I was excited to work on the film adaptation of one of my favorite books when I started as a Technical Animation TD at Rhythm and Hues Studios.

The film featured dozens of CG animals, each with its own rigging and simulation quirks, so every day brought new characters and new sets of challenges to work through.

This film provided a great opportunity for me to study a range of animal fur and muscle anatomy. I cleaned up animation and ran simulations on ferrets, wolves, sparrows, snow leopards, mice, house cats, puppies, monkeys, rabbits, and more.  I've really come to appreciate the sometimes very subtle differences in their body structures.

A key challenge all the Technical Animation department faced was the interaction of live humans with CG characters. After many late nights of tweaking strands of hair to get them just right, I'm glad to see such a successful effect in the final film.