Ellen Woodbury

Ellen Woodbury is an American sculptor, former Disney directing animator and character animator, who worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1985 to 2005.
Born in 1962, Woodbury grew up in Corning, New York, and she earned a BFA in Film and Art from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Later she attended the Experimental Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts under the mentorship of Jules Engel. Her student films won national and international awards as well as a jump start in her career where she served as an animator both He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: The Princess of Power.
Joining Disney in 1985, Woodbury began as an assistant before eventually being promoted to Directing Animator, the first woman to achieve this promotion. During her 20-year tenure, she brought to life many well-known characters, including Maurice in Beauty and the Beast, Abu in Aladdin, Zazu in The Lion King, and Pegasus in Hercules. By the mid-2000s, Woodbury grew disillusioned by the company's switch from traditional to computer animation which led her to resign in 2005.
She moved to Loveland, Colorado to become a full-time sculptor. She is a signature member of Artists For Conservation, a Signature member of The Society of Animal Artists, and an Associate member of the National Sculpture Society. She taught Character Animation at the Art Institute of Colorado from 2010 to 2014, and ran a character animation workshop along with her class each week. In 2011, Woodbury's sculpture. "See Through Other Eyes: Spotted Owl", won the 2011 People's Choice Award in Loveland, CO, as part of the Arts Advocacy Project during a Sculpture in the Park exhibition. In 2019, the National Sculpture Society presented Woodbury with the Marilyn Newmark Memorial Grant. She applies many animation principles to both her design and sculpting processes. She says, "I find stone sculpture to be a logical extension for much of what I learned as an animator. One medium is the illusion of three dimensions and the other is the reality of three dimensions."
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Position
1986	The Great Mouse Detective 	Assistant Animator
1987	Sport Goofy in Soccermania 	Additional Animator
1988	Oliver & Company 	Animating Assistant: Oliver
1989	The Little Mermaid 	Character Animator
1990	The Rescuers Down Under 	Character Animator: Mice and Koala
1991	Beauty and the Beast 	Animator: MauriceLead Animator: Sultan
1992	Aladdin 	Animator: Abu
1994	The Lion King 	Supervising Animator: Zazu
1995	Pocahontas 	Additional Animator
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	Additional Animator
1997	Hercules 	Supervising Animator: Pegasus
1999	Tarzan 	Additional Animator
1999	How to Haunt a House 	Animator
1999	Fantasia 2000 	Animator: Segment "Rhapsody in Blue"
2002	Treasure Planet 	Supervising Animator: Long John Silver's Pirate Crew
2004	Home on the Range 	Animator: Mrs. Calloway
2005	Chicken Little 	Animator
2007	Meet the Robinsons 	Animator
==Gallery==
Ellen woodbury at animation desk.jpg
Ellen woodbury 1.jpg
Ellen woodbury 2.jpg
Ellen woodbury 4.jpg
Ellen woodbury 5.jpg
==External links==
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*America's Women Magazine Interview
*Influential Animators: Ellen Woodbury
fr:Ellen Woodbury
Category:Females
Category:1960s births
Category:People from New York
Category:American people
Category:Artists
Category:Animators
Category:Character Designers
Category:Goofy
Category:The Great Mouse Detective
Category:Oliver & Company
Category:The Little Mermaid
Category:The Rescuers
Category:Beauty and the Beast
Category:Aladdin
Category:The Lion King
Category:Pocahontas
Category:The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Category:Hercules
Category:Tarzan
Category:Fantasia
Category:Treasure Planet
Category:Home on the Range
Category:Chicken Little
Category:Meet the Robinsons
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios
Category:Disney Renaissance