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 BIOGRAPHY 1996 - 2008
In 1996 I enrolled myself in the southeastern college, Savannah College of Art & Design
with a double major. I was eager to gain training and knowledge through my Sequential Art
classes and Computer Art classes. As an undergrad there I didn't have access to the 3D
Animation aspect of my major until the third year. By that time I had already been doing
2D Animation and Comic book art. All the while trying to turn my comic book art into 2D Animation,
influenced by the cartoons I watched growing up, Thunder Cats, He-Man, GI Joe, Transformers.
After another quarter or so I dropped my Sequential Art major to shorten the time it would
take for me to graduate, and to focus on 2D animation.
After I graduated I applied to every company I could think of for a job as an animator.
Looking back now I realize that I didn't really have the experience or knowledge to get the
jobs I was applying for. But luckily I got a good job with a software company in New York and over the
next two years was promoted twice, ending up as the Supervisor of Web Design. In that
position I got my first taste of team management and project management. I oversaw the
other web designers and worked with the Art Director and Graphic Designers to complete web sites. After a while
the big tech stock fallout occurred and most companies were laying off many employees. I unfortunately was
one of them.
Always wanting to go back to school and get my Masters degree I took the layoff as an opportunity to. In 2001 I decided that SCAD would be the best place for me to go, mostly
because I knew the teachers and area. Also because they completely
revamped their department with top of the line computers, software and teachers.
Still wanting to get into 3D Animation I focused on that along with video game design,
taking courses in both areas. At the same time using all of the free electives that I had taking courses in
Life Drawing and Conceptual Illustration.
Once I graduated again with my MFA degree, I started appling everywhere. I
received a few offers but none of them felt right to me at the time. Then I interviewed for and was offered
a the position of Animator at a video game company in Atlanta. It was exactly what I wanted to do, a dream job. The company was young and small and that would give me the opportunity to grow with the company. After working there for a short while my bosses
realized I needed to be promoted and they gave me the title of Animation Art Director.
Working with the Lead Programmer, and Art Director we pushed projects through the pipeline. I oversaw all of the animation aspects and animators, more team management and project management experience which I enjoyed.
At this studio there were a lot of different side jobs that the owner would bring in to work on as we worked on our X Box
titles. But soon the company began to have financial problems and could no longer pay it's employees. Shortly after everyone but the interns had left.
At that time luckily I had a good friend working for a production company in Atlanta, so I
was able to roll right into another company but as a freelancer. While there I got to work on a few
commercials and the cartoon show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I also learned a lot there, not only computer
wise but employee/employer relationship wise. It was my first time freelancing so I was
just getting the hang of contacting companies, finding work and then finding more.
After a pretty successful year in Atlanta I decided that I could do the freelance thing in New York and
would be closer to my family.
Once I moved back to New York in 2005, I started doing freelance work
in web design, 3D animation, motion graphics. One of the freelance jobs I had was as a CG Artist on the movie Barbie Diaries. My job was to check the background characters to make sure the Mocap data was correct. Also to add in the props to each of the characters. Then if the mocap data didn't work adjust the data through new animation. One of the shots I worked on was the mall shot and had 50 plus background characters.
After some other short freelance projects in early 2006 I decided to accept an offer for a teaching position, Animation Instructor, in Raleigh, North Carolina. The school is small proprietary school with only five departments one of which is animation. So far I have been able to really spread my influence into many areas of the classes I teach. With a small faculty and student body I have taught classes in Rigging, Modeling, Story Development, Portfolio Development, Motion Graphics and Group Project. And within those subjects I have been able to convey my knowledge and experience in conceptual and character design along with animation. Also during my first quarter I was able to manage four animated shorts created completely by students.
Most recently while teaching at SCA I have directed and art directed Animated Shorts, two of which Crease and Brand New Board, made it into the Carborro Film Festival. Also Two if by Crook was shown in the Macon Georgia Film and Video Festival and receievd Honarable mention in the animation category. All of the horts were created by students doing all of the production work, but with myself doing the preproduction; storyboards, character design, script.
Also I've now taken the Creative Director role for an in-house studio within the School of Communication Arts, named Firebreather Studios. We recently finished our first production that took one year to complete. Dustbin 10 was rendered in HD with 5.1 surround for the audio. The production was created completely by student interns that have now all gone on to work at major studios in video game and film.
In August 2008 myself and two other animation professors will be attendning Siggraph in Los Angeles with 27 students.
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