My good friend and long time colleague, the one and only Richard Chavez.
If you're familiar with his work, you're aware of just how incredibly brilliant of an artist he is. His career spans many years, starting with DIC doing TV animation work in the 1980s, to Disney Features with stops in between, and then on to DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Animation, and now back to DreamWorks once again.
His feature work is particularly amazing as is his place in animation history.
He worked in Visual Development on Mulan, was among the original group of artists recruited from Disney by Mr. Katzenberg to start DreamWorks Feature Animation, co-art directed Prince of Egypt, designed on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron, and also Sinbad.
He was literally, the very first artist to go on staff with Sony Pictures Animation when they launched their feature division. He went from Open Season, to Surf's Up, to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and is now spearheading Visual Development on new super secret projects at DreamWorks.
His work isn't online yet, there's no site dedicated to his art, but there will be someday, and when you see what this man has done you'll be walking around with a drool bucket. I'm working on getting him to go in the direction of showcasing his art. Someday the world will be able to see and experience his magnificent creative skills.
Meanwhile, I'll be posting a few more photos of his visit.
Richard is now associated with The Animation Academy in Burbank and will be making more frequent appearances along with spending time helping to educate our students.
Back in a minute with some pictures.
