I received a call from Steve Rawlins telling me that ILM were recruiting animators to work on an upcoming show produced by Steven Spielberg based upon the "Casper" comic strip.  I told him "I know nothing about computers!".  He said they are hiring traditional animators and teaching them the software, it is that intuitive to learn now.

 

He gave me a phone number.  It was the ILM delegates hotel phone number.

 

I called and asked if I could come show them my reel and portfolio.

 

I met with Wes Takahashi, Thomas Williams and Ellen Poon in their hotel room November 1993.  December 16th i got a call asking if i could start work January.

 

During the 10-week training course i was promoted to character lead for Casper.  During crunch the movie was divided into sequences and my title changed to sequence supervisor.

 

Following "Casper" ILM hired me as a fulltime staff member.  I was given the task of creature supervisor on the new special edition of Star Wars episode IV (A New Hope).