A Brief Career History
Last edited OCT 09/2005
I graduated from the Sheridan College Classical Animation Program 27 years ago. Since then I have worked on animated series and commercials in a variety of roles. At Hanna Barbera studios, Los Angeles, I was an animator on various animated television series such as Jana of the Jungle, Godzilla, Fred & Barney, Super friends, Casper, The Friendly Ghost, and Scooby-Doo.
Over the years I have worked in many Cell animation studios in Canada and abroad in Australia. In Sydney Australia, I freelanced for various studios ( mostly Film Graphics Pty Ltd.) as an Animator/Director on various television commercials. I won awards for 3 consecutive years. In 1984 I became a partner in RKA (Rasmussen & Kratovil Animation) and continued to direct and animate 2D commercials. Sometimes, as in the case of New Zealand Post, I was involved in the direction of the Live Action elements as well.
Upon returning to Toronto, I spent several years animating TV commercials for The Animation House Ltd. It was at this time that I first began experimenting with computer animation on the Amiga.
In 1996 I left the Animation House to pursue other career directions. I freelanced for several companies. For a while I was a storyboard artist for Arthur, an animated TV series produced by Cinar in Montreal. The series won the 1997-1998 EMMY AWARDS.
I was eager to get back to directing and becoming increasingly interested in working in CG animation, so when the opportunity to direct at Monster By Mistake arose, it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. “Monster by Mistake”, the Series is a charming animated half hour CGI television series for children distributed by Buena Vista International and Cambium. It was Created by Mark Mayerson at Catapult. The series has been sold in over 16 countries from Canada to Singapore. I was impressed with the high quality of the animation in the Halloween Special pilot and knew directing a third of the episodes of the first season would be an exciting and challenging one. In the first two seasons, I directed the following titles: Fossel Remains, A Special Talent, Entertaining Orville, Back in Time, Live from Pickford, Thin Ice and Cops and Monsters. Fossel Remains was chosen by the producer to be the first to air in season one, as the production value was much stronger than the previous episodes completed.
Nelvana had a difficult production called Commited, based on a Michael Fry cartoon strip. After 9 months of not getting an episode approved to get shipped overseas, I was brought in to carry on with half of the shows. At that point the shows pulled out of their inertia with the creator and broadcasters, and they were actually getting made. Before I finished the last episode, Nelvana asked me to be a Co-Director on season 2 of Rescue Heroes. This was a challenge, because the clients had demanded a complete overhaul of the designs after the show was already in production. With a bit of juggling, we managed to pull it off. The next season I was asked to come back to Co-Direct season 3 of Rescue Heroes. Everything went pretty smoothly that year and I had the opportunity to direct the first episode to air close to September 11, with a storyline that paid tribute to all the Rescue Heroes of the world!
UPDATE: More history can be found at “What’s New” page.
Harry Rasmussen 