If you need a great Animator…

I’ve gotten to work with, and learn from, some of the best people working in the film industry, and I pass that expertise to you.

Whether I’m collaborating with you on a project or mentoring you – you’re gaining access to over 15 years of animation, visual effects, & storytelling knowledge.

I absolutely love using my talents to contribute to creative endeavors, whether they’re feature film, commercial, or video game.  It’s all part of the fun of being an animator & filmmaker.

My Unique Abilities

Since I’ve had over 13 years experience as an animator on dozens of projects (specializing in character animation for both live-action & full animated films & commercials), extensive directing experience (for live-action & hybrid projects), and have supervised tons of special effects & post-production for numerous films of all types- I’m pretty rare.

I also studied acting & writing extensively with some of Hollywood’s top writing and acting coaches.  A large percentage of that time was spent focusing on comedy- one of the cornerstones to great animation.  I believe that humor is one of the hardest things to pull off, and recognized it as an area I wanted to master.  This led to many long and embarrassing stretches doing improv, standup comedy, & studying acting for sitcoms.

All of that training has helped me to understand how to best get a performance out of an animated character AND how to get my crews to deliver the ‘acting chops’ even when most animators have very little acting knowledge (I took 1 workshop of acting in my entire 4 years of college.)  If the story and characters aren’t believable then audiences won’t give a damn.

It all started after I graduated CalArts and made this 2D (hand-drawn) animated short film:

From there I was able to work as a character animator (I had a knack for performance) for a bunch of great studios like Warner Brothers, Sony Imageworks, ReelFX, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, Disney Feature Animation & more.

After that I began working as a pre-visualization artist (I wanted to better understand camera work and lenses). This led to me to design some giant action sequences for big-ass blockbusters. After a few years of that I was supervising.

During that time I’d oscillate with directing animation for short films and commercials. My responsibilities included supervising the story, character builds and final output of the characters and digital environments. I loved doing this because it allowed me to use all of my knowledge (in New Zealand I used the Lord of the Rings film crew to shoot my award-winning short film Rose). I also created all the visual effects for that (and all subsequent films and commercials I’ve done). It’s all part of creating a cohesive ‘vision’ and artistic palette for the film at hand.

Now I’m taking all my knowledge, in all the various fields of filmmaking and creating mentoring workshops so that young people can make their dreams happen (I’ve been very fortunate and like to give back). So if you’re interested in my mentoring programs, click the TAB above.

I’m also developing a handful of feature films and hope to shoot Infrared (a sci-fi thriller) by years end.

That’s it for now. Thanks for visiting my site and please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

-Mike