Well, I promised all of you a daily blog and as soon as I do that, work kicks into high gear and suddenly I am on 12-14 hour days and this thing falls by the wayside. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my work very much, but I don’t like having to put everything else on a shelf until I get a free moment. As proof of this, I only found out about the sad passing of Ollie Johnston today.

I, (Like most animation teachers I am sure) use his book in my Intro to Animation class. Even though my students at first, seemed less than enthused to read about “old Disney movies”, I make them do it anyway. After all, He was in many ways one of the fathers of modern animation. As animators and artists, we would be wise not to pass up an opportunity to learn from one of the greats. And judging by the bookshelves of many of todays great young animators, there are few in this industry who have not been touched by Ollie’s work. Its comforting to know that Ollie Johnston and his work will remain very much alive in our hearts and minds for many years to come.

So there have been some very good tributes to Ollie in the past few days. Much better than anything I could write, and so I will do what I do best. Link you guys to somebody else’s stuff.

The Disney Company on Ollie Johnston.

Brad Bird on Ollie Johnston

Tonight I will have a drink in honor of the last of the Nine Old Men.

-Matt