Simon Otto (born 12 June 1973) is a Swiss film director and

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

. He is best known for working as the Head of Character Animation of the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

-nominated ''

How to Train Your Dragon ''How to Train Your Dragon'' (abbreviated ''HTTYD'') is an American media franchise from DreamWorks Animation and loosely based on the eponymous series of children's books by British author Cressida Cowell. It consists of three feature films: ' ...

'' film trilogy for

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...

Life and career

Otto was born in Switzerland and grew up in

Gommiswald Gommiswald is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipalities of Rieden and Ernetschwil merged into the municipality of Gommiswald.

, in the canton of St. Gallen. After completing a banking apprenticeship, he started his career in the arts by carving commercial snow sculptures in nearby resort towns and drawing news cartoons for his hometown newspaper, "Die Suedostschweiz". He studied art formally at the F&F Schule fuer Experimentelle Gestaltung in Zurich. In 1995, Otto left Switzerland to study animation at the Gobelins Animation School in Paris, France where he also received additional animation training through an internship with

Walt Disney Feature Animation Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

Paris. His professional animation career started in 1997, when he was hired by

in Los Angeles to work as a traditional character animator on their first 2D animated feature ''

The Prince of Egypt ''The Prince of Egypt'' is a 1998 American animated musical drama film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. The first feature film from DreamWorks to be traditionally animated, it is an adaptation of the Book ...

.'' He then spent 21 years as part of the character animation team working on both 2D and CG projects for the studio. Otto is particularly known for his work as the Head of Character Animation for the ''

'' movie franchise and has been instrumental in developing the look of the characters, their personalities and the overall style of animation for the films, and was rewarded for his achievements with the

VES Awards The Visual Effects Society (VES) is an entertainment industry organization representing visual effects practitioners including artists, animators, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and pr ...

for ' Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Featuree' in 2011 by the Visual Effect Society. Simon Otto designed a number of characters in the film including Toothless and Lightfury and did storyboarding work on the second and third films. He was a key contributor to the development of Premo, the animation software developed at DreamWorks Animation that won an

Academy Award for Technical Achievement The Technical Achievement Award is one of three Scientific and Technical Awards given from time to time by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (The other two awards are the Scientific and Engineering Award and the Academy Award of Me ...

. Involved as a member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

, Simon participates in numerous of events, talks and interviews highlighting the work of the animator in the feature film industry. In 2016, Otto founded LuMAA (Lucerne Master Academy of Animation) with the

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (german: Hochschule Luzern) (HSLU) is one of seven regional, public-funded universities of applied sciences founded in 1997 in its current form. The University was called University of Applied Scienc ...

in Lucerne, Switzerland where animation industry veterans teach a 6-week summer course for up and coming talents. In the fall of 2019, after 21 years working for

DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...

Animation, Simon left the company. He now works as an independent director on various film and television projects. His first released project after leaving the studio is the episode ‘''The Tall Grass''’ he directed for the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

TV series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

Love, Death & Robots ''Love, Death & Robots'' (stylized as ''LOVE DEATH + R⬮BOTS'', and represented in emoji form as ❤️❌🤖) is an adult animated anthology streaming television series created by Tim Miller and streaming on Netflix. Produced by Blur Studio ...

Season 2. On 14 June 2021 it was announced that he will direct '' That Christmas'', based on the book of the same name by Richard Curtis, produced by

Locksmith Animation Locksmith Animation Ltd. (also known as Locksmith Animation Studios and simply known as Locksmith) is a British CGI animation film studio founded by Aardman Animations collaborators Sarah Smith and Julie Lockhart with the financial backing of ...

for

Filmography

Director

Animator

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Otto, Simon Living people 1973 births Swiss film directors Swiss animators DreamWorks Animation people