Artist-animator, Ray daSilva attended and later instructed at New York
City's world famous School of Visual Arts. From the early '70s when he
worked with the celebrated former Walt Disney animator, Shamus Culhane,
Ray has been known throughout the industry as a "renaissance" type
artist capable of rendering in the classic, smooth Walt Disney style to
handling any aspect of the production from concept to finish.
Beginning as a staff, storyboard illustrator and conceptual artist for
the major ad agencies in New York City he rapidly moved to hanging up
his own shingle as an advertising art service studio supplying
comprehensive visuals and story boards for the ad agencies that once
employed him. The studio soon grew into a full production service.
Ray's talent for visualization and continuity of the story line had led
him naturally into the animated film industry.
His initial mentor and employer, Shamus Culhane, said that Ray was "the
best natural animator that he ever met." This is a profound statement
since Shamus had worked, not just for Disney, but for Max and Dave
Fleischer as well as many of the animation pioneers of New York City
where animation began in the United States. Ray's work also took him
north to Canada where he became a contributor to that nation's
outstanding, prizewinning animated films.
Ray's background as a conceptual artist provided an excellent
foundation for producing and directing animatic test spots and full
animation for television commercials. Due to his long time association
with Disney animators, he concentrated his skills and talents on the
traditional animation aspect of the business. He holds good
international festival recognition. Although he favors traditional
animation as is still done by Japan's fabled animator Hayao Miyazaki,
at this writing he is moving into computer based work due to pure
commercial pressure.
As his star rose in the industry, Ray began to work on entertainment
feature films, TV series and home videos as well as spots for the
advertising industry as a key animator, background designer and
storyboard artist. Ray daSilva is based in New York City.
