Introduction

Welcome to my new animation blog!

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Dan Harder, and I have worked in the animation business since 1987. During those years I have been involved in pretty much all aspects of the production of classically animated movies. First and foremost however, I am an animator.

I have wanted for a while now to create a place where I can share with the few people, who may be interested, some of the drawings and other production material that is otherwise just lying around in boxes in the attic (or nowadays filed away in computer storage), and is therefore never seen by anyone outside of the productions.

For those of us working with animation, it is sometimes interesting to see the planning material and rough development artwork that lie behind the neatly cleaned-up or CGI-rendered final films.

Among the things I will share with you are inspirational sketches, character designs, location designs, storyboards, color models, background layouts, color backgrounds, rough animation key poses and pencil tests, CGI character model development, CGI playblasts and whatever else I can find in the old archives.

Working at my desk at Sullivan Bluth Studios,
Dublin, Ireland 1989.

Though not directly related to animation, I may also add some examples of my work in illustration, painting, computer games and other fun things. Maybe I'll even throw in the odd anecdote from my life as an animator.

It is my hope that you will find some of it inspiring, perhaps even educational, in your continued quest for excellence in the forever challenging fields of art and animation.

Enjoy!

Dan Harder