Claude Cloutier
Claude Cloutier is a Canadian film animator and illustrator based in Quebec. Cloutier to date has made seven short films with the National Film Board of Canada. Cloutier began his animation career with the 1988 short "The Persistent Peddler (Le colporteur)", which was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He first became widely known for "From the Big Bang to Tuesday Morning (Du big bang à mardi matin)" in 2000, which was both a Genie Award nominee for Best Animated Short Film at the 21st Genie Awards, and a Jutra Award nominee for Best Animated Short Film  at the 3rd Jutra Awards. His 2007 short "Sleeping Betty (Isabelle au bois dormant)" is a humorous Sleeping Beauty adaptation that received numerous international and Canadian awards including both the Genie and the Jutra. His 2015 short "Carface (Auto Portraits)", received the Prix Guy-L.-Coté Best Canadian Animation Film at Sommets du cinéma d'animation in Montreal and had been shortlisted for a possible Academy Award nomination. Cloutier has said that in his youth, it had been his dream to become an animated filmmaker and that when he began working as an illustrator, he did so with the hope of being  able to transition into animation. He worked most notably as an illustrator with the now-defunct Quebec satirical magazine "Croc", with two comic book-style series "La légende des Jean-Guy" and "Gilles la Jungle contre Méchant-Man." His hoped-for entry into animation came when an NFB producer asked him if he wished to adapt "La légende des Jean-Guy" into an animated short, which resulted in "The Persistent Peddler". The summer of 2015, Cloutier did a two-week "Frame x Frame" exhibition at the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec City, during which the public could watch him  working on his next film. Cloutier has said his animation technique involves working first with paper and ink: "I draw on paper with brush, India ink and water, for nuance and half-tones. After that, it's colored by computer. I like to draw on paper. I'm old-school."