Producer/Director Richard O'Connor has been making animated things for a quarter of a century. These have included theatrical features (Frank Oz' "The Stepford Wives", Merchant/Ivory's "White Countess", Rebecca Miller's "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee"), documentaries ("Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns",  "Chicago Ten", "Nursery University"), television (Nickelodeon's "Kablam!", Cartoon Network's "Big Bag", PBS' "Between the Lions") and commercials. He writes about things -usually animated things, but not always. He has taught at Parsons School of Design, NYU, University of the Arts, and Rhode Island School Design. Currently, he serves on the steering committee of Our Next 4 Years, an organization dedicated to producing progressive work for a better future. 

With a small team at Ace & Son Moving Picture Co., LLC he has continued to pursue diverse and substantive projects. Most of the pieces showcased here have been made by the hands of a few people. A production might utilize anywhere from 1 to 10 artists.  Taisiya Zaretskaya has been with studio since their third year at Pratt and has contributed to all phases -design, animation, storyboards, and directing some pieces.  Natalie Greene joined the team in 2018 and works in a similar capacity. We usually have 3 or 4 staff artists. Everyone contributes to nearly every stage of production while gravitating towards the specific work they most enjoy.

Our work mixes traditional processes with contemporary techniques -incorporating the wisdom of past pioneers while addressing the concerns of today with an eye on the future.  As a result, our productions blend tactile material with technology to form classically styled work in modern aesthetics.