Kent Melton was an animation sculptor best known for working on such high-profile movies as “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” “Mulan,” “Coraline,” and “The Incredibles.”
- Died: February 22, 2024 (Who else died on February 22?)
- Details of death: Died in Stone County, Missouri, of Lewy body dementia at the age of 68.
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Kent Melton’s legacy
The Springfield, Missouri-born Melton specialized in an art few Hollywood artists still practice: sculpting in clay. Melton created 3D models of characters for animation, which animators could then use as highly detailed references for their work. Often, this involved sculpting a character in a key moment, scene, or emotion. As he told 417 Magazine in 2015, “Basically, I am one of the first guys on the beach for the invasion of each film. I come in early in the process.”
He never attended art school – he got his start carving wood and glass at an amusement park in Missouri. Later in the 1980s, Melton worked NBC’s animated show “The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley,” and did sculptures for Warner Bros.’ “Tiny Toons Adventures.” That’s when he caught the attention of Disney and was hired to work on “Aladdin.” Melton ended up working on a string of high-profile Disney productions, including such landmark movies as “The Lion King,” “Mulan,” “The Incredibles,” and “Pocahontas.”
Melton later joined Laika Studios, a stop-motion animation studio, where he worked on the studio’s critically acclaimed adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book “Coraline.”
On his influences and inspirations:
“I bought a lot of art history books. A lot of people I read about have been inspired by African art. Again, it’s the economy of form that they use to represent anatomy and facial features. There are so few lines, but they’re so perfectly positioned to create this emotional read that you get when you look at them. That’s a big factor in my work.”—from a January 2015 interview for 417 Magazine
Tributes to Kent Melton
Full obituary: The Hollywood Reporter
