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 piece is indisputable, however.

Support the band and pick up a copy of the video on their brand new cd/dvd compilation: 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, attempting to create a cinematic feel that captures the spirit of the song, an instrumental ditty about flying into and out of Toronto, Rush's hometown.

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

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 plugin for 3ds Max in this toon-style animation.

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 plugin 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 Vue 6 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 of examples from the pieces I created for this inspiring Mt. Everest documentary narrated by Orlando Bloom.

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 simple 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 by the old punk band I drummed in.

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.