Matt Ellsworth

Matt Ellsworth

I'm an animator that specializes in stop-motion.

Junior Animator / 13 yrs

Portland, OR, United States

Hire Me

Replacement Animation Tester

Missing Link (2019)

Rapid Prototype Assistant

ParaNorman (2012)

My first animation gig was as an assistant stop-motion animator on a Radio Shack commercial in 2010. Since then, I have worked at Laika for the past 7.5 years doing everything from testing and fixing the physical 3D printed stop-motion puppet faces, to animating the faces in CG.
Work History
  • Replacement Animation Tester

    Laika

    October 2016 - April 2018

    Testing stop-motion puppet faces before taking them to stage for final animation. Administering any needed touch ups or changes needed for smoother animation. Keeping faces organized.

  • Facial Animator

    Laika

    November 2014 - July 2015

    Animating the facial performances of characters in Maya, for selection of 3D printed final animation faces for stop-motion puppets.

  • Track Reader

    Laika

    July 2012 - March 2014

    For the feature film, The Boxtrolls, I precisely broke down the phonetics of dialog and nuance of sound effects to frame by frame accuracy and organized this information in Excel to produce the final x-sheet for completing stop-motion animation on stage. Additionally, completed facial animation using Maya as requested.

  • RP Quality Assurance

    Laika

    November 2010 - July 2012

    For the film ParaNorman I pulled #D printed stop-motion faces off the printer and through sanding, gluing and sprying with finishing coats, honed the raw faces into camera ready assets.

  • Stop-Motion Animator

    De Carlo Studios

    May 2010 - May 2010

    Freelance animator on stop-motion Radio Shack commercial "Three's Company". Animated the plam trees in one shot.

  • Student

    Academy of Art University

    2006 - 2010
  • Production Coordinator

    Magnetic Image

    May 2001 - September 2002

    Scheduled and assembled professional video equipment packages and crew members for clients, delivered and picked up equipment at locations and completed final billing of jobs.

Education
  • Academy of Art University

    2006 - 2009