Bill Plympton

From Free net encyclopedia

Bill Plympton is an American animator whose short films have been generally well received at American animation festivals. His most recognized film is the 1987 Academy Award-nominated Your Face.

[edit]

Biography

Bill Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon on April 30, 1946 to Don and Wilda Plympton. From 1964 to 1967, he attended Portland State University, where he was a member of the film society and worked on the yearbook. In 1968, he transferred to the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY.

Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been printed in The New York Times and The Village Voice, as well as the magazines Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Penthouse, and National Lampoon. His political cartoon strip "Plympton", which began in 1975, eventually was syndicated and appeared in over twenty newspapers. His distinctive style is easily recognized.

Plympton is considered the first animator to draw every frame for an animated feature film entirely by himself. Signe Baumane, also a director and animator, has been inking and painting Plympton's cells for many years. As of 2006, Plympton has created 26 animated short films, 5 animated features, and has just announced another feature. He has also published a comic book of his cartoons, The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton. Plympton usually publishes a comic book of his feature before he releases the feature to raise money for the film. Plympton has teamed up with other well known independent animators from NYC and has released two DVD's full of independent animated shorts called Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 1 & 2.

In 2005, Plympton's Short Film, Guard Dog, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Guard Dog did not win the award, the award was given to Chris Landreth for his short film, Ryan. In 2005, he animated a video for Kanye West's Heard 'Em Say.

He travels the world, making appearances for his films.

[edit]