Hi, My name is Stephen and I've been working in the field of animation for 25 years. Most of my time has been spent working on such feature films as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Cars in addition to others at Pixar Animation Studios. Currently, I spend my days creatively supervising animation and animation technology development for Walt Disney Imagineering. Prior to my professional experience, I studied character animation at Cal-Arts where I met some of my best friends.
Pixar Animation Studios
Animator 1996 - 2009
Animation shot production and
Character lead work for many of Pixar's earlier animated feature films. As a
Character Lead I was responsible for overseeing the development of a particular
character or characters including design, modeling, articulation, and character
development of the movement. A few examples are Dash (Incredibles), Celia Mae
(Monsters Inc.) Bruce (Finding Nemo) Woody (Toy Story 3) Emile (Ratatouille)
and others.
Pixar Animation Studios
Associate Creative Director - Theme Parks 2009 - 2015
In this role, I partnered with the Pixar creative teams, and other Disney
companies overseeing the implementation of Pixar characters and IP within the
Disney Parks and Merchandise. This included Theme Park Attractions, Audio
Animatronic Characters, Media, Parades, Static Sculpts, Style Guides, and
Merchandise.
My area of focus but not limited to was Animation supervision of internal and
external teams, Story supervision, as well as direction on graphic art created
of the Pixar characters.
Walt Disney Imagineering
Animation Creative Director 2015 - Recent
As the Animation Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, I'm responsible for creatively overseeing animation development, design, direction, and supervision for Audio Animatronic characters within the Disney Parks around the world. In this role I work directly with our WDI Creative Directors as well as our Disney partner studios including PIXAR, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Marvel Studios, ensuring that their brands and character integrity are carried through in the final animation the product we create in the Disney Park experiences.
I also supervise and direct animation media produced internally at
WDI when needed. This would include Media used in attractions, onboard Cruise
Ships as well as media-based theater shows.
