Simon Otto

Simon Otto is a Director, Animator and Story Artist. Most recently, Simon completed work as the Head of Character Animation on the third installment of the How to Train Your Dragon movie franchise for DreamWorks Animation. Prior to that, Simon directed various television episodes for DreamWorks TV and Netflix. Simon is known for his work as the Head of Character Animation of all three How to Train Your Dragon movies. In addition to overseeing the animation of the films, Simon has been instrumental in developing the look of the characters, their personalities, and the overall style of the animation as well as working in the story department on the second and third film. Born and raised in Gommiswald, just outside of Zurich in Switzerland, Simon began his career carving commercial snow sculptures in nearby resort towns such as Arosa and St. Moritz and drawing news cartoons for his hometown newspaper, "Die Suedostschweiz". After completing a banking apprenticeship, he redirected his attention to the arts and attended the F&F Schule für Experimentelle Gestaltung in Zurich. Following that, he left Switzerland to study at the prestigious Les Gobelins Animation School in Paris, France. After graduating from Les Gobelins, he received additional animation training through an internship with Walt Disney Feature Animation in Paris. He has been an important part of DreamWorks' character animation team ever since he joined the studio in 1997 to work on their first animated film, The Prince of Egypt. He worked as a Supervising Animator on many of the studio's animated features both in 2D and in CG, including Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and the Aardman co-production, Flushed Away. Otto also worked as a character designer on the hit comedy, Over the Hedge and on the How to train Your Dragon movies.