Dino Athanassiou

Constantine Dino Athanassiou (born May 21, 1962) is an Animation Director, Designer, Concept Artist, and Storyboarder in the classic Hollywood tradition of character performance, both traditionally drawn and computer-animated. 
Dino was responsible for completing the episodic direction on 56 x 11 shows on the 2nd season of the CGI Peter Rabbit (TV series), for which he was nominated for the 43rd Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program . Dino and his Co-Director Simon Ward Horner won a BAA for the animated television series, The Legends of Treasure Island (produced by FilmFair)– Best Children TV Series for 1996.
His works include Dreamworks’ The Road to El Dorado (2000), pirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Sinbad: Legends of the Seven Seas (2003).
He also worked on Sequence Direction, Design, Leica Reel, Animation, Clean-Up and FX for Warner Bros.’ Space Jam, as well as storyboarding of the “Fantasy Dream” scene where Michael Jordan imagines himself signing piles of autographs and eventually gets picked up by Swackhammer’s giant hand.
In 2011 Dino completed the CG animation direction on Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games, supervising two of the main climatic sequences in the film.
Dino has also worked on iconic sequences for Disney’s 2019 live action film, Aladdin, and Artemis Fowl (2020) as well as Universal's Dolittle - The Voyage Of Doctor Dolittle 2020 and Warner Bros.’ Tom and Jerry: The Movie (2021).
== Early Life ==
Dino was born in Brixton, South London, the son of Greek Cypriot parents who moved to England in the late 40’s and married in the early 50’s.
Dino studied graphic art at the age of 16 once he left school and did a number of courses at the East Ham Polytechnic College in London.
In 1981, when attending East Ham Polytechnic College for the third and last year to attain his final degree of Graphic Design, Dino left, having been offered a full-time apprenticeship job at a small boutique animation studio, BM Animation, in Soho, London.
== Early Career ==
After one and a half years at BM Animation, while still new in the industry, Dino decided to go freelance.
Animation in 1982 was booming, especially in London, as it was beginning its new renaissance in character animation. During that time, there were over 150 independent animation studios, mostly producing TV commercials, and Dino placed his focus on seeking work in the commercial animation industry within the Soho area of London. 
== Most Notable Works ==
Dino and his studio, Stardust Pictures, were hired to produce sequences for Dreamworks' The Road To El Dorado (2000), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Sinbad: Legends of the Seven Seas (2003). This included running a service animation studio of around 50 artists while coordinating the creative and management teams.
In 2019 Dino worked on Disney's live action Aladdin, directed by Guy Richie who he attended early concept and story meetings with. In the same project, Dino worked with the VFX team, led by Chas Jarrett the VFX Supervisor who encouraged him to come up with story ideas that eventually became the “Friend Like Me” sequence.
Dino had previously worked on Disney's live action movies producing gag ideas, storyboards and animatics during his time at Double Negative, working closely with head of animation - Eamonn Butler, where he was hired for his animation and storyboard skills to create ideas for another sequence for the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, eventually producing a finished rough animatic which became the basis for the “Mops Go Wild” scene, which became a homage to the original Mickey Mouse sequence where Mickey uses the magician's magic to tidy up the Wizard's Lair.
In 2004 Dino was hired as Director of Animation on Happily N’Ever After, a computer-animated fairytale feature film produced by Shrek producer, John Williams, and Directed by Paul Bolger. Subsequently Dino went on to design and direct the animation on a new production of HIT Entertainment's Thomas and Friends working in conjunction with Nitrogen Studios Canada to reimagine the classic original stop motion series as a hybrid of live action and CGI animation.
Dino worked on other live actions films like The Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time and Double Negative's production on Joe Cornish's live action cult Sci-Fi horror movie, Attack the Block.
Dino has also worked on CG series, having directed the CG animation for 26 episodes of Iconicles, a live action and CG series for Creative Media Ventures and CBBC. Starring Gavin Stenhouse as the children’s presenter, and live action directed by Richard Bradley. 
Dino has also supervised the CG Animation as well as storyboarding on Lionsgate's epic live action adventure film, The Hunger Games – 2011 working closely with Lionsgate’s head VFX supervisor Sheena Duggal and veteran Hollywood Director Gary Ross.
