Xavier Ramonède is a French animator and artist, best known for his work on various French films and international co-productions, such as Nocturna and The Illusionist, the French webseries Les Kassos [fr], and his award-winning student film Le Building. Ramonède's artwork has also been featured in multiple publications.

Xavier Ramonède
NationalityFrench
Occupation(s)Animator, illustrator
Years active2002-present

Early life and education edit

Ramonède hails from Toulouse.[1] He first became interested in drawing at the age of fourteen, after discovering manga. Over the following two years, he developed a strong passion for animation.[2] After meeting Romain Grandjean in high school, Ramonède was brought on as an animator and designer on Grandjean's 2002 stop motion short film Abraxas.[1][3]

Although Ramonède was inspired by Toy Story to pursue a career in computer animation, he changed course to pursue traditional animation after applying to Gobelins, l'École de l'image.[1] He attended there from 2002 to 2005.[4][5] In 2004, he created the short student film Récré Fighter,[6][7] and collaborated with classmates Pierre Perifel, Jun Frederic Violet, and Rémi Zaarour on a second short film, Festival Qualité.[8][9] The following year, he reteamed with Perifel and Zaarour to create his group thesis film, Le Building, which was also co-directed by Marco Nguyen and Olivier Staphylas. Le Building uses a combination of 2D and 3D animation.[10] Ramonède colored most of the film's traditional animation and also handled most of its compositing.[11] Le Building screened at numerous international film festivals and won several awards,[12][13][14][15][16] including Best Undergraduate Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.[15]

Ramonède has named Bruce Timm,[2][17] Jamie Hewlett, Milt Kahl, James Baxter, Robert McGinnis,[2] Mary Blair, and Miroslav Šašek as being among his artistic influences.[17]

Career edit

The same year as his graduation from Gobelins (2005), Ramonède received credit as an animator on the short film Imago, directed by Cédric Babouche.[18] The following year, Ramonède worked as an animator on Everyone's Hero.[19] Imago afforded Ramonède the opportunity to work with Perifel again, who served as one of the film's supervising animators.[18] The two further collaborated as animators on Nocturna and The Illusionist.[5][20][21][22]

Other animation credits of Ramonède's include various French films and international co-productions, such as 99 Francs,[23] Zarafa,[5][20] Titeuf,[19][24] and April and the Extraordinary World,[2][25] as well as the French webseries Les Kassos [fr],[26][27] and the music video for C2C's song "Delta".[28] Ramonède has occasionally returned to Gobelins as a teacher and has also worked on various commercials.[4] A 2013 commercial that he worked on for Deezer uses Mcbess characters and received a Bronze Clio Award.[29][30] A 2015 project that he worked on, called Hippopolis, was directed by French artist Ugo Gattoni and serves as a companion to a scarf that Gattoni designed.[31]

Ramonède has been credited as an animator on Ankama's under-development television project Muffin Jack and Jeremy.[32]

Pin-up art by Ramonède is featured in Volume #1 of Dave Sim and Howard M. Shum's comic book series Gun Fu, which was published by Image Comics in 2005.[33][34] In 2009, Ramonède contributed to the book Terrible Yellow Eyes, which features artwork inspired by Where the Wild Things Are.[35][36] Ramonède also created artwork for a proposed art book tie-in to the French board game Color Warz, which in 2016, unsuccessfully sought funding through the French crowdfunding website Ulule [fr].[37]

