Bill Plympton

American, animator, cartoonist, graphic designer, and film maker Bill Plympton best known for his animation short 'Your Face'. He studied Graphic Design at Portland State University from 1964 and in 1968 left there and started attending the School of Visual Arts in New York where he was a cartooning major, he graduated there in 1969. 

Bill Plympton's 'Your Face'.

His illustrations and cartoons have been published many times in over 20 newspapers and many magazines, his original style is easily recognized. He has a published book called 'The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton' and by 2012, Plympton had created over 40 animated short films and six animated features. Bill Plympton animated the opening couch gag for the Simpsons episodes "Beware My Cheating Bart" in 2012, "Black Eyed, Please" in 2013 and "Married to the Blob" in 2014. Also at the Academy Film Archive, there's a collection of more than 180 Plympton items held there. 

The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton

All his life Plympton was interested in animation, when he was fourteen, he sent Disney some of his cartoons and offered up his services as animator. They wrote back and told him that while his drawings showed promise, he was too young. It wasn’t until 1983 that he was approached to animate a film. The Android Sister Valeria Wasilewski asked Plympton to direct and animate a film she was producing called 'Boomtown'. Immediately following the completion of “Boomtown,” he began his own animated film, “Drawing Lesson # 2.” Production of the live action scenes was slow due to inclement weather, so Plympton decided to start on another film - this was 'Your Face' (1987) and in 1988 won the Oscar nomination for best animated short. 

After this his career really got going, he started working for clients such as Trivial Pursuit, Nutrasweet, Taco Bell, AT&T, Nike, Geico, United Airlines and Mercedes-Benz. His work also started appearing with more and more frequency on MTV and in the increasingly popular touring animation festivals. After a string of highly successful short films (“One of Those Days,” “How to Kiss,” “25 Ways to Quit Smoking,” and “Plymptoons”), he began thinking about making a feature film. His shorts were winning prizes like crazy and he wanted a new challenge and it was his dream to make a full length film which was 'The Tune' and after this many other feature films were made during the space of his career - even today he continues to work under his own production name 'Plymptoons'.

Bibliography:

Information found at: 

• http://www.plymptoons.com/about/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Plympton