James’ Bio

In 1992, I attended UNC Chapel Hill’s Radio, Television and Motion Picture Institute and in ‘96 graduated with a BA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in English and Communication. As of 2021, I received a Certificate from MIT in Additive Manufacturing for Innovative Design and Production (3D printing) via MITxPro.

Less formally, I studied theme-park design under Disney Imagineer, Luc Steadman and visual development and art direction under Pixar art director, Anthony Christov. At the opening of Stan Winston Character Arts school, I was in the first class of creature design and fabrication with Ted Haines and studied production design with Jabbar Raisani and Eddie Yang, and animatronic design under Craig Caton-Largent.

In 2000, after having worked for a few years as an artist in the Walt Disney World parks, I transferred to Tokyo Disneyland where I worked as an on-stage artist for two years. I met my wife there and married in 2004. Since leaving the Disney parks, I have had a number of clients, most notably (and gratefully) Anicom Holdings, for whom I started and lead their in-house design department. Other clients include Bento Labs, Syn World, Miracle Films, Eastpool Films, the 2019 Rugby World Cup and Master-Card. See our Works page for more.

See my CV here.