David Sproxton CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 is one of the co-founders (together with Peter Lord

Peter Lord

Peter Lord CBE is a British film producer, director and co-founder of the Academy award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit.-Biography:In cooperation with David...

) of the Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit...

 studio.

David graduated from Collingwood College

Collingwood College, Durham

Collingwood College is a college of Durham University in England. It is the second largest of Durham's undergraduate colleges. Founded in 1972 as the first purpose-built, mixed-sex college in Durham, it is named after the mathematician Sir Edward Collingwood , who was also for a time Chair of the...

, University of Durham before starting as an animator

Animator

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...

, producing segments for the Vision On

Vision On

Vision On was a British children's television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1976 and designed specifically for deaf children. It was conceived and developed by BBC producers Ursula Eason and Patrick Dowling to replace a monthly series For the Deaf, a programme paced slowly enough for...

TV program, Sproxton and Lord created the character of Morph

Morph (character)

Morph is an animated Plasticine stop-motion character that appeared with the late Tony Hart, beginning in 1977, on several of his UK TV programmes, notably Take Hart and Hartbeat.-Details:...

 for Take Hart

Take Hart

Take Hart is a British children's television show about art, fronted by the late Tony Hart. It took over from Vision On, and ran from 1977 until 1983. The show featured Hart and the animated Plasticine character Morph, and other characters created by David Sproxton like 'Smoulder the Moulder',...

(which featured Tony Hart

Tony Hart

Norman Antony "Tony" Hart was an English artist and children's television presenter. He was famous for television shows such as Vision On, Playbox, Take Hart and Hartbeat.-Early life:...

, the artist from Vision On).

He is credited as the cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

 for the BAFTA Award nominated War Story, and the Oscar

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 nominated Adam, as well as the Oscar winning Creature Comforts

Creature Comforts

Creature Comforts was originally a 1989 British humorous animated short film about how animals feel about living in a zoo, featuring the voices of the British public "spoken" by the animals. It was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations...

 directed by Nick Park

Nick Park

Nicholas Wulstan "Nick" Park, CBE is an English filmmaker of stop motion animation best known as the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep....

.

Other production credits include Chicken Run

Chicken Run

Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films...

, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated comedy horror film, the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations, and released by DreamWorksPictures...

and Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas is a 2011 British/American 3-D computer animated fantasy comedy film produced by Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was released on November 11, 2011, in the UK, and on November 23, 2011, in the USA...

.

In May 2006, Sproxton (along with Peter Lord) visited the "Aardman Exhibit" at the Ghibli Museum

Ghibli Museum

is a museum featuring the Japanese anime work of Studio Ghibli, and is located in Inokashira Park in Mitaka, a western suburb of Tokyo, Japan.The museum is a fine arts museum, but does not take the concept of a usual fine arts museum. With many features that are child-oriented and a sprawling and...

 in Mitaka

Mitaka, Tokyo

is a city located in Tokyo, Japan. As of 1 November 2010, the city has an estimated population of 176,737. The total area is 16.50 km² and is about 50 – 55 meters above sea level...

, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, where he met Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki

is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...

. Miyazaki has long been a fan of the Aardman Animation works. Sproxton was created a Commander of the British Empire

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

(CBE) on 17 June 2006.

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