One of the leading animators of Aardman studio, Loyd Price, has died
He was not on the list.
Animator Lloyd Price, who worked on the animated films "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Wallace and Gromit," and "Chicken Run," has died.
This was announced by the British studio Aardman on the social network X.
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Lloyd Price. A gifted animator, mentor, and friend, Lloyd dedicated over 30 years to Aardman, inspiring and supporting generations of animators," the studio's statement reads.
Lloyd Price held the position of lead animator at Aardman studio. During the production of the animated film "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005), he led a team of 30 animators. He also co-directed the series of animated shorts "Cracking Contraptions" (2002).
LLoyd J. Price (1962 to 2026) was a British stop-motion animator who spent more than thirty years at Aardman Animations in Bristol, where he rose to Head of Animation and trained the generation of animators who became the core of the studio's feature team. He was supervising animator on Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, won a Visual Effects Society award for bringing Gromit to life, and earlier animated on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Aardman announced his death on 16 October 2026. He was 64.
Price was born in Manchester in 1962. He learned his craft at Cosgrove Hall Films, the Manchester studio behind many of Britain's best-loved children's programmes, where he worked from 1984 to 1992. In his own words he spent eight years animating there on series such as The Wind in the Willows and Truckers. He then joined the crew of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), one of the landmark stop-motion features of the decade.
He began working with Aardman in 1994, at first as a freelance animator, directing commercials such as the 1994 Colgate spot Cuckoo, and animating on A Close Shave (1995), the third Wallace & Gromit half-hour film. In the late 1990s Aardman co-founder Peter Lord asked him to take on an extra role: training the animators the studio would need for its move into features. Lord later wrote that Loyd was "tutor in chief" and that the effort was an incredible success. He is also credited with setting up animation training at the University of the West of England in Bristol.
He did not give up animating. On Chicken Run (2000), Aardman's first feature, he combined the roles of animator and supervising animator. He supervised animation again on Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), describing his job as training animators in the ways of Wallace and Gromit as they joined the production. He believed Gromit was the deeper character of the pair and that, without a single line of dialogue across a whole feature, the dog demanded the greatest emotional range. In February 2006 the Visual Effects Society gave Price its award for Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture for Gromit.
Price also co-directed the Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions shorts with Chris Sadler in the run-up to the Were-Rabbit film, and spent time at DreamWorks working on Flushed Away, Aardman's first computer-animated feature. Over the following years he animated or supervised animation on The Pirates! (2012), the Shaun the Sheep series and Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015), Early Man (2018) and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023), on which he shared animation supervisor credit with Ian Whitlock.
As Head of Animation he remained a teacher at heart. In 2013 Aardman and the National Film and Television School launched a 12-week Certificate in Character Animation in Bristol with Price as main tutor. By 2015 he said that more than 70 percent of students from the first two courses had gone on to work as animators. Peter Lord remembered him as patient and encouraging, kind and demanding, with a superb analytical eye, someone who knew every animator under his charge and would act as their spokesperson and champion when times were tough. Lord added that his retirement party was bursting at the seams with animators he had taught, mentored, inspired and encouraged.
Price was married to Alison and was, in Lord's words, fiercely proud of his family as a husband, a dad and a grandad. Aardman announced his passing on 16 October 2026, calling him a gifted animator, mentor and friend who had inspired and championed generations of animators. The exact date, place and cause of death were not included in the studio's announcement. Tributes poured in from animation fans around the world who had grown up with the characters he helped move, one frame at a time.
Animation Department
Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, David Bradley, Lynn
Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Josie Sedgwick-Davies, and Bella
Ramsey in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
6.3
animation supervisorhead of animation
2023
Shaun the Sheep: Adventures from Mossy Bottom (2020)
Shaun the Sheep: Adventures from Mossy Bottom
7.9
TV Series
animation director
2020
10 episodes
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019)
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
6.8
animation supervisor
2019
Early Man (2018)
Early Man
6.1
animation supervisor
2018
Omid Djalili, John Sparkes, Richard Webber, and Justin
Fletcher in Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)
Shaun the Sheep Movie
7.3
animation supervisor
2015
Shaun the Sheep (2007)
Shaun the Sheep
8.1
TV Series
animatoranimation
2007–2014
30 episodes
So You Want to Be a Pirate! (2012)
So You Want to Be a Pirate!
6.5
Video
animator
2012
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
6.7
animation supervisor
2012
Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection (2009)
Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection
8.5
Video
character animator
2009
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
7.6
Short
character animator
2008
Richard Webber and Percy in Purple and Brown (2006)
Purple and Brown
7.4
TV Series
animator
2007
1 episode
Flushed Away (2006)
Flushed Away
6.6
animator
2006
Peter Hawkins and Peter Sallis in Wallace & Gromit in
Three Amazing Adventures (2005)
Wallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures
8.4
Video
character animator
2005
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
7.5
animation supervisor
2005
The Incredible Adventures of Wallace & Gromit (2001)
The Incredible Adventures of Wallace & Gromit
8.0
Video
character animator
2001
Mel Gibson, Jane Horrocks, Miranda Richardson, Imelda
Staunton, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Tony Haygarth, Lisa Kay, Julia Sawalha,
Benjamin Whitrow, Wyatt Shears, and Jo Allen in Chicken Run (2000)
Chicken Run
7.1
animation supervisor
2000
Stage Fright (1997)
Stage Fright
6.8
Short
additional animator
1997
A.B.C. for Kids: Favourites (1997)
A.B.C. for Kids: Favourites
Video
animated by (segment "Noddy's Toyland Adventures: Noddy
and the Broken Bicycle")
1997
Peter Hawkins and Peter Sallis in Wallace & Gromit: A
Close Shave (1995)
Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave
8.1
Short
character animator
1995
Susan Sheridan in Noddy's Toyland Adventures (1992)
Noddy's Toyland Adventures
6.0
TV Series
animatoranimated by
1992–1994
9 episodes
Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon in The Nightmare Before
Christmas (1993)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
7.9
animator
1993
Truckers (1992)
Truckers
7.6
TV Series
animator
1992
13 episodes
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (1991)
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
8.5
TV Movie
animator
1991
Michael Hordern, David Jason, Richard Pearson, and Peter
Sallis in A Tale of Two Toads (1989)
A Tale of Two Toads
9.0
TV Movie
animator
1989
The Reluctant Dragon (1987)
The Reluctant Dragon
7.9
TV Movie
animator
1987
Director
Kurzpässe
Director (segment "Wallace & Gromit Cracking
Contraptions - The Soccamatic")
2006
Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions (2002)
Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions
7.5
TV Series
Director
2002
2 episodes
Writer
Wallace & Gromit: Gromit's Tail Waggin' (2006)
Wallace & Gromit: Gromit's Tail Waggin'
Video
Writer
2006
Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions (2002)
Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions
7.5
TV Series
Writerstory development
2002
2 episodes
Art Department
The Getaway (2002)
The Getaway
7.9
Video Game
additional city builder
2002
Thanks
Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas (2015)
Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas
6.7
TV Movie
special thanks
2015
Head Over Heels (2012)
Head Over Heels
7.4
Short
special thanks
2012
Self
The Hatching of 'Chicken Run' (2000)
The Hatching of 'Chicken Run'
7.0
TV Short
Self
2000
HBO First Look (1992)
HBO First Look
6.3
TV Series
Self
2000
1 episode
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