New Zealand animator and producer Brent Chambers has died

Brent Chambers pitctured here in 2005, has passed away. Photo / FOTOPRESS, Michael Bradley.

Brent Chambers, the man behind New Zealand's first animated feature film, has died, passing away suddenly on Saturday, October 1.

Chambers started out creating comics with his school friend Stephen Maire, with whom he later went on to write the pre-school animated series Wiki the Kiwi.

He got his big break into animation at 27 years old, when veteran Disney animator John Ewing hired him.

Chambers and his wife Sue ran their own company, Flux Animation Studios which was responsible for creating the animated series Tamatoa the Brave Warrior.

It also went on to provide the animation for the first animated feature both originated and animated in New Zealand, 25 April (2015).

Kiwis will also recognise some of Chambers' work in the Adventures of Massey Ferguson, kids' show Buzz and Poppy and popular cartoon Animaniacs.

In a death notice supplied to the Herald, Chambers is remembered by loved ones as a "generous, kind, talented and devoted family man".

The notice reads: "We have been robbed of him far too soon but his memory will live on through all those that knew him.

"His significant contribution to New Zealand's animation and advertising community pales in comparison to the impact he had on the lives of those who loved him."

Brent leaves behind his wife Sue Chambers, mother Gillian and is survived by his children, Tom, Jess and Max.