No it wasn’t Jurassic Park. It was Beauty & the Beast, the film that truly inspired me to pursue animation. I was working at the movie theater at the time and during some time off just wanted to kill a couple of hours. It was the only movie I hadn’t seen yet that was playing at our little six-plex. I went in with little expectation and walked out blown away. I couldn’t imagine how a cartoon, for Pete’s sake, could carry me on such an emotional ride. A hopeful, wanna-be Disney animator was born.

Fast forward a decade. Under realization that my draughtsmanship just wasn’t up to par, I enrolled in the Computer Animation program at Ringling, still hopeful for one day becoming a Disney animator. Ringling exposed me to not only the animation side of things but to the whole process of filmmaking. I loved every aspect of it (well, except for the incredibly painful and ego-destroying story crits). Because of that exposure, another dream was born, to one day have my own studio.

Upon graduation, I was fortunate to have several employment offers as many studios were ramping up for big productions. However, I went with a little guy at the time, Reel FX Creative Studios. It was small enough that I could get my hands dirty in more than just animation. After putting in a few years, learning all that I could in a production environment, it was time to follow up on that second dream. By the way, even though I never worked at Disney, I have had the extreme pleasure and honor of working with Disney veteran, Ken Duncan (Beauty & the Beast, Hercules, Tarzan, Shark Tale) on the prologue for the Disney film, “The Wild”. In some small roundabout way, God has granted my first dream and I’m extremely grateful. The second dream, having my own studio, has also been granted. Lasso the Moon Animation is open for business.