Aardman has confirmed the death of Loyd Price, one of the stop-motion animators who helped shape the studio's biggest films. Price spent more than 30 years at Aardman, working on Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep, and he trained a whole generation of the studio's animators along the way. He was 64.
The studio shared the news on X on Friday (October 16th), calling him a gifted animator, mentor, and friend:
Peter Lord Remembers Aardman's Tutor In Chief
Aardman co-founder Peter Lord paid tribute to Price and explained just how much of the studio's modern era runs through him. "Loyd joined us as an Animator over thirty years ago, and in the late 1990's he took on an extra role, to train an entire generation of animators who would go on to be the core of our feature animation team," Lord said.
"Loyd was tutor in chief, and what an incredible success that was! He was patient and encouraging, kind and demanding, with a superb analytical eye," he continued. Lord added that Price never wanted to step away from animating himself, working on everything from TV commercials to A Close Shave and then Chicken Run, where he served as both an animator and an animation supervisor.
Lord also described how Price looked out for the people he trained. He made a point of learning each animator's skills and interests, and when times were tough, Lord said, he would be "their spokesperson and champion." According to Lord, Price's retirement party was packed with animators he had taught and mentored over the years.
"All our sympathy goes out to his wife Alison, and to his whole family. We know that he was fiercely proud of them all, as a husband, a dad and a grandad, and that he will be sorely missed," Lord said.
From The Nightmare Before Christmas To Dawn Of The Nugget
Price's career reaches well beyond Aardman's own characters. He worked as an animator on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, released in 1993, one of the most influential stop-motion features ever made.
At Aardman, he worked across the studio's biggest franchises. Along with A Close Shave and Chicken Run, he animated on Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and won the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature for his work on Gromit in that film, beating out Madagascar and Robots. He was nominated in the same category again years later for The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
His credits also include Flushed Away, the computer-animated film Aardman made with DreamWorks, and Shaun the Sheep. His final film was Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, the 2023 sequel that released on Netflix.
A Legacy You Can See In Every Aardman Film
Stop-motion is slow, painstaking work, and much of what makes an Aardman character feel alive comes down to tiny choices made frame by frame. Gromit never speaks, so every bit of his personality lives in an eyebrow, a glance, or a slump of the shoulders. Winning a major award for that performance says a lot about what Price brought to the table.
His bigger legacy might be the people he trained. Animators he mentored went on to form the backbone of Aardman's feature team, which means his influence will keep showing up in Aardman's films for years to come, long after his own final shot.
Fans have been sharing their favorite Aardman moments in tribute since the news broke, and former colleagues have been remembering him as a calm, generous mentor who shared what he knew.
What is your favorite film Loyd Price worked on, Chicken Run or one of the Wallace and Gromit adventures?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.