NATPOP FERGUSON: JUST FOR ITSELF, IT WAS A REALLY GREAT EXPERIENCEįERGUSON: I love teaching the performance thing. NOW FERGUSON SHARES HIS EXPERTISE AND PASSION WITH STUDENTS AS DEPAUL UNIVERSITY’S ANIMATOR IN RESIDENCE. So you’d end up with this more deep performance. And then we would map out the subtext, and then we would animate to the subtext, then sync the mouth to match whatever the audio was saying. You look at how they’re saying it, what the subtext is. Instead, you know, you try and work out what they’re really saying when they’re doing that, whatever it is that’s coming out of their mouth.

THAT ABILITY TO RELATE WITH AN ANIMATED CHARACTER, JUST LIKE A REAL PERSON, COMES THROUGH NOT JUST IN THE WORDS THEY SAY BUT IN HOW THEY SAY THEM.įERGUSON: You don’t just animate straight to what they’re saying. And so all that came together whenever I’d animate animals. With something like “Lion King,” they were doing everything they could to make the animals move in a way that would seem like that particular kind of animal while still giving a performance that would register in a way that we as humans could relate. And I think that I kind of built a reputation on doing that kind of work, you know, something that people wouldn’t have thought up.įERGUSON: I started to understand some of the processes behind behaviors. THAT PASSION TURNED INTO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY.įERGUSON: It’s always been a huge priority with me that I would come up with something that’s unexpected. I went into zoology in university - all my notebooks had animation on the edges all around. I did it in all the margins of my books, both sides of the pages, all around the margins. NATSOUND MUSIC FROM BRIAN’S SAMPLE CLIP OF RAY’S SONG, “The Princess and the Frog,” “YOU’RE MY QUEEN OF THE NIGHT, SO STILL, SO BRIGHT, THERE’S SOMEONE… (FADES OUT)īRIAN FERGUSON STARTED DRAWING AS A CHILD AS A CHILD.įERGUSON: My first exposure to animation, I’d say, would be my mom teaching me to do flip decks in the margins of books.

This spring, Chicagoans can learn the art, philosophy and craft of character animation performance from Ferguson in his public character animation master classes. These days he shares his animation experience and expertise with DePaul students in the College of Computing and Digital Media. DePaul University’s Animator in Residence Brian Ferguson worked on those movies and more during his 23-year tenure as an animator at Disney Feature Animation. “Lion King,” “Aladdin,” “Mulan,” “Pocahontas.” These are classic Disney movies everyone knows and loves.

Disney's Aladdin by Don Ferguson