About

Professional Biography of Jerry L. Brice-2009

Jerry Brice has been a professional in the animation industry for the past 25 years. He has worked at every level on commercial animation production crews, from in-between artist to animation producer/ director.
As an animation professional, Jerry has worked on classic animated movies for the Walt Disney feature Animation Unit, notably “Oliver &Company” and “The Little Mermaid”. He worked on the cult animated Ralph Bakshi feature “Cool World”, and the groundbreaking Brad Bird/Tim Burton animated short, “Family Dog” which revolutionized TV animation production, and set the tone for the ‘Simpson’s’ and ‘King of the Hill’ primetime animated television series.
Jerry created, in part; the developmental animation that set the style for Fox Televisions prime time animated series “King of the Hill”, and performed the duties as an animation timer and character layout artist on the series. Notably, Jerry worked closely with the director of the series to develop the unique style of animation motion for the series by creating a series of walk cycles for all the main characters.
Jerry has worked for all the major animation studios and has worked closely with some of the leading animators in the TV, film, and gaming industries.
Jerry graduated from the Film Graphics and Animation program (BFA) at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts in 1985,and promptly gained employment as an Assistant animator at Filmation studios working on the “Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night”. During this time, Jerry freelanced as an assistant animator on the studios ‘He-Man’ television series.
Throughout his career, Jerry has delivered animation, direction, and design for music videos. He was an animation artist and assistant animator on the classic Paula Abdul “Opposites Attract” video,working with famed animator Frans Vischer on his scenes, and was the lead animator for controversial hip-hop star, Eminem’s single ‘Role Model’ music video, among many others recording artist.
As a creator, Jerry independently developed a series for Arsenio Hall, that went to pilot for ABC and Paramount TV in 1990.That experience led to a development deal at CBS for an original Saturday morning series, a deal to develop a show with Martin Lawrence and HBO based on characters from his live action series, a development deal at Film Roman studios for an original feature project, written and visually developed by Brice, and MTV commissioned a short film produced, written and directed by Jerry Brice based on his comic strip,’ No Joke!’, which ran simultaneously in the ‘Source’ and ‘Urb’ magazines.
Jerry has vast experience as an animation instructor, and is always eager to work with new talent. He was an animation instructor at the “Bridges Animation School” in Santa Monica, during his tenure on ‘King of the Hill’. For 7 years, Jerry was the lead animation instructor at the Art Institute of California-San Diego where he developed the curriculum and staff initially, for the new character animation degree. He supervised the animation instructors, as well as managed several hundred students every quarter. He was also instrumental in the hiring of the animation faculty.
Jerry personally instructed students in all aspects of Life Drawing, Anatomy, Illustration, Animation, Character Animation, Storyboarding and Character Design. Over the years, he has received several awards and commendations from the school, for his efforts.
In the summer of 2000, Jerry traveled to Calcutta, India for the NetGuru animation company, where he not only performed the duties as an Overseas Animation Director, but he was also the animation instructor for the studio. He completed a short pilot for an original series called “Rock and Soul” with the crew that he was also training.
Independently, he has produced and directed projects for popular personalities, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, for the ABC television network, as well as short films, animatic presentations and visual development for project presentations, for various producers and directors throughout the entertainment business.

Jerry utilizes the latest digital animation software for his projects, and skillfully combines that with his vast traditional animation skills.

Samples of his work can be viewed at:

(Various clips and Demo Reel)(‘W’ short subject)(Ghetto Man animatic)