James Cunningham's perspective on animation emphasizes its potential as a powerful tool, allowing filmmakers to meticulously craft the images and angles necessary to bring their vision to life. With a career spanning over two decades, Cunningham has specialized in computer-generated imagery (CGI),seamlessly transitioning between stylized CGI in his own shorts and photo-realistic visual effects in live-action commercials and movies.
Cunningham's educational background includes studying photography at Elam and later pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in digital animation. His early work, including the short film Delf, showcased his ability to create engaging stories with computer programs as main characters. Delf, Blinder, and Infection all featured computer-generated characters, with Infection becoming a significant breakthrough, competing at Cannes and Sundance.
When approached with the idea for Poppy, Cunningham recognized the potential for the story to gain added depth and power as an animated film. He spent 14 months working on the project, aided by a small team of artists, resulting in 10 minutes of animated film that took 4,500 hours to produce. Poppy received international recognition, earning two awards at Siggraph, a 'Best Technical Contribution' Award, and invitations to several festivals.
In addition to his work on animated shorts, Cunningham teaches the 3D animation course at Auckland's Media Design School. He aims to help his students' work gain international recognition, and his efforts have been successful, with two of his students' shorts being finalists at the 2010 Visual Effects Society awards.
