Enjoy the official video for this catchy instrumental off of Rush's latest studio release, Snakes & Arrows. Since I used Wikipedia as a primary resource, assumptions about absolute historical accuracy should be taken with a grain of salt.

I maintain that the spirit of the thing is indisputable, however.

Support the band and pick up a copy of the video on their cd/dvd compilation, Rush Retrospective 3.

The YYZ video took about a year and a half from conception to completion (end of 2003), and was the culmination of two years immersion in animation technology. Basically a starter project, I used it to practice all the skills I thought I knew while attempting to create a cinematic feel that captured the spirit of the song, an instrumental ditty about flying into and out of Toronto, Rush's hometown.

As Geddy Lee would say: "Ladies and gentlemen, the professor on the drum kit..."

Equities trader and volunteer firefighter Welles Crowther gave his life in service to others in the south tower by leading survivors down the only passable stairway on the 78th floor, then climbing back up, and doing it again. This is my small contribution to this important tribute.

Digimation's Model Bank Library and Archive saved me when I needed 3D assets to represent a whole bunch of stuff golf ball divers find in water hazards.

It was an honor to work on a segment dealing with the most inspiring story of 2010. Ex-soccer pro Franklin Lobos was the focus so I've included an alternate take that features his avatar.

Yes, I'm a career beer drinker, but Mark Oldman's new book has me reconsidering my choice of libation. Even if you aren't into sparkling wine, Mark's sparkling wit will keep you thoroughly entertained. Get it for the hilarious (Alex) "Lifeson Ledge" story if for nothing else!

FaceGen modeller to the rescue once again! If team USA had advanced past Ghana, I was all ready to animate these guys as American superheroes for the segment leading into their next match.

And my life would have been complete. Oh, well. *Sigh*

Accurately skinning meshes is practically impossible with 3ds Max's Skin modifier. So I looked around and discovered BonesPro, and it made the skinning process a breeze. I used the FaceGen modeller to create the heads and morph targets, and Daz Studio to create the figures. Good times!

3ds Max's Reactor was too clunky to accomplish the shattering backboard effect and ball/net interactivity, so I used Orbaz's Box#2 Pro plug-in which extends the Particle Flow system into the physics sim realm. cebas' volumeBreaker plug-in helped me pre-break the glass. The backboard model and mo-cap files are from TurboSquid and the robot is from Daz 3D.

I merged photo-realistic foregrounds (utilizing the Cebas' finalRender AQMC global illumination solution) with finalToon-shaded backgrounds to keep the focus on the wrecks and add an interesting "surreality" to the piece, and which appeared on ABC Sports NASCAR Countdown.

I used Eadweard Muybridge's classic horse and jockey motion study as inspiration for this morphing animation that transitions from the 19th century riding style into the modern crouched, or "martini glass", method that jockeys practice today.

My first attempt at "kinetic typography" animates University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow's celebrated half-time pep talk and appeared on the season opener of ESPN's "College GameDay".

Event-driven particle systems, physics simulation, global illumination, toon shading, motion capture, you name it - I had to pull out all the stops to make this deadline: thirteen clips in under two weeks.

It almost killed me.

"BSODs" plagued this project and I determined that the computer was suffering from a form of cyber senility - aka bad memory.

A Mac-aficionado friend of mine took the opportunity to try to lure me to the dark side but, alas, good prevailed once again.  ...and, no, he didn't admit to being my father.

Nine animations in two weeks. I tried it at home. I don't recommend it.

This Monday Night Football Countdown gig presented the opportunity to utilize the motion tracking function of Adobe After Effects.

I was thrilled to finally exploit Cebas' finalToon plug-in for 3ds Max in this toon-style animation. This gig also debuted my reliance on DAZ Production's great line of affordable 3D models to help me meet increasingly tight deadlines.

This clip was used to illustrate the stress that Tiger places on his knee when teeing off. The segment aired the week before his unbelievable comeback at the 2008 US Open.

For this one I utilized Google Earth Pro to demonstrate some relative distances for an “Outside the Lines” segment.

These shots for a Sports Emmy-nominated “Outside the Lines” special re-enact the 1972 crash of Flight 571 in the Andes. The clouds were created with Sitni Sati's Afterburn plug-in for 3ds Max.

With the help of a digital anatomy model purchase, I was able to deliver this animation on two day’s notice.

NASCAR drivers experience 3.6 G's on the turns at Bristol Speedway. I came up with this idea to demonstrate viscerally what that means.

For my first assignment with ESPN, I created these shots with e-on's Vue 6 software to support a segment about the CIA's attempt to climb Nanda Devi in the Indian Himalayas in order to spy on China during the Cold War.

Many thanks to old high school buddy, Victor Vitarelli, for the opportunity to prove myself with this debut gig.

Here are a couple examples from the shots I created for this inspiring Mt. Everest documentary narrated by Orlando Bloom and praised by the Dalai Lama (which is nice).

Find out more at the EPP site: www.EverestPeaceProject.org

I created this short animation in late 2005 to open up the 30th anniversary DVD for classic rockers Zebra.

Order your copy today: Zebra DVD

This video took approximately two months to complete and was fairly easy to pull off. I utilized old NASA footage and extensive 2D compositing - a much easier task than the insane character rigging necessary to animate the YYZ video. It features a two minute scorcher of a song courtesy of my old punk band.

Here is a short animated logo I created by videotaping real apples exploding and compositing the two best “pops” on top of the animation to complete the effect.