Although I was born on the East Coast, my parents moved to Washington State when I was six months old and raised my sister and me in the Seattle area. I began drawing as soon as I could pick up a pencil and haven't stopped since. Growing up, I loved Disney animated movies and was mesmerized when I saw my first Star Wars film (The Empire Strikes Back). I became interested in computers and digital art in junior high school, where I began creating graphics for personal and academic projects. I also became involved with theater around that time, starting with acting and set design. In high school, I started picking up oil painting and filmmaking. During my senior year, I was impressed by the effects and animation-packed film Star Wars: Episode I, eventually seeing it thirteen times in the theater. Although I had already enrolled in The Evergreen State College, I had an interest in computer animation and visual effects that was turning into an obsession. As I entered my first year of college, I began thinking about how I could become a part of the 3D animation industry.

At Evergreen, I studied psychology, film, screenwriting, and theater, and greatly enjoyed the noncompetitive atmosphere (competition was saved for Unreal Tournament, which I played with my roommates). I worked on the college paper, which gave me the privileges of ad designing, getting artwork printed, and even interviewing "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening when he came to town to give the commencement speech for the class of 2000. However, I knew I wasn't going to be back my sophomore year, because I had seen the amazing Toy Story 2 early into my freshman year, and I knew it was time to follow my dream. I worked on every piece of 3D software that the school had and submitted my 2D portfolio and handful of 3D renderings to The Vancouver Film School (VFS) in British Columbia. Subsequently, they accepted me into their 3D animation program.

At VFS, I had lessons ranging in classical animation, Softimage, acting, cinematography, and character creation. I worked all hours of the night, played Counter-Strike with classmates while our projects rendered, and even slept on chairs some nights to ensure that I could finish my student film "B-Boy." After graduation, I was awarded a three-month scholarship extension to prepare my short film for various festivals. During my scholarship, I polished "B-Boy;" as a result, it successfully went on to play in film festivals worldwide. After finishing the revisions, I used Maya to animate the characters on a classmate's modeling reel, then worked with two other classmates to make a commercial and two intros for the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. Another member of the team and I were flown to L.A. to see our work play amongst the films.

After leaving VFS, I was hired by Chicago videogame developer Studio Gigante (hee-GONE-tay). I worked as a character animator on Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus and later learned script editing to add elements like facial animation, sound effects, blood and sweat particles, and rumble queues for their second game, Wrestlemania 21 (unfortunately, ). I enjoyed the people that I worked with and the dense, fast-paced city of Chicago, where I was able to soak up numerous local standup and improv comedy shows. When I finally got up the nerve, I gave standup comedy a try myself.

After Studio Gigante, I was hired at Rockstar San Diego. My first project at the studio was Rockstar Games Presents: Table Tennis, on which I continued to work with realistic human motion. Thereafter, I worked as the Lead Cutscene Animator for the racing game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, which called for flying to New York for the motion capture session, collaborating with other departments, managing the development of an assortment of different scenes and characters, and ensuring that the wishes of Rockstar’s head Animation Director were executed properly. My current work on the Western sequel Red Dead Redemption has taken the knowledge I’ve gained throughout the years and combined it with new programs, like Autodesk's MotionBuilder, to flesh out the game’s vast world through in-game animations and cutscenes. RDR2 has come together incredibly well, and I am looking forward to its release in April 2010.

-Josh Lange (rhymes with "fang")
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