Ted Ty’s career in film animation began with a suggestion by a Concordia professor.
Soon after graduating from CalArts, Ty landed a job as an animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he worked for 10 years before moving to DreamWorks in 2003 as a computer generated (CG) animator.
Ty remained at Dreamworks until 2014, when he would finally make the decision to return to Montreal to take on a new challenge as animation director at L’Atelier Animation.
Back home in Montreal
Living and working in his hometown again is something that the Beaconsfield, Que., native is incredibly happy about.
“Being close to my family was the point of my coming back to Montreal in the first place, but I have to say — it’s really nice to see Habs games live again,” he admits.
Over the course of his impressive career, Ty has animated on more than 20 feature films, and was recently animation director for L’Atelier Animation’s first feature length film, Ballerina, marketed as Leap in the United States, about an orphan girl and her love of dance.
Ty’s CG credits include How to Train your Dragon 2, Rise of the Guardians and Kung Fu Panda. He has worked on well-known blockbuster films such as Mulan, The Lion King and Lilo and Stitch, where he served as a lead animator.
As the animation director at L’Atelier Animation, Ty is currently in full production mode for a few exciting new projects, one of them being a series for Netflix. Robozuna, slated to be released in spring 2018, is about a child and his robot living in a dystopian world.
Also on the production agenda is The Bravest, about a teenage girl who dreams of being a firefighter in 1920s New York City, slated to be released in 2020.
“It was completely coincidental that I’ve recently taken on projects with young girls as the heroines,” says Ty. “But I’m happy to do so and hopefully both little girls and little boys will look up to them.”
Small has some advantages
Ty is also enjoying the creative freedom and increased efficiency that comes with working at a smaller company.
“Your ability to make quicker decisions about changes that need to be made is occasionally hampered in larger companies,” he explains.
Ted Ty was animation director for the recently released film Ballerina, which was marketed as Leap in the United States