Alan Becker (born May 18, 1989) is an American online animator, YouTube personality and artist, best known for creating the Animator vs. Animation web series, its shorts (both Animator vs. Animation Shorts and Actual Shorts) and its spin-offs, these include: Animation vs. Minecraft (and its shorts, Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts), Animation vs. YouTube (featuring many well-known YouTubers as well as early YouTube viral videos), Animation vs. League of Legends, Animation vs. Pokémon, Animation vs. Super Mario Bros and Animation vs. Arcade Games. on both Newgrounds and YouTube. Early life and education Becker was born in Dublin, Ohio. He graduated from Scioto High School in 2007, and attended Columbus College of Art and Design, graduating in 2013. Career When he was growing up, Becker's family owned one computer that was shared between him and his siblings. It was through this computer that he began experimenting with pixel art, beginning in 2001. Two of Becker's favorite animated short films were the 1953 Looney Tunes short Duck Amuck and the 1959 adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon, both of which contained animated characters using their surroundings to draw things out, which would become major inspirations for his later works. Eventually becoming homeschooled in 2005, Becker received his first laptop, an Acer TravelMate, which he used to begin animating using Macromedia Flash (later Adobe Flash Professional and currently Adobe Animate); his first official animation, titled Pink Army, was posted on Newgrounds in 2006, where it did well. On June 3, 2006, at the age of 17, Becker posted the hit animation Animator vs. Animation on Newgrounds, where it quickly went viral and led to it being re-uploaded on various media websites. According to Becker, an unnamed company offered him $75 for "exclusive rights" to "Animator vs Animation", but he decided against it, heeding the advice of Steven Lerner, owner of Albino Blacksheep. Later, he discovered that his animation had been uploaded to the notorious entertainment website eBaum's World without permission (for which the site was infamous of doing to many other video creators). After Steven Lerner used this as evidence in a legal battle against eBaum's World, Becker accepted a $250 payment for use of the animation. However, following a change of heart, he returned the money and had the animation removed. Atom Films persuaded and funded Becker to create a sequel after the success of his first animation, and so he created