Olivier Staphylas

Olivier Staphylas is a French animator, known for his work at DreamWorks Animation and for his award-winning student film, Le Building. He joined DreamWorks in 2006 and, within a few years, attained the role of supervising animator on How to Train Your Dragon. His work on 2011's Puss in Boots, supervising the titular character's animation, earned him nominations for an Annie Award and a Visual Effects Society Award. He then served as head of character animation on Penguins of Madagascar. Starting in 2014, he served in that position at Oriental DreamWorks. Staphylas has since left DreamWorks and worked on 2021's Wish Dragon alongside Base FX and Sony Pictures Animation.

Early life and education Olivier Staphylas was first inspired to become a CG animator in 1995, at the age of fifteen. A French television series, , aired a special that year called "Imagina 1995", in which a variety of animated works were showcased. It was through this special that Staphylas was first introduced to computer-animated short films. Upon seeing Toy Story the same year, Staphylas knew that he wanted to pursue computer-animation as a career.

He first began experimenting with computer animation on his own, using 3D Studio 4. After attending an IUT in Saint-Raphaël, Var for a year, Staphylas was accepted into the Valenciennes campus of Supinfocom. There, he created a student film called "Bus Stop". He then began a brief stint at BUF Compagnie, where he was part of the team behind the music video for Madonna's "Love Profusion".

A year after receiving his degree, Staphylas returned to academics, joining the final year of Gobelins, l'École de l'image's animation program. Staphylas held primary responsibility for the computer-animated portions of the film. Le Building screened in numerous international film festivals and won several awards, including Best Undergraduate Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. with a degree in character animation. According to Staphylas' official bio, he is the first student to graduate from both Supinfocom and Gobelins. Staphylas then received another promotion, to head of character animation on Penguins of Madagascar. He moved to India in 2012, where much of the film's animation was created, and lived there for a little over two years. While there, Staphylas carried responsibility for helping to develop the DreamWorks satellite studio in India.

By December 2016, Staphylas had left DreamWorks and joined Base FX as head of character animation. In that capacity, Staphylas worked on Wish Dragon, the studio's first animated film. Co-produced with Sony Pictures Animation, Wish Dragon is a Chinese funded-production, written and directed by Christopher Appelhans, that retells the story of Aladdin in modern-day China. The film was released in 2021 on Netflix.

In February 2023, Staphylas served as director for an animated music video for "Love Louder" by The Meeps, a fictional anthropomorphic animal band.

Accolades