In 2014, I created and taught North America's first full-time compositing program.

In 2017, Andrew Zeller refined the structure and developed new shot types and series of training exercises to reinforce what we were teaching.

In 2021, I wrote this about my Full-Time Compositing Program:

The vast majority of VFX that appear in modern films and television are “invisible effects,” which means that ideally the audience has no idea they’re watching something that’s either been digitally altered or is completely synthetic. To create this effect, we have to observe reality and then replicate it.

And there is not just one reality an artist has to deal with. There are in fact 6 of them.

🎥 Physical Reality - The real world.
📸 Photographic Reality - The reality that is captured by the camera.
👁 Perceptual Reality - How you perceive the world.
🧠 Imagined Reality - How you imagine reality to be.
🎬 Expected Reality - How your leads, supervisors, and directors want it to be.
💻 Approximate Reality - How the computer mathematically creates a virtual reality.

This Compositing Program, the first of its kind in the world, was designed to teach students about these realities. It provided a framework for understanding visual effects. Through a unique and iterative workflow, students were taught how to composite photo-real images.

There is no hiding in photo-realism, if it doesn’t look photo-real, then it isn’t real. All we have done over the last 10 years is teach students how to perform this magic trick without getting caught.

In July 2023, I founded Alpha Chromatica.

In September 2023, I created a 26-week Fully Remote Compositing Program.
(Yet again, the first of its kind in the world.)

In February 2025, Andrew and I introduced MAX (Machine-Assisted VFX) permanently into our curriculum.
(Yet again, the first of its kind in the world.)

These aren’t iterations of what came before.

They are firsts.