This is a sample of visual effects work I did from 1991-2001 at Pacific Data Images (now PDI DreamWorks), Cinesite Hollywood, and Hammerhead, of course collaborating with a lot of talented people.

True Lies (1994)

Working with director James Cameron and Visual Effects Supervisor Jamie Dixon at PDI, I art directed and developed the look of a four shot digital matte painting sequence. We shot the chateau plates at a mansion in Newport, RI. The mountains and snowy elements are from my vacation photos from the Southern Alps in New Zealand and the Canadian Rockies. I assembled up to three live-action plates per shot with over dozens of photographic elements, all treated day-for-night with extensive painting to blend images. This sequence was written up in Cinefex 59.

Romeo+Juliet (1996)

Working with Rebecca Marie at Hammerhead, I created two digital matte paintings. The plates were shot in Mexico city. Local signage was removed and new billboards/building signs were added. I extended the Capulet and Montague buildings so they would tower over the others and added the signage to their roofs. The Jesus statue was created as a miniature by Illusion Arts and composited in. Some versions of the shots included CG helicopters and smoke elements depicting burning buildings.

Heart & Souls (1993)

I worked as Lead Animator on this PDI production. Four of the characters and the bus in this movie are depicted as ghosts which can pass through real objects. Also, the ghosts can step into a living person's body. I helped design these effects and animated many shots.

Michael Jackson's Black or White (1991)

In this now classic video, I created the first half of the morph sequence.

Paulie: A Parrot's Tale (1998)

In this Hammerhead work, we replaced Paulie's real beak with a CG one that talked.

Michael Jackson's Remember the Time (1992)

In this music video, Michael Jackson uses a small bag of magic sand to create enchanting performances and effects. In this shot a small pile of the sand whips up into a tornado, turns into gold sparkly stuff and blows away.

Toys (1992)

In this Barry Levinson/Robin Williams film, I created a CG beach ball that bounces down a long hallway and opens up like a flower to reveal a hula doll playing a ukulele. The "petals" of the ball fold under to make the doll's skirt before she opens fire with her ukulele on LL Cool J.

Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997)

In this short film, MJ is taunted by the people of a small town as being scary. He responds by peeling off his face and dangling it in front of the townsfolk, revealing his skull beneath, all the while asking "Is this scary?" The rubber face was integrated with the CG skull which had to be lit and match-moved to the live action plates.

Double Dragon (1994)

I worked as Technical Supervisor and acting Visual Effects Supervisor on this martial arts kids' film. The bad guys in this movie turn into shadows and enter the bodies of the good guys. I designed the main effect, animated many shots, and supervised the rest of the shots. Andrew Adamson supervised the plate shoots.

Disney's Circlevision (1992)

This film, From Time to Time, showed at the Circlevision Theatre at Euro Disneyland which consists of 9 screens displayed in a 360 degree circle. Most of the film is live action but it involves time travel so I created several shots of CG time tunnel complete with lightning and photon torpedo effects.

Bushwhacked (1995)

This movie is about a bankrobber who meets up with some boycotts and leads them into all kinds of trouble while trying to escape the law. In this scene, the kids are forced to cross a rickety swing bridge over a huge canyon. The shot begins looking across the bridge and ends looking down into the canyon. The actual plate was shot over a shallow dry stream bed. I created the deep canyon and roaring whitewater river as a 2.5D matte painting.

Batman Returns (1992)

Wire removal from several explosion scenes.

Children of the Corn II (1993)

Complete with dripping slime, the bad guy in this horror B-flick morphs into this horned thing. This shot was deemed necessary after most of the film was in the can since the film was being released at the height of morph-o-mania.

Sphere (1998)

I created messed up static images that appeared on mission control type monitors. After creating the static and snow effect, our images had to be match-moved to the moving camera in the shot.

Cliffhanger (1993)

Wire removals galore as Sly Stallone climbs the plaster ice fall in a sweaty t-shirt.