeles-where he met Frank Zappa. He worked for him from 1974 through 1980. Afterwards, he returned to Seattle and resumed animating mostly his own personal work.
Webster Colcord - Started with the Vinton Studio (now Laika Entertainment) at the age of 18. An unorganized shop that was an excellent place to learn. As an animator, one needed to have a working knowledge of camera and lighting setup, armature building, sculpting, illustration, editing, and track reading. Projects that I worked on inlcuded "A Claymation Christmas Special", "Meet the Raisins", "Michael Jackson's Moonwalker" and commercials for Tang, Nabisco, Post Raisin Bran, and many, many others. I talked to Michael Jackson on the phone once.
Bob Deaver - Bob Deaver has taught animation at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Advancing Technology, and The Art Institute of Portland. He has animated for Calibre Digital Pictures, Will Vinton Studios/Laika, and many freelance clients. Bob's computer-generated work includes the second season of the BBC's "Ace Lightning" and commercials for M&Ms, Clorox, Miracle Whip, Hallmark, and Pepcid AC. His stop motion credits include two seasons of Eddie Murphy's series, the "PJs".
Teresa Drilling - Experienced animation professional, specializing in stop-motion work. International features, television, and commercials experience. Excels at work in multiple styles and techniques. Continuing expansion of creative, management, and technical/digital skills on high-visibility productions. Directing, supervising and team leadership skills and experience. Designer, developer and animator.
Joel Fletcher - Based in Los Angeles, Joel Fletcher creates character animation and visual effects for feature films, commercials, and video games. Although most of his current professional work is achieved by computer, he continues to pursue a love of the traditional fine arts of drawing, sculpture, and canvas painting.
John Frame - has been making sculpture in Southern California since the early 1980s; his work has been exhibited extensively in the United States as well as in Europe, Japan, and China. His work can be found in more than 300 public and private collections, including the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Orange County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Palm Springs Desert Museum, the Renwick Gallery of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, and the University of Southern California.
Tom Gibbons - Tom is a CG character animator with roots in sculpture, painting, stop-motion, digital manipulation and collage. Gibbons' artwork reflects a childhood fascination not with life after death, but with the pieces of death that rest beneath everyday life. It is the hidden detritus unearthed from beneath the Bright and Shiny, the bent and broken forms that make up the underpinnings of the world, exhumed and rebuilt with string and paper, and forced to play the part of life once again.
Jason Gottlieb - Jason Gottlieb is an award winning stop motion animator living in Los Angeles, CA. Jason started studying animation when he was a child and first showed his work in public at the age of 14. After witnessing an entire theater laugh and be entertained by his work he knew he’d found his calling. He would be a stop motion animator. The power of animation to entertain and evoke emotional responses was the greatest feeling he’d ever had. This feeling was later reenforced when he made a parody commercial of Apple Computer’s ‘switch’ campaign. Using stop motion animation his parody starred a clay monkey. Though it was crude and only took a weekend to create the video went viral. Years before youtube, it spread around the internet and gained mainstream attention on TechTV, Macworld Magazine, The Boston Globe, and many other media outlets. This is when Jason really learned how powerful a funny animated short film could be.
Sam Holland - Stop Frame puppets is a company specializing in the construction of stop motion puppets for the animation industry. It’s founder Sam Holland, started his career in live action, learning the art of puppet construction and puppet effects at Jim Hensons Creature shop, then working at Asylum Model and effects, learning new skills within one of the finest model making companies around.
Tony Merrithew - An apprenticeship at Will Vinton studios in 1986 took him from clay sculptor to master animatorby 1991 where he performed Emmy award winning animation for the California Raisins, Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker", Domino's pizza Noid, Claymation Christmas, Teenage Ninja turtles, Burger King, Nissan, Chrysler, Three musketeers, Samsung, and many more. Since then he has worked for Laika (formerly Vinton's) as a lead maquette sculptor for the movies Coraline, Harold and Kumar, and the television commercials, Samsung, Planter's peanut, light life, Premier Protein, Honda, and others during 2013 that are too early to mention.
