Biography:
Harry Walton short bio :
Ever since I was eight years old I knew that I wanted to be involved with animation and visual effects. In 1968 I landed my first professional film job working for CLOKEY PRODUCTIONS on GUMBY and DAVEY & GOLIATH. A couple of years later I was hired by one of my heros in the industry, Gene Warren Sr. of PROJECT UNLIMITED and EXCELSIOR fame. Gene was my mentor for 7 years where I learned much about stop motion animation and visual effects. From EXCELSIOR I moved on to such places as CASCADE PICTURES, COAST EFFECTS, EFFECTS ASSOCIATES (Jim Danforth), DAVID STIPES PRODUCTIONS, ILM, TIPPETT STUDIO, SKELLINGTON PRODUCTIONS, DREAM QUEST IMAGES, SONY PICTURES IMAGEWORKS, etc. I specialized in character animation, although I was also heavily involved in other areas of visual effects such as optical compositing, matte painting and compositing, plate photography, lighting and setup, stop motion puppet fabrication, etc. I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best in this industry. In 1995 I was forced to make the transition into digital animation and visual effects. I sure do miss those days of working with cameras, projectors, puppets, miniatures, sets and lights.
Harry Walton
www.vfxmasters.com
Filmography:
2008 Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Monsters (Video short) (digital effects artist) / (visual effects design)
2003 Vlad (digital effects artist)
2003 Freaky Flyers (Video Game) (animation art director: Brain Zoo Studios)
2003 Girls Will Be Girls (visual effects supervisor)
2001 The Pearl (visual effects supervisor – as Harry V. Walton)
2000 Hollow man (CGI character animation lead)
1996 James and the gian peach (animation supervisor: SPI)
1995 Gumby 1 (optical effects/ animator: Image FX)
1993 Nightmare before Christmas (additional optical effects: Image FX)
1993 The Meteor Man (stop motion animator)
1993 RoboCop 3 (opticals: Tippett Studio)
1992 Memoirs of an invisible man (stop motion animator: ILM)
1990 RoboCop 2 (visual effects: robot monster crew)
1989 Abyss (effects cameraman: ILM – as Harry V. Walton)
1989 Indiana Jones and thye last crusade (matte photography: ILM)
1988 Who framed Roger rabbit? (stop-motion camera – as Harry V. Walton)
1988 Willow (visual effects camera: ILM)
1987 RoboCop (visual effects: ED-2000)
1987 Innerspace (visual effects cameraman/go-motion animator: ILM)
1987 The Puppetoon Movie (optical duping)
1986 The golden Child(go-motion supervisor: ILM)
1986 Howard… the duck (visual effects stop motion supervisor: ILM)
1985 Young Sherlock Holmes (go-motion animation: harpy sequence: ILM)
1883 Never say never again (stopmotion animation)
1982 The Powers of Matthew Star (TV Series) (special photographic effects )
1980 Hopscotch ( matte painting)
1979 Love at the first bite (visual effects supervisor – uncredited)
1979-1980 C.P.C. Associates : Visual Effects & Animation Director/Matte Artist -
Various commercials – HASTE WATCHES, CHARMIN TISSUE,
MD TISSUE, CHEFWAY, MURADAI HAM, SKELLY OIL,
RHYTHM OF THE CITY, SPRITE, AURORA TISSUE,
TETLEY TEA and PURINA CHUCKWAGON.
1977-1978 Man from Atlantis (TV Series) (photographic effects)
1978- The greatest heroes of the bible (Co-Visual Effects Dir/matte artist)
1977 Black Sunday (visual effects – uncredited)
1974 Dark Star (special effects)
1974-1975 Land of the Lost (TV Series) (animator – 30 episodes)
1971-1972 Davey and Goliath (TV Series) (animator – 7 episodes)
1971- Octoman (makeup effects assistantto Rick Baker)
Gallery:
Those are 5 photos of a matte painting that I did in 1980 for the movie HOPSCOTCH, starring Walter Matthau. The painting was done with oil paints on a sheet of glass. I did the composite with rear projection using my RKO matte projector when I was at CPC Associates in Hollywood. I used an anamorphic “squeezed” plate, so I had to paint with a 2:1 squeeze. Anamorpic projection lenses were not as sharp as spherical lenses. Jim Danforth devised this geometric graph which allowed me to accurately paint the geometric shapes with a 2:1 squeeze.
The reason for this matte shot was it was cheaper for the production to shoot in Atlanta, Georgia and pay for a matte shot to make it look like Washington, D.C.
Finished unsqueezed composite.
Original plate.
bg. plate with the matte for the painting area.
Harry Walton working on the painting.
Squeezed glass painting.
