John Lamb (producer)

John Lamb, July 2007

John Lamb is an Oscar winning film producer/director, animator, and artist. John has been called "the most famous unknown surf artist in the world". From surf culture animation, to skateboards, to an Academy Award, Lamb's work has consistently been in the public eye since the '70s.

In the early '70s, Lamb's animation was seen in many seminal '70s surf movies, such as "5 Summer Stories". Lamb even created the first "aerial maneuver" on film through his surf character "Willy Makit" in the animated short "Secret Spot", featured in the 1973 surf documentary "Forgotten Island of Santosha". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJyRcOKM76k&feature=related

In 1975 "Willie Makit" was licensed by Hang Ten; the artwork was featured on the first fiberglass skateboards by Hang Ten, which can be seen in this 1975 NBC newscast on the new skateboarding phenomenon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PKoJvdhxrE

Most recently, "Secret Spot" was honored by the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, Ca. with a dedicated mural, hand painted by Lamb with a bigger than life wave scene and classic Lamb-style surf cars, tikis, palm trees and the iconic Secret Spot surfer. Co-created with Brett Hazzard, Lamb's Secret Spot is a feature gallery for the groundbreaking museum. See the mural's start and sky-bending finish on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esCCk8JasMY

History: Academy Award - 1980 - Scientific Technical Achievement Category for inventing the Lyon Lamb Video Animation System (VAS) - (shared with Bruce Lyon a single frame video device for pre-testing animation art before it's committed to final production. http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000003/1980

With the invention of the Lyon Lamb VAS, an animation revolution began. One example, a master animator uses the VAS to make animation history and demonstrate a first human "walk cycle" for his students: http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/04_walkcycle_project.html

After the success of the VAS, Lamb set out for his most ambitious animation project to date - "Tom Waits for No One", featuring Tom Waits singing "The One That Got Away". Using the video rotoscope, Lamb animated live footage of Tom Waits and received a first place in the Hollywood Erotic Film and Video Festival. After being unseen by the public for two decades, the video can now be witness in the Tom Waits library: http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/filmography/animation.html

Education: graduate of Cal State Fullerton - emphasis on animation.

Companies: Lamb has cofounded several successful ventures, and has succeeded in widely varied fields - from animation, to print production, clothing line designer, licensed cartoonist, to painter, John's work has been featured in many different mediums over the past three decades.

In the 1980s and early '90s, John Lamb Productions merchandised and marketed John Lamb cartoons on T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, coffee mugs, bar glasses, buttons, pins, key chains, greeting cards, calendars and a host of other ancillary products. During that same period, John also designed clothing for Adidas, Nike, L.A.Gear, Puma, Body Glove, Bugle Boy, Jimmy Z, Maui and Sons, Hog's Breath Saloon, Bear Surfboards and Hang Ten, among others.

In the '90s, Lamb founded Bobtown Ink, with veteran Disney director Russ Mooney and award winning director John Kafka. They produced and created many original content shows which reached varying degrees of success for clients such as Disney, Universal, Nickelodeon, Sun Woo, Hanna Barbara, Cartoon network, MGM, and Sony. The original content shows often featured Lamb's trademark style and humor, including shows such as Flamingo Court, Beach Bunnies, Cap'n Jack of the OSS, and Cyborg Pirates.

animation/production:

• “Secret Spot “ - premiered with “Forgotten Island of Santosha”
• "Rocket 88" - premiered with iconic surf movie classic " 5 Summer Stories" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_yhnTwKjE&feature=related
• "Getting Wasted"- An interstitial for the feature film of the same title.
• Sesame Street, Electric Company, several educational films
• "Tom Waits for No One"- starring Tom Waits performing live, then rotoscoped into animation –singing "The One That Got Away".
• "Flamingo Court"- Bobtown Studios. Featuring Marc Dansiezan as the voice for several characters.
• "Hippy Motors" convert classic "Hippy" mobiles into green/electric machines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvaGrXNGeeM