BACKGROUND ON
RON
Ron Dias is
one of today's outstanding animation artists, who over
the past 45 years, has contributed to almost every animation studio
in Los Angeles. His work has appeared on television, in
commercials, feature films and educational films.
Born in
Honolulu, Hawaii, after graduating high school, he perused his
childhood dream receiving formal art training at The Honolulu
Academy of Art and the Famous Artists Schools in Westport,
Conn.
In 1956 Ron
won a National contest for his design of a U.S. postage
"Children's Friendship" stamp. He was given a jet flight to
Washington D.C. and a meeting with President Eisenhower, The First
Lady, the acting Postmaster General, and Lady Butterfield, who
sponsored the contest.
Ron began his
animation career with Disney Studios in 1956 where he worked as an
inbetweener and clean-up animator on "Sleeping Beauty". Ron's
desire to become involved in animation was sparked when, at the
tender age of 6, he saw "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". He was
so taken by the film and its beautiful art that he decided, then
and there, that he would someday become an animation artist. Ron
appeared as the guest speaker on Disney animation at the City of
Kawaguchi's World Festival, on July 25th, 1998, in Kawaguchi,
Japan.
While Ron
started his career in animation, he made his mark on this art form
and has spent the bulk of his career painting beautiful backgrounds
for some of our favorite animated features and TV shows. Over the
years Ron has contributed to so many feature and TV projects for so
many studios, it is best to highlight a "short-list" of his work
through the years.
Columbia
Pictures, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Brothers Pictures, and M.G.M.
Pictures employed Ron's talents between 1958-60.
1960s
After the
completion of "Sleeping Beauty", the 1960s found Ron illustrating
Disney characters for Golden Books and creating backgrounds for
some of Hanna-Barbara's most successful series and features, such
as "Hey There, it's Yogi Bear"; "Jonny Quest"; "The Man Called
Flintstone"; "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "The New Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn". During the 60's, Ron also created backgrounds
for DePatie-Freleng's theatrical shorts featuring the Pink Panther,
Daffy Duck, and Speedy.
1970s
Ron was
really busy during the 1970's. In addition to creating backgrounds,
his experience and talent lead to positions as character designer,
key background artist and art director. He painted backgrounds for,
among others, U.P.A.'s "Uncle Sam Magoo"; several educational and
commercial films; Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings"; "A Flintstone
Christmas"; Chuck Jones' "Return of Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2
Century"; and "Bugs Bunny Busting Out All Over".
1980s
During the
Disco days of the 1980's, Ron added "Color Stylist" to his resume.
We're sure that you appreciated some of Ron's work in Don Bluth's
"The Secret of NIMH"; the arcade game "Dragon's Lair" and both the
TV special and arcade game "Space Ace"; "The Chipmunk Adventure"
and the Toon Town backgrounds in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (Ron was
Art Director for the Toon Town backgrounds).
1990s
In 1990, Ron
was Key Background Artist on "Rover Dangerfield" and in 1992, while
freelancing at Disney Art Editions, he became Art Director and
Color Stylist for Disney's "Little Mermaid" TV Special and series.
In 1993, he became Art Director for Disney Art Editions which
produced Disney's limited edition animation cels. In this position,
Ron was responsible for selecting the original backgrounds to be
reproduced for these cels. However, in the numerous cases where the
original was lost or otherwise unavailable, it was Ron's
responsibility to painstakingly create a background that was
faithful to the original in every detail, Ron has painted over 90
backgrounds for these limited editions. You will see his work on
Snow White's "Heigh Ho", "A New Home", and "Snow White At The
Wishing Well"; "Bella Notte"; "Peter's Seamstress" "Sleeping
Beauty", and the new "Dream Duet" sericel as well as countless
others. In 1987, Ron created for the One Stop Poster Co., a
special poster promoting "Snow White's" 50th Anniversary and also a
poster for "Beauty and the Beast". Through Creative Capers, a
Disney subsidary, Ron also creates the art for Disney's interactive
CD-ROMs. Although Ron has contributed his talents to virtually
every major studio over the past 45 years, because of his love for
Disney, he has maintained a continuous relationship with the studio
as a freelance artist even while working elsewhere.
2000 and
Beyond
Ron is
currently working on fine art paintings during his free time. Being
the perfectionist that he is, he is not satisfied until his works
exhibit the same subtle "magic" that shows through in all of his
animation work. He is now in the Big Sur area of California to
pursue his interests in fine art. We can all agree that this
art-form and its fans have truly benefited from Ron's creativity
over the years and we hope that he will continue to share his
immense talent with us for many, many, more.
CREDITS
- Eagle
Animation Corporation - Dale Robertson
THE MAN FROM BUTTON
WILLOW
Feature Length Animated Motion Picutre
1st Feature Screen Credit: Background Artist 1962-1963
Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc.
