Hi, I'm Mike

I'm an Animation Director, Lead Animator, Layout Artist, Character Designer, Video Editor, Character Rigger, Storyboard Artist, Previs Animator and Generalist... phew, that's a long list so I'll just settle for Animated Filmmaker, that seems to encompass most of it. Looking back I seem to have worked for a lot of big names either directly or indirectly including Disney, Warner Brothers, Microsoft, Nintendo, Coca Cola, Capcom, Activision, Sega and Electronic Arts to name but a few!

I picked up a Diploma with Distinction in Art and Design at Alton College in the UK then headed out to the Glamorgan Centre for Art and Design Technology for three years where I got a First Class Degree in Animation, and picked up three awards for my films in GCADT's excellent industry awards. I was an Animator for Rare for seven and a half years where my first game, Starfox Adventures was a very respectable success selling not far short of 2 million copies. That was when the company worked exclusively with Nintendo. After Starfox I became the Lead Animator on Kameo: Elements of Power which was released under the new management of Microsoft when Rare was made a first party studio in 2002. I worked on design pitches for loads of new games after we'd launched the XBox 360, which turned out to be a very interesting period of self discovery and I eventually took a sabbatical.

For my first foray into the movies, I spent five months living in Sydney working on the animated feature film, 'Happy Feet' which amazed us all by winning an Oscar. I learned a lot about the industry and realized I had to expand my horizons. I returned to Rare for a few months and presented at one more festival before moving up to Scotland to work on a new Cartoon style CG feature film as their Animation Supervisor. This turned out to be a bit of a troubled production and, although I hope someday to see the film released, I knew I had to switch gears and get something more immediate in my portfolio. I moved to Sheffield where I joined Ark VFX as their Senior Animator. I loved their visual style and felt it would be great to try something new. I completed a few small commercials while I started to develop a certain short film idea. I polished off a few pet projects before starting at The Moving Picture Company in London where I worked on a couple of adverts before starting on Narnia - Prince Caspian. Then I moved to Passion Pictures to do some very interesting Game Cinematic & Commercial work. I took some time off to continue developing my short film script and designs while I enjoyed the London summer. I had a bit of fun animating Churchill over at Glassworks for a bit and briefly dabbled with another budget Feature Film.

But life in London was expensive and I had always wanted to live in a warmer climate. It was time to take the plunge and I moved to Austin, Texas to take on the Lead Animator role at Armature while I continued to work on my film in my free time. I worked on a number of very interesting projects for a couple of years and helped them staff up, before taking the ultimate plunge to work on my short film, 'Devils Angels & Dating' full time with some freelance work on the side. Working on this film was everything I loved to do rolled up into one project; artistry, design, characters, story writing, technology, animation, effects, editing, filmmaking, marketing, website development, the internet, constant evolution of the craft and techniques, recruiting and working with talented people from all over the world!

Since I went freelance I've worked for Psyop on their latest Happiness Factory Movie 2 for Coco Cola, and Rooster Teeth working on the Halo comedy spin-off series, Red vs Blue.

Finally, after three years of online production with the team (over five years for me if you include the idea development period), we finished the film and put it online for the world to see. Please got to www.DevilsAngelsAndDating.com to see the final film. Working on it full time was a huge sacrifice and not something that can be sustained for long. It was a big risk but one that rewarded me artistically, and will hopefully lead to other interesting opportunities in the future.