Xavier Ramonède is a French animator and artist, best known for his work on various French films and international co-productions, such as '' Nocturna'' and '' The Illusionist'', the French webseries ', and his award-winning student film ''

Le Building ''Le Building'' is a 2005 French animated short film directed by a team of final year students at Gobelins, l'École de l'image. The story depicts a series of slapstick accidents that cause destruction to a three-story apartment complex. ''Le Bu ...

''. Ramonède's artwork has also been featured in multiple publications.

Early life and education

Ramonède hails from

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. He first became interested in drawing at the age of fourteen, after discovering

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

. Over the following two years, he developed a strong passion for animation. After meeting Romain Grandjean in high school, Ramonède was brought on as an animator and designer on Grandjean's 2002

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

short film ''Abraxas''. Although Ramonède was inspired by ''

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and the Firsts in animation, firs ...

'' to pursue a career in

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...

, he changed course to pursue

traditional animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawing, drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there wa ...

after applying to Gobelins, l'École de l'image. He attended there from 2002 to 2005. In 2004, he created the short student film ''Récré Fighter'', and collaborated with classmates

Pierre Perifel Pierre Perifel is a French filmmaker and animator. He is best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation, including directing the short film '' Bilby'' (2018) and the feature films '' The Bad Guys'' (2022) and its upcoming sequel ''The Bad Guys ...

, Jun Frederic Violet, and Rémi Zaarour on a second short film, ''Festival Qualité''. The following year, he reteamed with Perifel and Zaarour to create his group thesis film, ''

'', which was also co-directed by Marco Nguyen and Olivier Staphylas. ''Le Building'' uses a combination of 2D and

3D animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Modern ...

. Ramonède colored most of the film's traditional animation and also handled most of its

compositing Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live action, Live-action shooting for compositing ...

. ''Le Building'' screened at numerous international film festivals and won several awards, including Best Undergraduate Animation at the

Ottawa International Animation Festival The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized b ...

. Ramonède has named

Bruce Timm Bruce Walter Timm (born February 5, 1961) is an American artist, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for contributing to building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, most notably as the head producer behind '' Batman: ...

Jamie Hewlett Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is a British comic book artist and illustrator. He is the co-creator of the comic book ''Tank Girl'' with Alan Martin (writer), Alan Martin and the virtual band Gorillaz, alongside Blur (band), Blur ...

Milt Kahl Milton Erwin Kahl (March 22, 1909 – April 19, 1987) was an American animator. He was one of (and often considered the most influential of) Walt Disney's supervisory team of animators, known as Disney's Nine Old Men. Biography Kahl was born ...

, James Baxter,

Robert McGinnis Robert Edward McGinnis (February 3, 1926 – March 10, 2025) was an American artist and illustrator. McGinnis is known for his illustrations of more than 1,200 paperback book covers,BiographyMcGinnis, Robert− Cavalier Galleries and over 40 ...

Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as '' A ...

, and Miroslav Šašek as being among his artistic influences.

Career

The same year as his graduation from Gobelins (2005), Ramonède received credit as an animator on the short film ''Imago'', directed by Cédric Babouche. The following year, Ramonède worked as an animator on ''

Everyone's Hero ''Everyone's Hero'' is a 2006 American animated sports comedy film directed by Christopher Reeve, Daniel St. Pierre and Colin Brady. Starring Jake T. Austin, Rob Reiner, William H. Macy, Raven-Symoné and Whoopi Goldberg, the film was produced ...

''. ''Imago'' afforded Ramonède the opportunity to work with Perifel again, who served as one of the film's supervising animators. The two further collaborated as animators on '' Nocturna'' and '' The Illusionist''. Other animation credits of Ramonède's include various French films and international co-productions, such as '' 99 Francs'', '' Zarafa'', ''

Titeuf ''Titeuf'' (known sometimes as ''Tootuff'' in English) is a Swiss comic series created by the Swiss comic-book creator Zep in 1992. In 2001 it was adapted into an animated TV series and in 2011 into a film with the same title. The series also ...

'', and ''

April and the Extraordinary World ''April and the Extraordinary World'' () is a 2015 animated alternate history film co-directed by Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci, co-written by Ekinci and Benjamin Legrand, and starring Marion Cotillard. Set in a dystopian steampunk worl ...

'', as well as the French webseries ', and the music video for

C2C Trenitalia c2c, trading as c2c, is a British train operating company that operates commuter services from its London terminus at to parts of East London and south Essex along the London, Tilbury and Southend line, as part of the Essex Thame ...

's song "Delta". Ramonède has occasionally returned to Gobelins as a teacher and has also worked on various commercials. A 2013 commercial that he worked on for

Deezer Deezer is a List of companies of France, French music streaming service and media service provider founded in 2007 that provides users with access to a vast library of music tracks, podcasts, and radio stations. It offers streaming services in ...

uses Mcbess characters and received a Bronze

Clio Award The Clio Awards, also simply known as The Clios, is an annual award program that recognizes innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication, as judged by an international panel of advertising professionals. The awar ...

. A 2015 project that he worked on, called ''Hippopolis'', was directed by French artist Ugo Gattoni and serves as a companion to a scarf that Gattoni designed. Ramonède has been credited as an animator on

Ankama Ankama is a French entertainment company headquartered in Roubaix, France, focused on the design of massive multiplayer online role playing games ('' Dofus'', '' Dofus Arena'' and '' Wakfu''). The company is also active in publishing, animation ...

's under-development television project ''Muffin Jack and Jeremy.''

Pin-up A pin-up model is a model (person), model whose mass-produced pictures and photographs have wide appeal within the popular culture of a society. Pin-up models are usually glamour photography, glamour, actresses, or fashion models whose pictures ...

art by Ramonède is featured in Volume #1 of

Dave Sim Dave Sim (born 17 May 1956) is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, known for his comic book ''Cerebus the Aardvark, Cerebus'', his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creators' rights, and his controversial political an ...

and Howard M. Shum's comic book series ''Gun Fu'', which was published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

in 2005. In 2009, Ramonède contributed to the book ''Terrible Yellow Eyes'', which features artwork inspired by ''

Where the Wild Things Are ''Where the Wild Things Are'' is a 1963 children's picture book written and illustrated by American author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak, originally published in hardcover by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several ti ...

''. Ramonède also created artwork for a proposed

art book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that engage with and transform the form of a book. Some are mass-produced with multiple editions, some are published in small editions, while others are produced as one-of-a-kind ob ...

tie-in to the French

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

''Color Warz'', which in 2016, unsuccessfully sought funding through the French

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

website .

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...

-nominated

character designer Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * Character (novel), ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * Characters (Theophrastus), ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek se ...

Chris Battle, who has worked on such shows as ''

The Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American Superhero fiction, superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network. The show centers on Blossom ...

'' and ''

Dexter's Laboratory ''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. The series follows Dexter, an enthusiastic boy-genius with a science laboratory in his bedroom, which he keeps secret from his u ...

'', has expressed admiration for Ramonède's body of work.

References

External links

*
Xavier Ramonède on TictailXavier Ramonède on DeviantArtXavier Ramonède on Blogspot.comVideo interview with Xavier Ramonède at Gobelins (April 13, 2016)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramonède, Xavier Living people French animators French animated film directors Artists from Toulouse French illustrators Pin-up artists Year of birth missing (living people) Mass media people from Toulouse