Steve Martino

This beautifully expressive illustration by artist and feature film director Steve Martino, captures the simple joy felt by the children in Sierra Leone when receiving a letter from their pen pals. Steve got his start in animation completing his Masters degree at Ohio State’s Computer Graphics Research Group and honing his skills as a designer and animator at Cranston/Csuri Productions. His work at this time included some of the earliest computer animation seen around the world, for events like CBS' Super Bowl. As founding partner of Click 3X-LA and Creative Director at both 7th Level Inc. and MetroLight Studios, Steve then went on to design and direct animation and visual effects for television, interactive media and features. Highlights of this period, prior to his work in animated feature films, include a Prime Time Emmy Award for his direction of ABC’s World of Discovery main title and his collaboration with Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle on a series of Monty Python interactive projects. In 2002 Steve came to Blue Sky Studios as Art Director on Robots and has contributed his design support to Ice Age: The Meltdown and the animated short Gone Nutty. More recently Steve partnered with Jimmy Hayward to direct Horton Hears a Who! and is currently co-directing one of Blue Sky's upcoming feature films.