I’ve had one of the strangest creative careers I know . Visual effects, on-set work, feature animation, licensing, toys, books, and brand leadership.
I helped the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 team win an Academy Award. I led licensing and creative for SEGA and the Sonic the Hedgehog brand. I developed the first fully 3D printed line of licensed collectibles with South Park. I’ve created hundreds of toys and products, published three children’s books, and mentor founders at Stanford’s StartX accelerator.
It looks scattered on paper, but there’s a throughline: instinct, curiosity, and the drive to learn whatever the moment required. Sometimes I steered the ship, sometimes I rode the tide, but every turn sharpened the way I approach storytelling, design, and leadership.
What you’re about to see is unusual...and that’s the value.
Today, I bring that breadth to helping companies define their creative vision, their products, and their stories. This portfolio is a snapshot of that work - and the thinking behind it.
FILM AND VISUAL EFFECTS WORK
I spent about a decade in film and visual effects full time, and 5 or so years after on a freelance basis, my last project being ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY in 2016. A majority of that time was spent as a 3D layout artist. What is that, you ask? It's multi faceted. Layout Artist can be broken down into 3 main roles - Matchmove Artist, where you recreate the on-set cinematography in 3D by animating a 3D camera against a 3D version of a set. Standard Layout where you are placing digital objects in a real world environment (Think the giant armada scenes in Pirates Of The Caribbean - The hundred ships in the background. Those were all digitally placed in the "real" world by someone like me.) Finally my specialty Match Animation, where I would animate a 3D skin of an actor (or object) which would be replaced by a digital skin later. I did basically the above description for thousands of film and feature animation shots. (Full filmography is here)
Match Animation Example
Final Shot, As Seen "On Screen."
INK'D GREETINGS
I started working with INK’D Greetings while they were in the StartX program. As a print-on-demand greeting card company, I championed their targeting of a younger audience with edgier designs - launching their CARDS AFTER DARK category, which now accounts for 30% of sales.
Currently, I am guiding the company through licensing deals with major brands and studios, expanding their market reach and growth potential.
When I began working with THE COLD BREW PROJECT, I realized their biggest asset was being overlooked: their founder, Maria. Smart, witty, and energetic, Maria was hidden from the public eye. I guided her to become the face of the brand—launching social media, sharing her hands-on experiences inspecting bean deliveries, and visiting farmers in Colombia. By putting Maria front and center, we built a personal connection between her and the audience—because when consumers like the person behind a brand, they’re more likely to try the product or invest in the company.
The strategy paid off: THE COLD BREW PROJECT just completed a 30-day friends-and-family funding round with participation from 80 investors.
PARAGON FX GROUP
For my work internally including helping establish licenses, marketing, production pipelines and media, see the case study above.
To see some of my favorite projects (out of the 50+ SKUs I managed) as Creative Director - Click on the right.
MEGO TOYS
As a special projects consultant I have worked on several projects outside the realm of the standard Mego releases. Some of these projects included digital pipeline development, the Mego GI Joe redesign, the Ghostbusters set, and the unreleased 4" monster line. Most of the special projects work was proof of concept for alternate toy lines, or meant to attract specific licenses. While I cant really share any of those projects (NDA), I can share the array of head sculpts I did for the standard release action figures.
SOUTH PARK X SOURCE3
As the Creative Director; 3D Design I got to work with the South Park brand and in doing so, create the first ever line of licensed print-on-demand collectibles. (Read an interview about the project here)
Author of three traditionally published and distributed
(Simon & Schuster) children's books. The debut book, Rest In Peace, sold 2000 copies, nearly 2.5X the average sales of a first time author.
The animated read along adaptation of Rest In Peace received over 50k views in its first 2 weeks.
SEGA
I had kind of a crazy role at SEGA. I spent most of my time in licensing, working as a product development manager and art director (creative lead, by SEGA terminology) and also helped internally act as an art director for the SONIC BOOM animated series. Due to my 3D skillset, I was the only American artist trusted to create licensing poses for the main Sonic character crew, which were then used on everything from video game packaging, to DVDs, to ICEE cups. I also managed the content for the ARCHIE comics series.
FACTORY ENTERTAINMENT
Between my time as a freelance sculptor and eventual Art Director, I created some of Factory Entertainments most popular products. (The ARCHER figure line unfortunately is unreleased, but a personal favorite.)
COMMERCIALS
I worked on a bunch of commercials and internet spots in between film gigs. Here are a few of my favorites. I sculpted the digital Slimer maquette used in the Radio Shack "80's" Superbowl 2014 commercial (He's at the end), did some body match animation for the Human Torch in the Fantastic 4 vs. Magic Johnson ad, and was a 3D camera and previz artist for this odd but cool South American Ford Fusion ad.
VIDEO GAME WORK
I only worked on 2 games, and one was cancelled... but that one was awesome. I just did a youtube video about it in fact . I also did water / mist effects on Tiger Woods 2003 - Both from EA games
AND THEN SOMETIMES....
You get called to sculpt a doll of Luenell for her Netflix special, produced by Dave Chappelle.
THE COLBERT GREEN SCREEN CHALLENGE
This is kind of a legendary ILM moment - originally an internal volunteer crew caught the attention of George Lucas - who loved what we were doing so much he made us an official "show," and even wrote the script. I was a VFX artist and Colbert stand in for this segment. (You can see the back of my head talking to Jar Jar, and my torso while using a lightsaber to deflect a blast from hitting R2)
DARTH TALON LIGHTSABER
Lucasfilm wanted to set canon for the lightsaber of fan favorite sith Darth Talon, and tasked EFX collectibles with the job. Brian ono, founder of EFX contacted me to do the design work, which was approved by Lucasfilm and displayed at San Diego Comic Con. Unfortunately, due to a licensing crackdown on the "extended universe," the saber was shelved from production.
Sonic BOOM Video Game Package Art
I can't even tell you how big of an honor it was being an American artist trusted by the legendary Sonic Team Japan with posing the iconic characters for use in game packaging.
To quote the Sega creative director, "This is unheard of."
MEGO x G.I JOE
When MEGO toys called me to ask if I wanted to be in charge of design and sculpting for the reimagining of the GI Joe toyline in classic MEGO format, I couldn't have yelled "YO JOE," loud or fast enough. A huge privilege to get to translate the classic design of these two iconic characters.
