Acme Punched! A 2D Animation Blog: No. 194: Richard Williams, 1933-2019

Richard Williams Passes

It was with shock that I learn of the loss of life of Richard Williams final week, simply after I had posted about him (No. 193: Web page One-eleven). He was 86 years previous, however that does not reduce the remorse I felt for his absence from the 2D animation world; he loomed bigger than anybody in his reverence and enthusiasm for drawn animation, and for all that he did to attempt to maintain it and make it right into a noble artwork.

Now we have his nice ebook, The Animator’s Survival Equipment, and we have now the educational DVD assortment that he created afterwards, and we have now all his movies and drawings to treasure and study from, and although I’m given to grasp that he may very well be tough to work with, he made a fantastic optimistic influence on animators all over the world. His work will proceed to encourage and stimulate for many years to return, I’m positive.

What we do not have is the finished characteristic movie that he had devoted a lot of his life to, the ill-fated The Thief and the Cobbler, which was taken out of his fingers after which “accomplished” by a crew that had no sense of what the challenge may very well be. But nonetheless, the unfinished model (The Thief Recobbled) that we do have is a marvel to see.

As I’ve stated, I used to be privileged to attend the primary of his Grasp Courses, and I acquired to expertise his charisma and his dedication first hand. An amazing raconteur, he entertained us with hilarious imitations of such animation personalities as Milt Kahl and Grim Natwick whereas on the identical time impressing us with the lore he had realized on the ft of these two and as many different of the growing older golden age animators as he may muster. Earlier than they handed away, he employed and realized all he may from Ken Harris, Artwork Babbitt and Abe Levitow, after which he scribed all of it down for us in his clear and detailed means, for he was not solely a fantastic designer and artist and animator, he was a fantastic instructor as effectively.

A few pages from my private pocket book made through the Animation Grasp Class in 1995.