Feedback: Andy J. Latham

I'm 24 and live in the United Kingdom. I started my professional career as a physicist, spending five years studying the subject at the University of Manchester. However the pull of my childhood longing to be an animator was strong enough to make me give up the physics and move on. I currently work for a corporate video company as an editor and videographer- not quite animation, but it's a start! I have been trying to improve my drawing techniques over the past year or so and am beginning to use what I have learned to start animating. It's hard work putting in hours of drawing as well as a full-time job, but when you see a good result on your page it's worth it! Other than physics and art, my interests lay in the areas of photography, music and movies. I play the guitar and am a keen amateur photographer. My drawings and animations can be seen at www.andysanimation.co.uk where you will also find a link to my animation blog.

I'd say my favourite Animation Archive post would have to be the one about Disney's version of the Uncle Remus Stories book. The illustrations there are beautiful in terms of how the characters are drawn, how the scenes are painted and the general composition of each picture. It's inspirational!

That is the power of the Animation Archive- to inspire. These images are rarely seen, and it's so important that they are presented to those of us wishing to learn. My knowledge of animation has for a long time mainly revolved around Disney and Warner Bros. The archive has helped to broaden my knowledge and let me get to know a little about the animators behind the pencils.

I do have a couple of suggestions. Firstly, it would be good if you could include some video clips of animations you have in the archive, particularly if they are rare ones that we can't see on DVD. Secondly, what would be really great (but I don't know how feasible it is) is if any top animators of the past or present could write posts from time to time. These posts could form a series of drawing/animation lessons from the masters.

Fantastic stuff though, Steve! -Andy J. Latham

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