About me
Van's childhood dream job was to become a comic book artist, however his parents wanted him to pursue something more stable so off he went to study psychology and business economics. Upon graduating with cum laude honors from UCLA he went to work for Ernst and Young. While crunching numbers as an accountant Van yearned to doodle instead. Fortunately a chance screening of the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater changed his life. After seeing an amazing short film created by just one animator, Van was inspired. That aha moment motivated him to learn computer animation so he could tell his own stories.
Van eventually went back to school to get his MFA at USC. While in film school he completed two animated shorts "Wild Card" and "Values", which were screened at over sixty film festivals. Both films also screened at the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater and won numerous awards, including two Student Emmys in 1999 and 2001. "Values" also won Best Animated Short at SIGGRAPH, which qualified it for the 2001 Academy Awards. Recently both of Van's films had the honor of being screened at the Classic USC shorts program alongside George Lucas' and Robert Zemeskis's student films.
Van has worked as an animator, previs artist and designer for films and games produced by Dreamworks, Sony Imageworks, Digital Domain, Double Negative, Activision, Zynga, 2K, Naughty Dog ILM and Blue Sky Studios. His credits includes: Harry Potter, Shrek2, Madagascar, Stuart Little 2, Ice Age 3, John Carter, Uncharted, How to Train Your Dragon (pilot), Oz the Great and Powerful, Thor, Alice and Wonderland, Skylanders, NBA2K17, Captain America Civil War, and various other projects.
Skills
animation, story, maya, and layout
