Biography:

 Biography information and photos courtesy of Harry  Walton.

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.
 
 
 

Samples of Harry Walton  matte painting.

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.
 
 

Scan0005 - finished unsqueezed composite

scan0004 - me working on the painting

scan0003 - bg. plate with the matte for the painting area

scan0001- original bg.

scan0006 - squeezed glass painting.

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.
 
 
 

Filmography:
Vlad (2003) (digital effects artist)
Girls Will Be Girls (2003/I) (visual effects supervisor)
Freaky Flyers (2003) (VG) (animation art director: Brain Zoo Studios)
Hollow Man (2000) (cgi character animation lead)
Gumby: The Movie (1995) (animator)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (additional optical effects)
The Meteor Man (1993) (stop motion animator)
RoboCop 3 (1993) (opticals: Tippett Studio)
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) (stop motion animator: ILM)
RoboCop 2 (1990) (visual effects: robot monster crew)
The Abyss (1989) (effects cameraman: ILM) (as Harry V. Walton)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (matte photography)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (stop-motion camera) (as Harry V. Walton)
Willow (1988) (visual effects camera: ILM)
"Gumby Adventures" (1988) TV Series (animation director)
RoboCop (1987) (visual effects: ED-2000)
Innerspace (1987) (visual effects cameraman/go-motion animator: ILM)
The Golden Child (1986) (go-motion supervisor: ILM)
Howard the Duck (1986) (visual effects stop motion supervisor: ILM)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) (go-motion animation: harpy sequence: ILM)
Hopscotch (1980) (matte painter)
Dark Star (1974) (special effects)

To see a complete filmography,  visit the Harry Walton web page.
http://www.vfxmasters.com/
 
 

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