Leo Crane

Leo is an animator, artist and co-Founder of creative studio Figuration. He graduated with an MA (Distinction) in 3D Computer Animation from Bournemouth University, finding success with his first film The Library, commissioned by The London Library. It toured extensively on the festival circuit, winning best film at Miami International Animation Festival 2012 and Best of 2013 at Be There! Corfu.

He has gone on to create animations for cultural institutions across the UK, from The Hepworth Wakefield to Dulwich Picture Gallery and Forward Arts Foundation (National Poetry Day). In 2015, he was selected for an Open Residency at The Animation Workshop, Denmark, followed by their ANI:DOX Lab programme in partnership with the Danish Film Institute. Since 2016, he has studied painting and drawing under Maggi Hambling CBE. He has quickly developed a professional fine art practice and is represented by Future Icons.

He now fuses his digital training with fine art techniques to create sensitive animations that reveal under-represented perspectives on the world. Last year, he won the Animate Projects/Anim18 open call for Untold Tales to create the micro-short charcoal animation The Foundling. He is now working with Animate Projects on a longer watercolour animation Nude Triumphant (2020). In both, he uses a hybrid documentary-fiction process to create narratives based on interviews with real subjects.