Richard Williams: no secrets, no pretty drawings!

Things came full circle for the revered Richard Williams when he became the first animator since Walt Disney to win a Special Achievement Oscar (for Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988) having served his apprenticeship under the animation greats at Disney and United Productions of America in the 1950s. Since then he's developed an interesting sideline: when he's not exercising his own creative muscles by doing what he terms ‘intelligent scribbles', Williams does the work he sees as his signature - passing on the exercises, the fitness workouts for all animators, based on the secrets he has amassed over the years.

It says a lot about his generosity as well as his genius that he would take his original animator's survival kit - already over an inch thick - and expand it to include even MORE trade secrets. The new expanded version of his book particularly focuses on the special nature of animals and their different ways of moving. That's not surprising when you consider his most famous characters are the Pink Panther and Roger Rabbit.

But that generous nature comes from his days as a ‘sponge', soaking up lessons from the best in the business, asking questions, learning the answers. It's because the greats didn't hold back that he doesn't believe in keeping secrets. In fact, he still calls himself  a student - he studies EVERYTHING: live action and film, life drawing and acting, anything he can to gain more understanding of movement. He claims he only started to ‘get' what it meant to be a ‘movement mechanic' at age 45, and today, at 76, he says he is ‘getting a lot better'. His mentor, Milt Kahl's mantra was that ‘there's no easier way of doing something than understanding it'. Williams retorts: ‘That may take 30 years of observing and learning. Sure it's hard work, but so is typing all day!'

Williams says he's been pleased with the effect his book has had on the industry. He feels his legacy will be both as a conduit for the work he is passing on to the new generation of animation artists, and also the work he's doing right now! He still considers his job fascinating and, for an audience of animators and film enthusiasts, that delight and wonder is infectious. His final word is advice as perfect for any profession as it is for animation: ‘All you need is knowledge and talent - and then work at it!' ‘It's discipline' he says: ‘Then you can do the pretty drawings!'

For more fitness tips, see http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com