Richard Williams is a Canadian-British animator, animation director, writer, illustrator, actor and animation teacher born in Toronto, Cananda on March 19th 1933.
One of his most famous works is one he was the Animation Director for, and that was Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988. This film mixes live action with animated characters, combining the two worlds into one. This isn't a very common approach to Disney films, or in fact any films, as usually the film will either stick to fully animated or real live action. It must have obviously been a challenge to merge the two into one without making the world look odd, but it works really well and brings both styles together amazingly.
One thing that Williams does is focus on the details, specifically the principles of animation. Not only does he do this to create a realistic looking movement in the animations, he does it to master the character's movements and emphasize their emotion and personality. Expressing character in his work is very important, and it is easy to see that he puts a lot of thought and time into mastering the little details, that come together to forge a believable character. There is no doubt that he is a perfectionist, and perhaps that is exactly why Who Framed Roger Rabbit works so well, as cartoon looking characters look natural in a real world. The movements are so smooth that they're satisfying to watch, and in a film that contains both real life and animations, it requires close attention to detail in the animation for it to match real life and realistic movements.
He even made a book in 2001 called The Animator's Survival Kit, which looks at methods, formulas and principles multiple types of animation. It gives tips and advice for all kinds of animating, so it is obvious that he is a master in producing successful animations and he knows how to reflect the principles of animation, to make believable looking results.
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