HEY THERE, IT'S YOGI
BEAR
Feature Length Animated Motion Picture
2nd Feature Screen Credit: Background Artist 1964
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
JONNY
QUEST
T.V. Series
Screen Credit: Background Artist 1964
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
PINK PATHER, DAFFY DUCK,
andSPEEDY
GONZALES
Theatrical Shorts
Screen Credit: Background Artist 1965
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND or WHAT'S A NICE
KID LIKE YOU DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?
T.V. Special for A.B.C.
Screen Credit: Background Artist 1966
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
THE MAN CALLED
FLINSTONE
Feature Length Animated Motion Picture
3rd Feature Screen Credit: Background Artist 1966
Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc.
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
with Gene Kelly,
T.V. Special for N.B.C.
Screen Credit: Background Artist 1967
Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc.
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY
FINN
T.V. Series for N.B.C.
Screen Credit: Background Artist 1968
U.P.A. Pictures Inc.
UNCLE SAM MAGOO
T.V. Special for N.B.C.
Screen credit: Background Artist 1970
Vaccaro Associates Film Educational Films.
Filmstrips
Slide Presentations
Animation
Painted Backgrounds for an award winning medical animated film
Medical Association:
DIZZINESS-- THE INNER
EAR 1970-1973
Paul Carlson Cartoons
Commerical & Educational Films
Films for Moody Institute
Films for General Electric
Character Design and Key Background Artist 1974-1975
Sanario Film Corporation of America
METAMORPHOSIS (WINDS OF
CHANGE)
Feature Length Animated Motion Picture
4th Feature Screen Credit: Background Artist 1975-1976
Bakshi Productions
Tolkien's LORD OF THE
RINGS
Feature Length Animated Motion Picture 1977
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
A FLINSTONE
CHRISTMAS
T.V. Special
Screen Credit: Background Artist 1977
Fantasy Fair Inc.
THE WORLD OF HANS CHRISTIAN
ANDERSON
Character Designs and Sets 1978
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
THE WANG DANG DOODLE
A Movie Presentation for Julie Andrew and Blake Edwards
Feature Length Animated Motion Picture 1978
Ron Cambell
TREASURE ISLAND
T.V. Special for Blue Marble Studios, New York
Screen Credit: Background Artist 1978
Stribling-Ludwig Productions
CHARLIE THE LEPRECHAUN a
Movie Presentation
Feature Length Animated Motion Picture
Screen Credit: Art Director 1979
Chuck Jones Enterprises
THE PUMPKIN THAT COULDN'T
SMILE
Daffy Duck in DUCK DODGERS IN THE
241/2 CENTURY
BUGS BUNNY BUSTING OUT ALL
OVER
T.V. Specials for C.B.S.
Art Director Key Background Artist 1978-1980
Don Bluth Productions Inc.
THE SECRET OF NIMH
5th Feature Screen Credit: Background Artist 1980-1983
Tom Carter Productions
HUCKS LANDING
6th Feature Screen Credit: Background Artist 1983
Don Bluth Productions Inc.
DRAGONS LAIR and SPACE AGE
Arcade Game Credit: Background Artist 1984
Ruby Spears Enterprises Inc.
SPACE ACE
T.V. Special
Screen Credit: Key Background Artist 1984
Bagdasarian Productions
THE CHIPMUNK
ADVENTURE
7th Feature Screen Credit: Key Background Artist 1985-1986
Touchstone Disney Pictures and Steven Spielberg's Amblin
Entertainment
WHO FRAMED ROGER
RABBIT
8th Feature Screen Credit: Key Background Artist 1987-1989
Warner Bros./Rodney Dangerfield/Tom Whilhite and Willard Carrol
(Producers) Hyperion Productions
ROVER DANGERFIELD
9th Feature Screen Credit: Background Color Styling 1990-1991
Disney T.V.
THE LITTLE MERMAID
Special & Series C.B.S.
Screen Credit: Art Director, Color Styling 1992
Disney Art Edition's
Disney Gallery Limited Art
Art Director - Freelancing 1992
Full Time 1993-1995
Creative Capers / Disney CD-ROM
Full-time 1996-1999
Art Director
Disney Imagineering Tokyo
"Disney Sea" murals
Freelancing 1998
2000
The Disney Galleries and Store "Cinderella" Art for Marketing
Alan
White Studio
Disney Records. New CD Cover Art
Stribling Productions
Pre-Production Art, Color Keying, Story Boards, Backgrounds
Joel Seibel Productions Concept Art for P.B.S. TV Kids Show
2001
Collaboration with Wyland
Animation Workshops
Lithos • Prints • Fine Arts
Since 1956 I have been connected with the Disney Studios in
Consumer Products, Animation and Children's books.