Lionel Ivan Orozco "I have always had an interest in gadgeteering, tinkering, and particularly, Stop Motion Animation, but at the time, I thought that was totally beyond my abilities. It was only until much later in my age, that I decided to call it quits with the so-called "straight" 8 to 5 jobs and attempt to pursue work in animation, craftwork and effects. After wandering around, working for little or no-pay on effects jobs, I landed my first real animation job on the "New Adventures of Gumby" (1987-88) television series which was produced in Sausalito, California. The requirements for being an animator on the show were minimal. Art Clokey (creator of Gumby) was happy to see almost any kind of Stop Motion demo reel, and even if it was not that good, we were still hired! As raw stop motion beginners we were actually students learning how to animate on a real TV show! This is where I first met Anthony Scott, now a very talented & well respected Stop Motion Animator with additional skills as a computer animator."
Justin Rasch - I am a 2d - stop motion and CG animator working in the games industry . I have been working professionally for 18 years and have been involved in Games, Television and Feature animated projects during my career. I am presently a Cinematic Animator at BLIZZARD telling amazing story's through the magic of CG animation. I am also a Director/Writer/Animator of my own films under the lable {Stunt Puppet Pictures}.Using stop motion and traditional animation to create films for film Festival and DVD distribution.
Bec Sloane - Puppets, production design and animation. With puppet roots in the Jim Henson Co. and a foot stuck in the film industry, Bec has since been fully immersed in building worlds and characters for stop motion. Her directorial debut, an adaptation to Wagner's 'The Flying Dutchman' screened in 2017 accompanied by live orchestra at Lincoln Center. Other recent work includes two stop-motion animated documentaries and a music video for Mattel. She is currently writing a narrative children's TV and book series.
Kate Stransky - Kate Stransky is a director and designer with a specialty for creating miniature worlds and the creatures that inhabit them. She creates miniature sets and models, puppets, masks, and sculptures for film, television, theatre, animated films, museums, and toy companies. Kate received a Bachelors of Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a focus in stop-motion animation, film and puppet theatre. She also studied experimental theatre and set design in Avignon, Nice, and Paris, France and puppet theatre in Prague, Czech Republic.
Based in Europe
Andre Masters - Andre has been a professional model maker since 1995, working either as an employed technician or as a self employed freelance contractor. In March 2004 he launched his own model making company called ALL HANDMADE, based in Odiham, on the Surrey Hampshire border. Since then the workshop facility has moved to Maidstone, Kent and provides a wide variety of work including commercial advertising, exhibition work, still photography models, private commissions and feature film productions.
Andrew Robinson - Andrew is a video Director at Powster, specialising in the field of Stop motion animation and motion graphics. He graduated from the Arts University College at Bournemouth, Studying BA Animation Production.
Barry JC Purves - Barry's films have won over sixty major international awards, including Grand Prix, Best Director, Best Film, and OSCAR and BAFTA nominations. As well as his films, Barry has directed and animated some 70 commercials, title sequences and animation inserts for films and pop promos. His book Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance was published in 2008 by Focal Press and six of his films with commentaries and interviews were issued on DVD by Potemkin in 2008 as Barry Purves: His Intimate Lives. His second book Stop-motion was published in 2010 by AVA Publishing.
Ben Trevellyan Rogers - Ben has worked in the industry for over 11 years with a skill base that is very extensive. He is constantly developing continuously with every new challenge. He strives to meet the needs of his clients in the most effective and professional way possible. He takes pride in having run numerous projects, worked along side others and even run solo in a cold empty workshop.
Richard Svensson - "I´m into it, and if you are too, chances are you´ll find something to like on my little page. I´m born 1974, live in Sweden and have been creative for as long as I can remember. I´m a hobbyist stop-motion animator, amateur film-maker, mask- and prop-maker and cartoonist. I do work for myself, some local theatre groups and some LARP friends. Please browse around. If you see something you´re impressed by you might think ”I like that. I´ll try doing it myself!” That´s good. If you don´t like what I do and think ”This is utter crap. I can do better!” That´s equally good. Just as long as you actually go ahead and DO something!! Don´t shy away from your creativity."
Based in Australia
Nick Hilligloss - Nick's website is a great video tutorial resource for animators of all ages. His videos are separated by theme and animators can learn about pretty much anything from creating puppets to lighting and camera rigs to props.