tom's personal biohello there, i'm tom l. i am a pathological liar and discoverer of the pencil,
but most importantly an itchy animator working out of a crevasse in new jersey, usa. for many years i've drawn
on this big block with a screen on it, but now i also shoot my pictures on film with another big block. it doesn't have
a screen though. it has claws inside. there are plans to graft a claw mechanism, shutter and lens onto my head so that
i can cut out the middleman entirely and make films truly independently, but science is unfortunately not ready.

life story Tom Loudon is an American animator, cartoonist, entrepreneur, professional businessman, pathological liar and discoverer of the pencil. Originally prophesied in Sumerian rock paintings, in late 2006 the budding artist finally emerged centuries later out of a deep crevasse in central New Jersey.

Tom's earliest creative endeavors are documented in school notebooks, worksheets, crude comics and penciled portraits. A startling similarity can be drawn between these early works and Tom's newest works, still believing the human body to be nothing more than a round head, a triangular body, and flabby limblike shapes. Nevertheless, Tom embraces these crude traits and qualities as paramount in his work.

Tom's primitive moving work consisted often of stick figures engaging in violent, but action-packed combat, some too awesome (or too crude) to show. 

His earliest "student films" were extremely crude animatics produced in his early years of high school. Tom took multiple introductory film classes intended for live-action filmmakers, and thus had a one week deadline to complete most of his hand-drawn work. Nevertheless, his student films were generally well-received. A project written around a stolen appendix caper received a B.

Though spending much of his "career" animating with a computer and graphics tablet, Tom now utilizes a traditionalist approach, choosing to animate with paper, pencil, crayons, and a big 16mm motion-picture camera, aiming to take advantage of the amount of control and experimentation possible with celluloid.

Tom's passion for film and all things graphical have inspired him to begin two separate ventures -- Stupid Optical Studios, LLC, his independent studio (and release moniker) focused on releasing his own pictures, and Plexhouse Creative, a division of the former focused on commercial graphics and marketing solutions.

Tom is currently in production on his studio's debut short film. 

stupid optical studios would like to personally thank:
    - alex dlr (for sharing the office w/ me + your creativity)
    - dev (you know...)
    - webster, john, ed (the 16mm gurus who helped me get here)
    - ed, again (built our custom, 16mm animation camera stand)
    - reuben and brandon (dude)
    - my friends (for believing in this whole thing)