== Awards and Nominations ==
Year	Award 	Category 	Nominated Work 	Result
1996	BAA-British Animation Awards	Children's Choice for Best Series 	The Legends of Treasure Island	Won
2016	Daytime Emmy Award 	Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program	Peter Rabbit (TV Series) 	Nominated
== Filmography ==
Year of Release	Title 	Credited as 	Notes
1985 	Asterix Versus Caesar 	Lead Animator 	
1986 	1001 Nights (20 minute theatrical release) 	Sequence Directions, Layouts, Clean up and FX 	
1986 	Highlander 	Effects Animation 	
1989 	The B.F.G. (1989 film) 	Directing Animator 	
1989 	Asterix and the Big Fight 	Animation 	
1993 	The Legends of Treasure Island 	Direction, Designs and Storyboards 	
1996 	All Dogs go to Heaven 2 	Animation Direction (13'), Script Consultant, Storyboarding/Designs, Animation, Clean up and FX	
1996 	Space Jam 	Sequence Direction, Layouts, Animation, Clean up and FX 	
1998 	Jetsons 	Directing Animator 	
1998 	Johnny Quest 	Directing Animator 	
1998 	The Rugrats Movie 	Storyboards, Layouts and Animation poses 	
2000 	The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea 	Storyboarding 	
2000 	The Road to El Dorado 	Sequence Direction, Animation and Clean up 	
2002 	Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron 	Sequence Direction, Animation and Clean up 	
2002 	Tom Thumb and Thumbelina 	Sequence Direction, Storyboarding, Design and Timings 	
2003 	Sinbad: Legends of the Seven Seas 	Producing, Sequence Direction, Storyboarding and Animation 	
2004 	Shark Tale 	Storyboarding 	
2005 	Madagascar (2005 film) 	Storyboarding 	
2005 	Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	Additional Storyboard 	
2006 	Happily N'Ever After 	Animation Director 	
2007 	Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip 	Animator 	
2007 	Peter and the Wolf 	Storyboard Artist 	
2008 	The Tale of Desperaux 	Storyboard 	
2010 	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 	Sequence Direction, Design and Storyboard 	
2010 	Sorcerer's Apprentice 	Sequence Direction, Design and Storyboards 	
2011 	Attack the Block 	Design Development 	
2011 	Gnomeo and Juliet 	Storyboard 	
2011 	Iconicles 	Series Diretor, Designs and Storyboards 	
2012 	The Hunger Games 	Sequence Direction, Design and CG Animation Direction 	
2014 	Space Racers 	Storyboards/Animatics 	
2016 	Peter Rabbit (CG series) 	Episodic Director 	
2018 	Kiss Me First 	Head of Story 	
2018 	Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle 	Lead Story Artist 	
2018 	Sherlock Gnomes 	Story Artist 	
2019 	Aladdin (2019 film) 	Lead Story Artist 	
2020 	Artemis Fowl 	Lead Story Artist 	
2020 	Dolittle - The Voyage of Dr. Dolittle 	POSVIS Lead Story Artist 	
2021 	Tom and Jerry (2021 film) 	POSTVIS Story Artist 	
2022 	School for Good and Evil 	Story Artist 	
2007/08 	Thomas and Friends 	Animation Direction, Design, Storyboards 	
== Other Projects ==
Project Title 	Credited as 	Type 	Notes
AT&T 	Direction, Animation 	Animated commercial 	
Ex 	Storboard, Designs 	Live action Sci-Fi pilot 	
Jekyll & Hyde (CG animated feature)	Executive Producer/Director 	Pre-production development during 2005/06	To be released
Out of the Blue, The Lady of Fatima 	Head of Story 	Theatrical feature 	
P&G 	Direction, Design and Storyboard 	CGI animated commercials 	
Project Chopin 	Sequence Direction, Storyboards 	 	
Storyboards 	Director 	Live action commercials 	
Thorgal (animation series) 	Supervising Storyboarding, Character Designs	Pre-production work in 1998 	To be released
Tony the Tiger 	Design and Storyboarding 	Kellogs Commercial 	
Hungry Hungry Hippos 	Design and Storyboarding 	Toy Commercial 	
Cocoa Puffs Commercial 	Titles 	Cereal Commercial 	
Cheerios Rollerblade 	 	Cereal Commercial 	
Nicktoons 	Storyboard, Design, Animation, Post 	Cinema commercial Nickelodeon U.K. (1999)	
Alex 	Animation Supervisor 	Stage Play (2007) 	
Category:British people
Category:British animators
Category:British designers