Animator of the Month: Denis Couchon

Employee of the Month: Denis Couchon
Originally uploaded by KevanShorey.

So, I bet you were all wondering what happened to my employee of the month thing, right? Well, here's the first of my illustrious peers to be thrust unceremoniously into the limelight - Monsieur Denis Couchon!

Now, Denis absolutely hates attention, so as a friend, it is of course, my duty to ignore this completely and write about the guy. As a matter of courtesy I told him of this post, and he squirmed and then
muttered that I am so "ollee-wood".

Heh.

Anyway...

Denis is classically trained (at Le Gobelins, in Paris, I believe) and upon graduating went to London to work on 2D films and commercials. He was Uli Meyer's assistant for a time, and I think worked with him on "American Tail 2". I afraid to say that this bit is a little nebulous, mainly because it gets complicated with his bouncing back and forth between France and Britain, but the important part is that our hero is an extremely accomplished 2D animator and draughtsman.

PDI snapped him up around 8 years ago to work on "Antz", and the lad hasn't left the building ever since, (Just kidding). After the success of Shrek, Denis was Senior Supervising Animator on "Madagascar", and along with Rex, the Head of Animation, they defined the animation style and rig design that let us have so much fun when production started.

I've learnt a lot from acting on his advice, for when he sidles over to my desk and casts his eye over my work the critique is usually right on the money. I'll press play and there will be silence for a couple of
minutes while he takes everything in. Then, like Mary Poppins opening her carpet-bag, the suggestions will start flying out and I'm left scrambling for a Post-It.
Thanks to an almost silly amount of talent, the comments will usually encompass most aspects of the animation, (whatever's broken, of course), but staging, asymmetry, arcs are things that seem to pop up frequently with my work. I've subsequently been much better at looking for these things, for Denis will jump on these straight out of the gate.

I thought that I would write about one of his shots, and should you wish you can cast your eyes over its greatness when you have the opportunity.

My favourite shot of his on "Madagascar" comes in the rescue on the beach. The boat arrives, and Marty decides to go back for Alex against the advice of Gloria and Melman. He goes to run off, and Denis
has Gloria grab his tail making him run on the spot, throwing up sand. There's so much amazing stuff going on in this shot, that it's really ace to play through slowly - Marty's expression as he strains to run, Gloria's pop as she lets go, and Melman's panicky expression as he frets about the situation. Once the DVD comes out, have a look and you'll see what I mean!

So there we go - the first "big-up" done. It only took a month or so, and I hope its subject doesn't come after me with a big, pointy stick!

UPDATE: If you know the lad, please feel free to write and add your testimonial!