Crafting Magical Worlds
Animation and Visual Effects have always been more than just a profession for me — it's a passion that has shaped both my career and my life.
I began my career as an animator at Massive Black in California in the early 2000s, right in the heart of San Francisco’s vibrant video game industry. My first projects were animating on AAA video game titles, including Hellgate: London and Gun for Activision—experiences that taught me the importance of building a strong foundation for principles and movement.
For nearly a decade, I worked for the Oscar-winning filmmaker Phil Tippett at Tippett Studio in Berkeley, in the Animation Department, where we brought to life the squirrel and the dragon in the Disney film Enchanted (2008). In Cloverfield (2009), we animated the monster, Clover, and parasites that devastated New York, and in the Twilight saga, I was part of the Tippett Supervising team responsible for the wolfpack.
Go behind the scenes and see how we crafted the Lumberyard sequence in Twilight at Tippett Studio in Berkeley, California.
Courtesy: Tippett Studio
Later, in Wellington, New Zealand, I joined Weta Digital, Peter Jackson's renowned post-production studio, keyframeing and developing sequences for The Hobbit, Planet of the Apes, and The Jungle Book, which won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2017.
As a character animator in the visual effects industry, I've had the privilege of collaborating with incredible artists and filmmakers. My time at Tippett Studio had a profound impact on me. Working alongside Phil Tippett, Chris Morley, Tom Gibbons, Randy Link, Will Groebe, Jesse Vickery, Jim Brown, Chuck Duke and many more was an unforgettable journey. While my primary role there focused on digital character and creature performance, I was fortunate to work on productions like MAD GOD — a project that allowed me to explore and learn the world of stop motion and physical filmmaking.
-Crafting Magic and Learning from the Best: Behind the Scenes of Mad God
