About the Author
Joe Doll is a storyteller.
Every night would be another installment in a multi-episodic story he would tell his kids at bedtime. From Jason, the Cave Explorer, to Sparky, the Fire Hydrant, story time was a nightly event.
Joe has written 2 children’s books in the 90’s: “What Could I be?” and “Lions Four”. He was also the illustrator of these books.
“How it Began” is a web series Joe wrote that can be found on YouTube and Vimeo, which tells the story of the origin of American holidays…with a comedic, and sometimes satirical, twist.
Joe has also been known to climb onstage in front of audiences at Storytelling events in the Chicago area.
Joe Doll is an animator.
After receiving his BA from the University of Illinois, Chicago, Joe started work for a studio doing commercial animation. He experienced all facets of the production, from in-betweener to keyframe artist, storyboards, and animation camera.
Joe utilized his innate sense of motion in various styles of animation: traditional cel, clay, photomechanical, 3D character, and 2D digital animation. He branched out later to do VR architectural animation, and projection mapping, where his work appeared on huge buildings, up to 13-stories tall. These installations appeared nationwide and even overseas. After that, Joe started creating holographic animation displayed at weddings, trade shows and even a stint at the WNDR Museum in Chicago.
Joe’s early computer animation work in the 1990’s includes Styro the Dog, who was so popular, he soon became the studio mascot. Styro later became a favorite of kids cartoon programming in Canadian television. This early 3D animation work earned him a write-up in a trade history book “Calculated Imagery” by Mark J.P. Wolf.
Joe’s commercial work has earned 14 Telly Awards and a Clio. Animation is the craft he has honed for nearly 50 years.
Joe Doll is an educator.
Joe’s family is basically comprised of all teachers. His mom, sister, brother-in-law, 2 nephews, niece, and daughter are all in the field of education. When his wife began work as a reading tutor, Joe got ideas about how to teach kids how to read in a way that would captivate and engage in a more entertaining way. He would accomplish this by using his other skills as a storyteller and as an animator.
Joe thought that good stories -not just sentences crammed with target words- and fun animation complete with sound effects, music and narration, could help kids through this difficult learning process. Psychological research has proven this to be the case.
Joe has taught kids in park district drawing classes, Sunday School, Elementary School as a substitute, and college kids as an adjunct animation teacher.
Storytelling. Animation. Education.
The
Motion Reader Library is a sum of these parts.