Bills Reflects on Lessons from Disney, Warner Bros. and Decades of Creative Work Shaped by His Experience at BYU.
Rodney Bills’ career in animation and design began with curiosity and a willingness to try things he had never done before.
“The word ‘path’ makes it sound like it was intentional,” Bills said. “But it really was not.”
While he was a student, BYU did not have an animation program. Still, Bills hoped to pursue animation and relied on connections from fellow students to help him move forward.
“One of my friends from BYU called me and said, ‘Hey, we’re looking for animators,’” Bills said. “I had not really done any professional animation, and I did not have any formal training.”
He completed an animation test of Mickey Mouse jumping and soon found himself moving to Los Angeles to work for Creative Capers, a studio producing animated content for Disney Interactive.
“I was this lump who didn’t know anything,” Bills said. “All of my coworkers were former Disney animators who had worked on big films. They taught me a lot.”
Bills later joined Disney directly, where he helped experiment with early internet animation. He directed a series called “World of Disney Shorts” that appeared on the Disney website during the early days of online media.
“They were incredibly tiny,” Bills said. “We had a $256,000 budget that included audio. They were almost like little read-along books, but they still had to have the quality of animation.”
Following the economic disruption after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bills transitioned to Warner Bros., where he worked on “Looney Tunes” cartoons produced for online platforms.
“By then broadband had come in, but we still animated everything by hand,” Bills said. “We would send the cleanup overseas and then bring it back and try to make it funny.”
One of the most memorable parts of his career came later while working on Disney Mobile, a division that developed a family-oriented mobile phone service before the rise of smartphones. Bills oversaw a section of the phone called the Disney Zone and helped design games, apps and digital experiences for fans.
“I was in charge of this whole area for Disney enthusiasts,” Bills said. “I built the content and worked with other divisions like Disney Channel and Radio Disney to create apps.”
The role also allowed him to explore ideas that would eventually resemble modern Disney Parks apps.
“We came up with all these ideas like fast passes on your mobile device,” Bills said. “At the time Disney did not want people looking at their phones in the parks, and they definitely did not want people seeing how long the wait times were.”
The division eventually closed when the iPhone entered the market and changed the mobile landscape. Bills returned to Utah, where he shifted toward educational media and later earned a Master of Fine Arts in animation.
Throughout his career he has moved between industries, working on everything from children’s books and video games to medical training modules and animated series.
“The education I received at BYU gave me a foundation that allowed me to move between all those things,” Bills said. “It gave me solid design principles and solid skills.”
He also credits the relationships he formed at BYU for many of his opportunities.
“The networking among my class allowed me to get my first art job,” Bills said. “Then later I was able to bring other BYU students into jobs. My last job was with another BYU alumnus.”
Bills believes artists bring an important perspective to the world.
“There is something about what we do as artists that gives us a different view of the world,” Bills said. “People do not realize how much art and design are part of their lives because it is everywhere.”
Now teaching animation and continuing his creative work, Bills encourages students to pursue their creative ambitions with commitment.
“Most people do not leave creative careers because they lack talent,” Bills said. “They leave because life gets in the way. If you really want to do it, you have to commit to it.”