If you have visited any of the major animation blogs today, you already know that our industry lost a great artist over the weekend. Animator Pres Romanillos lost his second bout with Leukemia.
I worked with Pres for a few years back in Florida, where he was the supervising animator of Shan Yu in Mulan. Pres was just a very open person, and easy to get to know. He was intense with his drawing. Confident in his abilities, yet not cocky about it.
The photos above were taken at the canal behind his house. One day, Pres, Broose Johnson and I took a long lunch and went fishing. Not something that our deadlines would allow too often, but playing hooky occasionally was okay.
Broose and I took our sons fishing there, too. It was Matt's first fishing trip. He ended up catching more than anybody. One day, I'll find those pictures, too.
I kept in sporadic touch with Pres since that time. The last time I saw him was about 6 years ago, just after "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron" came out. (Pres was a supervising animator on it). We ran into each other at an awards event. Of course, that was long before any sickness had set in.
I will miss him.
