Michael Arias

Michael Arias born 1968 in California is an awardwinning filmmaker spanning the worlds of liveaction storytelling visual effects computer graphics and anime. He graduated from the Webb School of California at age 16 and attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut before eventually dropping out to pursue a career in the film industry. Arias got his start at Dream Quest Images working as a camera assistant on the motion control stages of effectheavy films such as The Abyss 1989 and Total Recall 1990. In 1990 Arias was asked by visual effects godfather Douglas Trumbull to program ride vehicle motion for Back to the Future...The Ridehttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101392/ which is considered a milestone in immersive entertainment. He then moved to Tokyo for stints at postproduction behemoth Imagica and game giant Sega until returning to the United States to cofound effects boutique Syzygy Digital Cinema. At CG innovator Softimage Arias developed and patented tools for combining traditional animation and computer graphics working closely with Studio Ghibli to add a distinct visual flavor to Hayao Miyazakis Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. In 2000 Arias arranged Studio 4C to produce The Animatrixhttps://anilist.co/anime/1303/Animatrix/ which subsequently broke homevideo record sales and won numerous awards. Arias had since become Eiko Tanakahttps://anilist.co/staff/103607/EikoTanakas right hand man. In the wake of his The Animatrix success he was given the prestigious role of Chief Director of Tekkon Kinkreethttps://anilist.co/anime/2154/TekkonKinkreet 2005 after Kouji Morimotohttps://anilist.co/staff/100066/KoujiMorimoto abandoned the project. With this Arias became the first nonJapanese director of a major anime film which attracted much attention during the initial screenings of the film. His approach to the film was unorthodox storyboarding duties were broken up on a scenebyscene basis with many of the films major animators directing their own scenes. Another unique quality Arias brought to the production was the simulated handheld camera effects that suffuse the film a creative decision he maintained despite protests from art director Shinji Kimurahttps://anilist.co/staff/100373/ShinjiKimura. Arias short for AniKuri15https://anilist.co/anime/2832/AniKuri15/ also featured subtle rocking of the frame erratic depth of field and other handheld film artifices. Arias is an active member of the Visual Effects Society and has coauthored papers for and at one time or another served as guest editor presenter panelist and juror for ACM/Siggraph. He is also a frequent writer on Japanese culture animation and manga. sources: imdbhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0034712/ camontehttps://camonte.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/michaelarias/