Daytime Emmy Award-nominated character designer Chris Battle, who has worked on such shows as The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory,[38] has expressed admiration for Ramonède's body of work.[39]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Xavier Ramonède (September 27, 2015). "Xavier Ramonède". animationinsider.com (Online). Interviewed by Laura. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d Xavier Ramonède (October 30, 2015). "Special interview with Xavier Ramonède". Pinuparena.com (Online). Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  3. ^ Abraxas - Credits. Zarf Productions and Alcancia Films. 2002.
  4. ^ a b Xavier Ramonède. "There's Something in the House". Indiegogo. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c Marc Aguesse (July 12, 2012). "There's something in the house, Dip N' Dance et Brigada (projets crowdfunding)". Catsuka [fr] (in French). Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  6. ^ Marc Aguesse. "Récré Fighter (2004)". Catsuka (in French). Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  7. ^ Marc Aguesse. "Projection de court-métrages français inspirés par le Japon". Catsuka (in French). Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  8. ^ Marc Aguesse. "Festival qualité (2004)". Catsuka. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  9. ^ Xavier Ramonède (April 15, 2009). "Le Building and Festival Qualité". Sushixav.blogspot.com. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  10. ^ Stash staff (December 4, 2005). ""Le Building" - Student Film". Stash DVD Magazine. No. 15. San Antonio, Texas: Stash Media. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  11. ^ Xavier Ramonède. "Le Building – Team: Xavier Ramonède". le-building.com. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  12. ^ "Chilemonos" (Press release) (in Spanish). Santiago: Chilemonos International Animation Festival. p. 9. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  13. ^ Marco Nguyen, Pierre Perifel, Xavier Ramonède, Olivier Staphylas, and Rémi Zaarour. "Le Building - News, pg. 1". le-building.com. Retrieved August 21, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Leo Barraclough (July 26, 2006). "Toons Catch Continental Drift". Variety. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  15. ^ a b Eric Homan (September 26, 2006). "Talk to the Snail: OIAF Category E – Student Animation Competition". Frederator Studios. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  16. ^ Olivier Staphylas. "Olivier Staphylas - Bio". staphylas.com. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  17. ^ a b Xavier Ramonède (January 13, 2010). "Artist of the Week: Xavier Ramonède". PixelatedGeek (Online). Interviewed by Andrew Plein. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  18. ^ a b Imago - Credits. Sacrebleu Productions and La Boîte Productions. 2005.
  19. ^ a b Xavier Ramonède. "XAV - profile". Sushixav.blogspot.com. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  20. ^ a b Severin Auer (July 15, 2012). "Crowdfunding: "There's Something In The House" von Xavier Ramonède". animationsfilme.ch (in German). Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  21. ^ Pierre Perifel (November 27, 2012). "Rise of an animator: Pierre Perifel reveals secrets of the Guardians". Animated Views (Online). Interviewed by Jérémie Noyer. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  22. ^ David Hubert, Jason Ryan, Pierre Perifel (March 3, 2013). iAnimate interview Pierre Périfel - part 3 (video). iAnimate. Event occurs at 0:15-2:02. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  23. ^ Marc Aguesse (March 12, 2007). "[Job] Stage sur 99 Fr (Jan Kounen)". Catsuka (in French). Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  24. ^ "Titeuf, le film". Association française du cinéma d'animation [fr] (in French). Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  25. ^ Marc Aguesse (December 6, 2015). "Et sinon cette semaine #48 (en bref)". Catsuka (in French). Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  26. ^ Annecy staff. "2014 Official Selection, film index – Les Kassos "Épisodes 4, 6, 9" – The Dorks". Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  27. ^ Xavier Ramonède (February 19, 2015). "Moc & Darty – Sachatte & Pedro – Les Kassos #17". Sushixav.blogspot.com. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  28. ^ On Animation staff (February 19, 2016). "C2C - Delta". On Animation. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  29. ^ Gavin Lucas (January 24, 2013). "McBess illustrates new Deezer spot". Creative Review. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  30. ^ Deezer | Music Unleashed - CRCR - WIZZdesign. QUAD Productions. 2013.
  31. ^ Marc Aguesse (November 15, 2015). "Hippopolis (pub pour un carré de soie Hermès par Ugo Gattoni)". Catsuka (in French). Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  32. ^ Marc Aguesse (May 25, 2016). "Muffin Jack & Jeremy: Trailer (series project by Steak and Ankama)". Catsuka (in French). Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  33. ^ Howard M. Shum (August 12, 2017). "Howard M. Shum - News". howardshum.com. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  34. ^ Blair Marnell (June 18, 2005). "All the Rage: Faster than Light". Comics Bulletin. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  35. ^ Marc Aguesse (September 23, 2009). "Terrible Yellow Eyes (Un collectif hommage à Max et les Maximonstres)". Catsuka (in French). Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  36. ^ Cory Godbey (July 31, 2009). "king and crown". terribleyelloweyes.com. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  37. ^ Fabien Friess (June 6, 2016). "Color Warz History from ISART Digital studies to FLUO Craft". Ulule [fr]. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  38. ^ "It's Not Just a Cartoon". emmys.com. November 12, 2016. Archived from the original on December 31, 2016.
  39. ^ Chris Battle (August 12, 2010). "Chris Battle Interview". The Character Design Blog (Online). Interviewed by Randall Sly. Retrieved September 20, 2017.

External links edit