In 1995, Walt Disney Feature Animation established a small computer character animation division with the goal of creating a proof-of-concept short film about dinosaurs. The project's purpose was to test various methods for producing a full-scale CGI feature film. I was hired as an animator for this pilot project, even though I had not yet worked professionally in computer graphics. Animation Director Eric Leighton recommended me based on our previous work together on The Nightmare Before Christmas and my personal experience teaching myself the basics of CGI in my spare time. This project marked the most transformative period of my animation career and reflected the broader changes occurring at Disney. What began as a small crew of 30 people for the test project eventually grew into a state-of-the-art digital studio of 350 artists, animators, and technical experts over the next four years. During this expansion, I became an Animation Supervisor and mentor for Disney's feature film Dinosaur!

When I first experienced Jurassic Park in a movie theater in 1993, my mind was blown! The dinosaurs were incredibly realistic; ILM had created a cinematic milestone that would change visual effects forever. Uncertain about my future as a stop-motion animator and deeply inspired by what I had seen, I decided to take the challenging step into the realm of computer character animation. But how would I achieve this goal?

In 2008, game company Namco Bandai decided to update and reimagine their horror-themed video game Splatterhouse (originally released in 1988) for the PlayStation and Xbox platforms. The gameplay was extremely gory, as suggested by the title, but Splatterhouse also featured compelling storytelling sequences known as cinematics or cutscenes between levels. I animated some of those sequences at Brain Zoo, the studio responsible for all the cinematics in production. Fortunately, the cinematics leaned more toward a horror movie style without the fighting and gore present in the gameplay.

Below the busy streets of New York City's Times Square was once an unusual tourist attraction called National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey. It featured interactive virtual underwater environments created by VFX studio Pixomondo, where I was part of the design and animation team in 2016–2017. One of my favorite parts of the project was a pre-show event that visitors experienced while riding an escalator from street level down to an underground lobby. They would pass through a wall of mist onto which was projected an underwater scene starring playful sea lions and a menacing great white shark.

One of the most unusual personalities on television is "The Box": a walking, talking cardboard box representing the Progressive Corporation. It has been involved in all sorts of amusing scenarios, but in its latest appearance, we discover that The Box can sing. Who would have thought?

This year (2018) marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special, the opening sequence of which I had the honor of animating. It all began with an unexpected phone call from producer/director Prudence Fenton. Production was set to start in just a few days, and she was inquiring about my availability to shoot the stop-motion animation for the title sequence. Prudence also requested that I sculpt a clay fox and several other animals to animate and have ready immediately. I was more than willing, but given the unusually short notice, I could only create the clay fox puppet before the shoot. Getting right to work, I wondered what I was getting myself into; while the project presented many difficulties, my efforts paid off as they resulted in an Emmy nomination!

In 2016, VFX company Digital Domain in Playa Vista, California, contacted me about animating cinematic sequences for the science fiction game Gears of War 4. The project involved a mix of key-frame and motion capture techniques. As an animation purist, I usually avoided jobs involving motion capture because the process isn't artistically satisfying; however, this project was different. Rather than being motion-captured, the characters' faces required an animator’s touch, and the opportunity to create emotional facial performances caught my interest. Additionally, the job was scheduled for only six weeks, so I figured, "Why not?"

In 2012, the toy company Mattel embarked on an ambitious reboot of its popular Max Steel franchise. This endeavor included an all-new CGI animated series featuring a sleek graphic style by Canadian company Nerd Corp. Concurrently, promotional still images for the web were generated at Brain Zoo studios in Los Angeles, where I was tasked with creating and rendering characters in dynamic poses. Many of these images required exaggerated perspective effects typical of comic book art. I had to use some creative techniques to achieve a superhero comic look with the 3D Max Steel characters!