The Arts Meet Technology

Pixar Gets UMBC's Best




UMBC grad Tim Best's name will soon be up on the big screen at a theatre near you. As technical director at Pixar Animation Studios in California, Best is working on the lighting for Disney/Pixar's forthcoming animated feature, Monsters Inc., bringing to Hollywood the creative zest and technical derring-do he displayed while on the staff of the Imaging Research Center.

As a UMBC student, Best took advantage of the IRC internship program, which offers undergraduates the opportunity to participate in the IRC's award-winning computer-graphics production work. When he graduated cum laude in visual arts from UMBC in 1997, Best continued to contribute to IRC projects and then joined the staff in 1999 as the IRC's technical specialist--animation and design. While sharpening his skill with cutting-edge animation techniques, Best produced the animated short subject "Pensive," which was shown as part of the SIGGRAPH 2000 Electronic Theater Program.

Pixar is the place to be for ambitious computer animators these days--the studio created the box office hits Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life. Monsters Inc. will feature the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman, along with the creative work of Tim Best.

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