Avatar:Kenji Ono
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<title source="name"><default>Kenji Ono</default></title>
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<header>Biographical information</header>
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<label>Born</label>
<label>Died</label>
<label>First credit</label>
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</infobox>Kenji Ono (Japanese: 倧ι θ³’δΊ
(OnΕ Kenji))[1] is an animation director and storyboard artist. He was an assistant director, storyboard artist, and background designer on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and is a director and supervising producer on the upcoming Avatar Studios series, Avatar: Seven Havens.
Avatar works
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Assistant director
Storyboard artist
Background designer
Supervising producer and director
Selected other credit
Television work
- Ben 10 (storyboard artist)
- Ben 10: Omniverse (director)
- Big Hero 6: The Series (director and storyboard artist)
- DreamWorks Dragons (storyboard artist)
- Generator Rex (director and storyboard artist)
- Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (storyboard artist)
- My Dad the Bounty Hunter (supervising director)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (director)
- The Penguins of Madagascar (storyboard artist)
- The Simpsons (character layout artist and animator)
- Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia (storyboard revisionist)
- Turbo FAST (storyboard artist)
Filmography
- Boss Baby (storyboard artist)
- Canvas (storyboard artist)
- DC League of Super-Pets (storyboard artist)
Biographical information
Personal life
Ono received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998.[2]
Career
Ono's first job as a storyboard artist was on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Having previously worked on the animated sitcom The Simpsons as a character layout artist, Ono joked that his first drawings of characters like Sokka were influenced by the proportions of Homer Simpson. Prior to the show's premiere, Ono was unsure how the show and its pacing would be received by younger audiences; Ono would later look back on his time on the show, as well as its subsequent popularity and the opportunities it helped foster in developing his storytelling skills, as one of the most fulfilling moments of his career.[3][4][5][6]
In addition to his work in animation productions, Ono has self-published his own independent creations. One animated short, The Yokais Under the Bridge, was intended as an allegory for how marginalized groups experience discrimination.[7][8] Another short, Nora and Beta, would later serve as the foundation for the similarly titled children's book that Ono would both write and draw.[9][10]
In 2020, Ono was recruited to be a supervising director on the Netflix animated series My Dad the Bounty Hunter.[11] Prior to production, Ono created storyboarding guides to help his team deliver consistent, efficient, cost-effective work in line with the show's tone. The sheets also detailed how to use a variety of camera angles, movements, and other cinematic technique to make scenes interesting and avoid making the animation feel generic, using action scenes from the movie The Incredibles as examples. Ono also impressed on his team the need to imbue their drawings with authenticity, whether by using reference photos for action scenes, or basing acting for the younger characters on the mannerisms of actual children.[12][13]
Trivia
- Ono was part of the same graduating class at the Rhode Island School of Design as series co-creator Bryan Konietzko and fellow crew artist Dean Kelly.[14]
- Ono's storyboard work been noted for its particular sense of humor amongst the original series' crew. Ono's additions to storyboards include adding a panda as a referee to Aang's "flashback" in "The Great Divide", adding a bird flying over Chan's head as well as his comedic shuffling offscreen in "The Beach", and Aang's exaggerated expressions when he rebuts Joo Dee in "Lake Laogai".[15][16][17]
- Being responsible for storyboarding Sokka's initial experience with cactus juice in "The Desert", Ono would later recreate the moment as a piece of art for an Avatar tribute exhibition held by Gallery Nucleus in 2015.[18][19]
References
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