Monty Oum | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Oum at PAX 2013 | |
| Born | Monyreak Oum (1981-06-22)June 22, 1981 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | February 1, 2015(2015-02-01) (aged 33) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Animator,screenwriter,animation director,voice actor |
| Years active | 2002–2015 |
| Employer | Rooster Teeth Productions |
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| Spouse | [1] |
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| Signature | |
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Monyreak "Monty" Oum[2] (/oʊm/OHM; June 22, 1981 – February 1, 2015) was an American web-basedanimator and writer.
Oum attracted attention within the gaming community after releasing an animated video in 2007, titledHaloid, where characters from theHalo andMetroid video game franchises fight against each other, which went viral. In October of the same year, he released a follow-up,Dead Fantasy. Oum began working forRooster Teeth, serving as the lead animator forRed vs. Blue, and creating the original animated seriesRWBY.
Oum had a severeiatrogenicallergic reaction and fell into acoma in January 2015. He died on February 1, 2015 inAustin, Texas.
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Oum was born inProvidence, Rhode Island in 1981.[3] He was ofCambodian,Vietnamese,Chinese, andJapanese heritage.[4] He had four older brothers (including Neath, who took over voicing RWBY character Lie Ren after Oum's death) and two older sisters.[5] As a teenager, he was a student atNew Urban Arts, a community art studio for high school students in Providence.[6]
Oum dropped out of high school and began putting together gaming fan videos as early as 2002.[7] In January 2007, he discovered some reverse engineering techniques online that allowed him to extract models fromHalo 2 and, utilizing assets fromSuper Smash Bros. Melee, created the "ultimate showdown" between aSPARTAN (Halo) andSamus Aran (Metroid) inHaloid, a portmanteau of their respective franchises. The videos garnered a significant number of views online.[8] Later in 2007, Oum produced a series called "Dead Fantasy" in which characters fromFinal Fantasy andDead or Alive fight.[9]
Two months after the premiere ofHaloid, many gaming companies sought Oum,[10] and he was eventually hired byMidway Games as a combat designer. In 2008 he was hired byNamco Bandai Games as a combat designer and animator forAfro Samurai.[11] The brief experience in the gaming industry frustrated Oum,[10] and in 2009, he met Rooster Teeth co-founderBurnie Burns at a panel duringSan Diego Comic-Con and the two discussed the possibility of Oum working for the company.[12] It wasn't until PAX East 2010 that it was announced that Oum had been hired as an animator for the company's long-running web seriesRed vs. Blue.[13]
His next work, the animated seriesRWBY, featured highly involved and fantastical combat sequences between super-powered characters that garnered a following online.[14]RWBY was a commercial success for Rooster Teeth, and critical reviews highlighted the high quality of its animated fight scenes.[15][16] Two seasons of the show were produced, with a third in production at the time of Oum's death in early 2015. The show has now run for nine seasons.[17]
On January 22, 2015, Oum had an unspecified severe allergic reaction during a "simple medical procedure".[18] On January 30, Rooster Teeth co-founderBurnie Burns stated that Oum was "in critical care and it is not known if he will recover".[19] A donation page was set up for the medical expenses onGoFundMe, which received over $210,000. On February 1, 2015, at 4:34 p.m., Oum died as a result ofanaphylaxis at the age of 33.[20]
| Year | Name | Director | Writer | Animator | Actor | Other | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Haloid | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Producer, cinematographer, editor, visual effects | |
| 2007–09 | Dead Fantasy | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Creator | |
| 2009 | Afro Samurai | Yes | Additional designer | ||||
| 2010–12 | Red vs. Blue | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Cinematographer | |
| 2010–14 | Immersion | Yes | |||||
| 2013 | Internet Box Panel,RTX 2013 | Yes | Yes | P. F. Chang's Deliveryman | |||
| 2013–16 | RWBY | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Creator, voice of Ren (Volumes 1 and 2) |
| Year | Award | Category | Title of work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Streamy Awards | Best Animated (Channel, Show or Series) | RWBY | Won |
| 2014 | International Academy of Web Television | Best Animated Series | RWBY | Won |
| 2012 | Producers Guild of America | Outstanding Digital Series | Red vs. Blue | Nominated |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)For fans of a certain kind of animation, Monty Oum was the Wizard—and the King, the Knight and the Pawn, all rolled into one. Millions of people watched his web series "Red vs. Blue" and "RWBY."
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