My first project in sports related animation came as a result of my track building experience with Dirt Wurx, a race track design and construction company. I was hired by LXD Inc. to build the FMX course for the 2000 X Games in San Francisco. I worked directly with course designer Micky Dymond and LXD's Dane Herron. The course was on a floating pier in the San Francisco bay and was just about as cool as it gets. I was impressed at the nerve these guys had as course builders. The jumps were insanely huge and beautifully designed. We built the first ever step up, I remember carving the face with an excavator and the guys kept saying com'n make it steeper ya whimp. . . it looked like a wall from my seat!

At the time, I was working as an animator at PLM Digital, a special effects studio in Marin County owned by Dr. Richard Proctor. We took the opportunity to build a computer model of the FMX course and I animated a 3D motocrosser going around it. We had one problem after another trying to pull it off in time for the broadcast but Richard overcame every hurdle thrown his way. . . we submitted the animation the night before the event and they showed clips of it on the ESPN X Games broadcast.

Click here for the animation. (17 megs_no audio)

An ESPN producer showed the animation to Wsa Racing's Joe Duncan and he then contacted me about producing track maps for his Snocross Series broadcasts.