Animate with Dermot: 30 Full Animation Courses

Dermot O’Connor, an animator, designer, cartoonist, and indie filmmaker, has been working in animation since being hired by Don Bluth in 1988. He has experience in feature films, television, interactive media, and mobile/web animation.

His reel primarily features footage from his courses on Lynda/LinkedIn. Most of the scenes were animated traditionally, either by hand or using software like Harmony, Photoshop, or Animate CC. O’Connor recently began using Krita for 2D animation due to its superior capabilities compared to Adobe products. Many scenes also utilize symbol/puppet systems, with O’Connor striving to make the puppetry seamless. He employed After Effects for adding blurs and depths, as well as adjusting color saturation and levels.

O’Connor recently created all the character animation for the popular Disney mobile game “Where’s My Water?” The animation presented technical challenges due to extreme frame limitations and memory constraints, but the project ultimately proved enjoyable. Another recent work of note is the music video “As Lights Fall” for Alan Parsons (of The Alan Parsons Project), where O’Connor hand-animated the ink drawings coming to life in Adobe Photoshop to maintain a practical feel.

O’Connor further highlights his expertise by mentioning his courses for Lynda.com, now known as LinkedIn Learning. These courses primarily focus on animation and design, utilizing software like Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Animate CC, Adobe After Effects, and Toonboom Harmony.