Animation director

An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated film or animated segment for a live-action film. This may include directing the character design, background animation, and any other aspect of animation.

The role is not the same as the director of an animated film.

"Animation Director" can sometimes refer to somebody who handles the technical aspect of animation while a director works out everything on storyboards.

Differences between the American and Japanese Models

In the United States, the terms animation director and supervising animator are sometimes used interchangeably, and in essence, they refer to the same thing. As they are usually called supervising animators in the American tradition, animation directors who work in the United States will henceforth be referred to by that term. However, one key difference does exist: under the classical Disney model of American animation, supervising animators directly oversee the animation of a single character. For example, Eric Goldberg was the supervising animator of the Genie in Aladdin, but he was not involved in the animation of any other major characters or sequences.