Alan Becker

Alan Becker (born May 18, 1989) is an American online animator, YouTube personality and artist, best known for creating the ''Animator vs. Animation'' web series, its shorts (both ''Animator vs. Animation Shorts''Commonly abbreviated as ''AvA Shorts''. and ''Actual Shorts'') and its spin-offs, these include: ''Animation vs. Minecraft'' (and its shorts, ''Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts''Commonly abbreviated as ''AvM Shorts''), ''Animation vs. YouTube'' (featuring many well-known YouTubers as well as early YouTube viral videos), ''Animation vs. League of Legends'', ''Animation vs. Pokémon'', ''Animation vs. Super Mario Bros'' and ''Animation vs. Arcade Games''. on both Newgrounds and YouTube.

Early life and education

Becker was born in Dublin, Ohio. He graduated from Scioto High School in 2007, and attended Columbus College of Art and Design, graduating in 2013.

Career

When he was growing up, Becker's family owned one computer that was shared between him and his siblings. It was through this computer that he began experimenting with pixel art, beginning in 2001. Two of Becker's favorite animated short films were the 1953 ''Looney Tunes'' short ''Duck Amuck'' and the 1959 adaptation of ''Harold and the Purple Crayon'', both of which contained animated characters using their surroundings to draw things out, which would become major inspirations for his later works. Eventually becoming homeschooled in 2005, Becker received his first laptop, an Acer TravelMate, which he used to begin animating using Macromedia Flash (later Adobe Flash Professional and currently Adobe Animate); his first official animation, titled ''Pink Army'', was posted on Newgrounds in 2006, where it did well.

On June 3, 2006, at the age of 17, Becker posted the hit animation ''Animator vs. Animation'' on Newgrounds, where it quickly went viral and led to it being re-uploaded on various media websites. According to Becker, an unnamed company offered him $75 for "exclusive rights" to "Animator vs Animation", but he decided against it, heeding the advice of Steven Lerner, owner of Albino Blacksheep. Later, he discovered that his animation had been uploaded to the notorious entertainment website eBaum's World without permission (for which the site was infamous of doing to many other video creators). After Steven Lerner used this as evidence in a legal battle against eBaum's World, Becker accepted a $250 payment for use of the animation. However, following a change of heart, he returned the money and had the animation removed.

Atom Films persuaded and funded Becker to create a sequel after the success of his first animation, and so he created ''Animator vs. Animation II''. In 2007, then 14-year-old Charles Yeh offered to create an online game based on the animation, and after looking at his impressive work, Becker agreed to collaborate with him. Soon, after many requests for a third animation, ''Animator vs. Animation III'' was finally released in 2011 and Becker intended to make it the last in the series, stating that he "wanted to make sure that no sequel could come out of that" by "ending the video with the Blue Screen of Death as if the computer itself was dead" and the animation series couldn't go any further. Despite this, he has stated that his animation teacher Tom Richner had inspired him to continue on YouTube after his internships to Pixar were turned down two years in a row. His fourth animation, ''Animator vs. Animation IV'', received over $11,000 in crowdfunding on Kickstarter.

Becker has also created works related to the video game ''Minecraft'', such as the video ''Animation vs. Minecraft'' and a server based on the Studio Ghibli film ''My Neighbor Totoro'', which was noted by '' Smithsonian ''magazine that Becker had paid tribute to Studio Ghibli's vision in another one of its films, Spirited Away, by rebuilding an explorable version of the haunted bathhouse from the movie. Becker also created a series of "how-to" videos regarding animation based on the " 12 basic principles of animation" which was uploaded on his secondary YouTube channel "Alan Becker Tutorials".

On November 21, 2017, Becker announced that he was working with Insanity Games to create a card game based on his animations. It was released in May 2018.

Starting on November 18, 2017, Becker started making new short ''Minecraft'' animations, called the ''AvM Shorts'', due to the fact that ''Animation vs. Minecraft'' was starting to receive more attention, beating ''Animator vs. Animation'' as the most-viewed video on his channel. On June 30, 2018, at 09:44:52 EST, ''Animation vs. Minecraft'' reached 100 million views on YouTube, along with a video showing its spin-off, ''Animation vs. League of Legends''.

On October 29, 2019, Becker joined #TeamTrees and created a fundraising video titled "Blue's New Superpower"; he also donated $5,100 to the organization.

On December 5, 2020, Becker released ''Animator vs. Animation V'', a collection of his ''Animator vs. Animation Shorts'' episodes.

On December 11, 2021, Becker joined #TeamSeas, a continuation of #TeamTrees and created a fundraising video titled "Animation vs Trash".

Awards

In 2007, ''Animator vs. Animation II'' won a "People's Choice" Webby Award.

Filmography

Notes

References

External links

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YouTube channel

Newgrounds account

Alan Becker's Course (works with Bloop Animation)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Alan
1989 births
American YouTubers
Comedy YouTubers
YouTube animators
Flash artists
Animators from Ohio
Stop motion animators
Webby Award winners
Artists from Columbus, Ohio
Columbus College of Art and Design alumni
Living people
People from Dublin, Ohio
American people of Chinese descent
American people of Filipino descent
American people of German descent
YouTube channels launched in 2006
Viral videos