The 28-year-old animator was born and raised in South Africa and completed his first animation at the age of 10. After finishing his schooling, he embarked into 2D and 3D animation for local post production facilities, such as AnimMate, Ministry of Illusion and The Refinery. He also worked on various advertising campaigns for prominent brands such as KFC's Chicky and Vodacom's meerkat. Barker then moved to the US to develop his passion for animation and completed an animation course through Animation Mentor.

New York's animation company Blue Sky Studios took on Barker as a temporary animator for Horton, where he animated crowd cycles for some of the film's sequences. He went on to full animation, animating most of the main characters for a number of shots for different sequences, leading to him being one of the eight animators that worked on the "Whoville" intro sequence – a spectacular scene which introduces audiences to the "Who's" in "Whoville".

The 20th Century Fox release is about an imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey) who hears a faint cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Although Horton doesn't know it yet, that speck houses an entire city named Whoville, inhabited by the microscopic Whos, led by the Mayor (Steve Carell). Despite being ridiculed and threatened by his neighbours, who think he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to save the particle... because "a person's a person, no matter how small."

While in South Africa, Barker conducted various print, in-studio TV and radio interviews, as well as visiting local animation schools to lecture, motivate and mentor the next generation of animators.

Nu Metro Films is the South African distributor of the film.

[2 Apr 2008 08:11]

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