Although he passed away on May 25, the UK’s Guardian newspaper has only recently published an obituary for Ronald ‘Gillie’ Potter, an animator who pioneered the use of special effects in British screen advertising and also contributed visual effects and title work for big screen features including Jurassic Park. Read the full account of his life here:

Ronald Edward David ‘Gillie’ Potter, animator, born November 16 1922, died May 25 2004

From the birth of British commercial broadcasting, the work of animator Gillie Potter, who has died aged 80, was seminal in advancing the use of special effects in television advertising. He raised the ‘pack shot’ – the art of displaying the product being sold – from what was often thought to be an essentially boring technique, to the level of an art form. He invented the device of having live action sequences taking place on a moving pack. His films sparked the ‘how did they do that?’ question up and down the country the morning after they were first aired.

Gillie was involved in the production of more than 2,000 advertising films. Many of his realisations became part of popular visual culture – the Rolo chocolate making itself in front of your eyes; the breathing jar of Vicks Vapour Rub, the boy eating Quaker Oats on a rotating pack as the same boy looks on; the animated character on a glass of Nesquick as the drink is being prepared; the people pursuing their everyday lives while flying on a gigantic Shredded Wheat.

Such work was achieved entirely on film more than 20 years before computers, digital effects and the word ‘morphing’ became commonplace. Gillie also contributed visual effects and title work for such feature films as The Last Emperor, Superman: The Movie and Jurassic Park.

Born in west London, the son of a cabinetmaker, by the age of 14 Gillie was studying at Ealing School of Art. Inspired to take up film making by the Ealing comedies he saw being made on the local streets, he joined National Screen Service as a title artist.

During the second world war, after military training – where he picked up the Gillie nickname – and period at Pinewood Studios with the Army Film and Photographic unit, he was posted to Lord Mountbatten’s south-east Asia command HQ in Ceylon (no Sri Lanka), and then to Singapore. After the war, he was involved in starting up what was then the Malayan government film unit, training Asian staff and producing, directing, photographing and editing documentary, educational and instructional films. In Kuala Lumpur he met and married his wife Marjorie, a local girl.

His return to England in the mid 1950s coincided with the birth of commercial television, and Gillie’s unique experience and talents were much in demand. After working with the Guild Television Service and the Rank Organisation, he formed his own company, Gillie Potter Productions, which rapidly established itself as a leading specialist in commercials.

The dazzling effects were achieved with flour, wires, sticks, tin cans and mirrors mixed with mathematically calculated camera double exposures, backwards photography and meticulously fashioned models. The work won him more than 40 international awards, including a Golden Lion at the Cannes advertising film festival.

Gillie considered himself to be a very fortunate man, whose work was his passion, and it sustained him after his beloved wife died in 1992. He was made a fellow of the British Kinematograph Sound and Television Society in 1997 and continued filming projects until two weeks before his death. He will be remembered for his intense and infectious enthusiasm for all things that are on film.

He is survived by his two daughters and a son.

– Rex Ebbetts, Guardian UK.