My Journey

Andrew recounts the three types of stories (journey, transformation, relationship) and their chemical impact on memory. He traces his path: growing up on cartoons, getting a Tandy 1000 with King's Quest, falling in love with computer graphics, and working odd jobs on Silicon Graphics machines. He went to Vancouver to study hand-drawn animation, where a simple flour-sack assignment became a 2.5-minute Rambo-inspired short film. A Warner Brothers recruiter hired him on the spot, not for technical skill, but because he was the only student who told a story.

Warner Brothers turned out to be corporate and uninspiring, so he applied to Pixar but got rejected for being "too cartoony." After posting a bug animation online, Pixar recruited him for A Bug's Life. He describes early Pixar as a creative startup full of pranks and drawings, the opposite of Warner Brothers. He animated characters including Mike Wazowski, Gill from Finding Nemo, Edna Mode, and Bing Bong. After 20 years he went to Paris for a Minions movie, headed animation at a London studio, and now works on AI-powered storytelling tools.