Bruce Heller(II)

Working as one of the most proficient effects animators during the past three decades, Bruce Heller is especially notable for carrying on the tradition of classical animation that had originally flowered in the Walt Disney Studio.

Bruce gained an early appreciation of art and design from his family, who moved to northern California in the late 1950s where his father worked as a carpenter and his mother a costume designer for many shows including Shipstad & Johnson's Ice Follies and The Ice Capades. From an early age Bruce showed an aptitude for artistic expression as he started to dabble in drawing, sculpting and painting. As he grew older he went on to study the design of stop-motion armatures and constructed some since he had a great admiration for stop-motion animation as perfected by Ray Harryhausen. However, he made a choice to pursue a career in cel animation and in early 1980 was hired as a special effects apprentice for a newly formed company set up to produce The Secret of NIMH (1982). He was mentored by Dorse A. Lanpher, who had been schooled in hand-drawn effects animation at the Disney Studios before leaving along with other Disney animators such as Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy when they formed this company in late 1979. Soon after Bruce's arrival, work on NIMH was temporarily delayed when the opportunity to animate a short sequence in Xanadu (1980) arose. Working with seven other character and effects animators, the "Don't Walk Away" segment was put together in sixteen weeks at a cost of $360,000. This segment is considered by many to be the highlight of the film. The Secret of NIMH (1982) took two full years to complete with a studio staff of fewer than 50 people. The total cost was about 6.5 million dollars. This early project allowed him to become adept at varied effects, including his specialties of animated "pixie dust" and fire and water effects. Bruce's work included doing in-betweening for Dorse's cobwebs at the entrance of an owl's cave, some shadows, the opening candle shot, some electricity effects in the rat pit, bubbles on a cat frantically trying to surface after falling underwater, shots of lanterns descending, etc.

A stint at Filmation Associates found him working upon the TV series She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985). He advanced to being the supervisor of effects animation for the feature Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) and the Snow White sequel, Happily Ever After (1989).

Soon after Bluth moved his studio to Dublin, Bruce followed and worked on a couple of shots for the nearly complete The Land Before Time (1988) and then completed a lot of work on All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) before returning to California after a year. A second wing or annex of the Buth operation had been setup in Burbank, California when Gary Goldman desired to repatriate and it was there that Bruce worked upon Rock-A-Doodle (1991),Thumbelina (1994), and A Troll in Central Park (1994) before being sought by the Disney Studio as they ramped up their operation in an attempt to dominate the production of animated films.

Bruce joined other ex-Bluth animators, Dorse Lanpher and John Pomeroy in working upon Fantasia 2000 (1999) and provided extensive effects in multiple sequences of this film, including water effects with whales in the "Pines of Rome" segment and fire and water scenes for "The Firebird Suite" segment. He burned up a tree in one very complex scene. He then went on to do extensive work on Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Treasure Planet (2002) at Disney. Since Treasure Planet (2002) was a hybrid animated feature, with 3D elements added to its 2D design, Bruce gained experience in digital compositing and computer animation. When Disney dissolved their 2D animation units in 2002, Bruce decided to pursue some of his other interests, such as restoring a couple of vintage 3-Strip Technicolor Cameras utilizing his abilities as a machinist and extensive knowledge of the dye-transfer process.

Bruce started his own freelance studio in Boise, Idaho with capabilities to do stop motion and cel animation as well as digital compositing and computer controlled Oxberry graphic animation, but has now re-located back in southern California.