SWEETLAND, Doug

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Birth/Death

Birth: 1975 (estimation)

Occupation/Title

Animator, Director, and Storyboard Artist at Pixar

Bio Summary

-Grew up in Pennsylvania
-Attended CalArts in 1993
-1994 joined Pixar to help animate Toy Story
-His first short “Yo,yo boy” was done on a Amiga computer
-Wanted to draw and do 2D
-Pixar was a perfect fit for him because their philosophy is not based on the tools but the work created.
-His second year was during the Northridge Earthquake
-CalArts was in shambles, offered students back their tuition and could return in the fall.
-Doug had offers from various studios, only place that was hiring at that time was Pixar
-Pete Doctor’s at Pixar was interested in Doug’s abilities, and Doug credits him with giving him his break
-Pete mentored and trained him in his spare time
-Didn’t know anything really about the animation process
-He was a straight-ahead animator, and then on A Bug’s Life he started doing pose-to-pose

Early Life/Family

-Drew a lot as a kid, just wanted to draw cartoons, liked to copy from comic strips
-“drawing was linked to my identity” (splinedoctors interview)
-Parents were really supportive
-When he was a sophomore in high school, he said he wanted to be an animator
-Mother sat him down, had him research schools that taught animation (Cal Arts & Sheraton), write to Warner Brothers & Disney
-Made a trip to LA, visited CalArts, brought his portfolio
-CalArts accepted him as a junior in high school

Education/Training

1994- dropped out of his last year at CalArts and joined Pixar to help animate Toy Story

Career Outline

Began his career as an animator on Toy Story. He continued to work as an animator on Pixar’s films up until 2008, when he directed his first short Presto.

Comments On Style

His advice is to plan out your animation shots. Also, animating pose-to-pose is a good way to methodically plan out your shot.

Influences

Comic strips, Saturday morning cartoons (WB), Disney, Tex Avery

Personality

“A funny thing about Doug was he went to school for animation and his mom convinced him to go into computer animation - his first job was working on Toy Story” (movieweb.com)

Anecdotes

Miscellaneous

Filmography

Toy Story (1995) animator
A Bug’s Life (1998) animator
Toy Story 2 (1999) animator
Monsters, Inc. (2001) directing animator
Finding Nemo (2003) animator
Boundin’ (2003) lead animator
The Incredibles (2004) animator, storyboard artist
Cars (2006) supervising animator
Presto (2008) Written by, Director


Honors

2000 Annie Award Nominated for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation (Toy Story 1999)
2003 Annie Award Won for Outstanding Character Animation (Monsters, Inc. 2001)
2004 Annie Award Won for Outstanding Character Animation (Finding Nemo 2003)

Related Links

Bibliographic References

http://splinedoctors.com/Podcasts/Doug_Sweetland_1.m4a
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0842339/
http://www.movieweb.com/news/NE85whc9EqIlb8

BIO-AAA-479

Contributors To This Listing

Jennifer Fujikawa

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