Michael Zollinger began pursuing a career in animation by attending film school. There he gained an understanding of the cinematic storytelling process. He sharpened those skills by working on the independent feature film The Printing. His first taste of animation production came in college as a cel painter and animation cameraman for the animated short Tropical Trouble.

His first experience with computer animation was in grad school. He modeled and animated a 1930’s Jaguar in Paracomp Swivel 3D on a Mac IIci. The merging of sculpture with animation enamored him. He had always enjoyed sculpture over two-dimensional art, and 3D animation offered animated sculptures!

As a graduate student, he researched the relatively new field of desktop computer animation. Based on that research, the school purchased Alias PowerAnimator, Wavefront Composer, two Silicon Graphics Personal Irises, and a Solitaire 8TD film recorder. Eventually he integrated four 3D animation courses and a digital compositing course into the film curriculum.

Michael's goal has always been to make great family-friendly animated content for children. He has animated characters and/or special effects for a number of children's productions including: The Treasure Map, Project Dinosaur, The Golden ROM, The Six Travelers and El Pato Paco. Currently, he serves as the lighting and compositing lead for the exciting new animated series Boz (B-O-Zs and 1-2-3s; Adventures in Imagination; and Bananas, Bubbles and Busy Bodies).