Growing up, I watched a lot of TV, some would say too much! I was engrossed by Loony Toons, Hanna Barbera and WB cartoons. I loved all the monster stop motion movies from Ray Harryhausen. I watched Tracy Ulman avidly just to get to the Simpsons shorts within them (huge fan of Lisa).  Marty Stouffer’s Wild America was another big influence, I loved his high speed camera footage of animals- I could go on! What I didn’t know then was that all of this time spent in front of the television laid the foundation for my career as an animator. Although I loved the characters and the plots, what captivated me the most was watching the stories develop frame by frame. 

My big break came in 1997, when my professor, from San Francisco Academy of Art University, hired me to move  to LA to work on making jellyfish for the film Sphere. I modeled, rigged, texture painted and animated the jellyfish, as well as supervised four other animators for that job. I was proud with the work, however at twenty four, I felt I needed more experience.  I declined lead positions at Imageworks multiple times while I worked there,  which I went on to get at Digital Domain on the movie Tron and now at Magic Leap for the past 9 years.

With twenty five years of experience under my belt, I’m currently a Lead Animator at Magic Leap. I work with mostly software engineers to ensure the best quality real time animation is achieved. For Mica, a big challenge was making sure her head/eye direction toward the user made sense depending on where they were standing.  For the avatar, who represents the user, the biggest issue is making it move naturally by approximating poses with limited input data.  On a daily basis, I disseminate knowledge and strengthen communication and relationships across departments.  

Working in spatial computing, outside of visual effects, has granted me the opportunity to learn outside of my box. My career started with a hard focus on Python, recreating the tools I used from other studios and creating a few of my own. Because I have often operated within a small team, I pick new software up quickly, such as Unreal, Unity, Cinem4d, and Audio 2 Face to name a few.

Animating satisfies my soul. Creating the illusion of life and spreading joy to the people who watch it, is what it’s all about.  Having been taught by previous supervisors/co-workers, paying it forward is what keeps us going. Both professionally and personally I want to be kind, empathetic, to foster collaboration and lead by example, with the hope of, in my own way, making the world a better place.

If I’m not animating, I’m spending time with family, playing video games, cooking, running, hiking and coaching my kid’s soccer team.