Lebanese Supervising and Character Animator
Hayao Miyazaki, a great visionary animation artist, once said...
Reality is for people that lack imagination!
And Lebanon will never lack any brilliance, when true artists like Rani Naamani keep soaring high in Hollywood's animation world.
RANI NAAMANI
Running his life as intensively as his dreams, Rani is in love with anything that has to do with character and story. From a very young age his love for films ranged from Saturday morning cartoons to blockbusters on the big screen; it was easy to realize the effect and power of storytelling on culture and society.
Following Rani’s graduation from LPS (Lebanese Preparatory School), he attended AUB where he completed his freshman academic year.
One of the toughest decisions he had to make back then was leaving his beloved country in order to pursue his dream and the closest thing to animation at the time was graphic design so he traveled to Vancouver in order to attend an intensive one year program of 3D Animation and Visual Effects at the Vancouver Film School (VFS).
After his graduation, he was admitted into the film school’s scholarship program where he got to refine his student film “Defective” and enter it into the festival circuit which was screened at several festivals such as Seoul International Animation Festival, Nicktoons, Animex, and broadcasted on MTV Music Television.
“Defective” was nominated for 2 Leo Awards and won the $20,000 grand prize for EA’s Great Canadian Art Competition.
Rani’s film’s success led him to more opportunities amongst which his work at Mainframe entertainment and DNA studios as a feature film animator.
His great interest in animation was triggered the moment he saw Jurassic Park. He later moved on to animate at Dreamworks on franchises such as Shrek, Madagascar, and How To Train Your Dragon. He also was “Lead” on the character “Minion” from Megamind, which gained him a VES nomination.
Rani was also lead on King Julien in Madagascar ‘3’; he supervised and helped develop the character “Boss Baby”. He is currently supervising on “How To Train Your Dragon 3”.
As if his schedule was not full enough, Rani directed short films on the side, some of which gained Vimeo staff picks and were screened in film festivals such as “Fantastic Film Fest”. The short films are physiological and often darker in tone, a nice balance that compliments what he does during the day!
Rani’s advice to the next aspiring animation student generation is
“Polishing makes your shot look great… but it’s not what makes you laugh or cry…
this comes from character performance.”
Elias Doummar
Film Critic,TV-Radio Host, BIFF Film Programmer
When I first met Rani for a special cinematic TV interview, the conversation wonderfully started about the animation magic & it never ended… Rani is simply an exceptional artist with a brilliant eye to details inside out! I say, an Oscar is waiting him to be grabbed soon.
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