Andy Luckey

Infobox Person
name = Andrew A. "Andy" Luckey


image_size = 152x215
caption =
birth_date = 1965
birth_place = San Francisco, California
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Television Producer, Author, Illustrator, Animator, Designer, Artist, Director
parents = Bud Luckey, Connie Gerttula
children =
Education = B.A., Media Management California State University Northridge, Curb School of Communication, M.Div, BIOLA University, Talbot School of Theology

Andrew A. (Andy) Luckey (born 1965 in San Francisco, California) is an American Writer, Director and Producer, primarily of animated works. He also writes and illustrates children's books and Bible studies.

Andy Luckey has produced over 200 episodes of television programs and was most notably a Producer on the 1980s-'90's animated TV series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which earned five Emmy nominations) and Adventures from the Book of Virtues. He is also the author and illustrator of the children's book series "Spin & Sparkle."

Early work

Andy Luckey learned the craft of animation in his family's studio in San Francisco under his Father, animator Bud Luckey. That studio produced numerous animated and combined live-animated television commercials and short films for The Children's Television Workshop's (now known as Sesame Workshop )series Sesame Street.

Following High School, Luckey briefly worked as a Visual Effects Designer for the Mill Valley, California based studio Audio Vision Projects. His most notable work there was co-designing, with famed Cinematographer Katsuya Ushino, the visual effects for the MTV music video of "Turn of the Century" featuring the Warner Bros. Records progressive British rock group YES and vocalist Jon Anderson. The video was the directorial debut of Brian G. Smith who later came to fame as a director of fantasy sci-fi films.

Undergraduate education

After making an early departure from Redwood High School in the Fall of 1983, Redwood High School being a notably unusual institution made famous by the comedy routines of fellow alumnus, comedian Robin Williams (Class of '69), Luckey proceeded to The College of Marin -- also an alma mater and occasional comedy fodder for Robin Williams. It is notable, however, that Willams and Luckey attended both schools over a decade apart and have only met casually on a handful of occasions most of which were unrelated to either school.

Luckey initially enrolled as a pre-med/biology student but decided in his third semester to move to filmmaking and screenwriting. "The hell that is 'O-Chem' (organic chemistry) drove me from premed to film school and, in so doing, probably saved countless lives" -- Luckey told the College of Marin school neswpaper in a 1984 survey on why people changed majors.

In 1986 Luckey continued on to the California State University Northridge entering what was then known as the Radio-Television Film (RTVF) program of the University's College of Arts and Professional Studies (CAPS). In the early 2000s the school was renamed after alumnus Mike Curb -- a former Lieutenant Governor of California and record mogul founder of Curb Records. There Luckey was primarily mentored by his Faculty Advisor Alan Armer, the founding President of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Producer of the 60's series "The Untouchables" and "The Fugitive" and the 70's series "Cannon" Another key influence on Luckey was screenwriter/producer Benjamin Brady -- the former President of ABC Television who had produced the series "Perry Mason" and co-created, with Raymond Burr, the series "Ironside". Luckey also studied under such industry veterans as Nat Perrin ("The Adams Family"), Tom Burrows (director of the '60 Kennedy-Nixon TV debate),", Peter Stearn("Happy Days", "The Partridge Family") , "Beretta" and "Dr. Kildare" Writer-producer Irv Pearlberg and Academy Award (Oscar) winning Writer-Director Sydney Salkow who, despite his work on over 75 feature films, was best known as the Producer of "Lassie", "I Love Lucy" and it's follow-up "The Lucy Show". Luckey received his B.A. in Radio-Television-Film, Media Management in 1988.

Licensing & Merchandising

Following graduation Luckey worked for a time as the Los Angeles office's Assistant Branch Manager for The Sunrise Company, KK of Japan. In that role he co-managed Japanese licensing of various western properties for the Asian market including The Simpsons, Tintin, Lone Wolf and Cub, Jean Giraud-- a/k/a Moebius and the properties of George Lucas's Lucasfilm, Ltd.. Luckey also managed product placement of Japanese products in U.S. films -- most notably the placement of JVC's products in the Back to the Future and Beverly Hills Cop film series as well as the films Days of Thunder and Black Rain.

Murakami Wolf Swenson - and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

From 1989-'92 Andy Luckey worked as a producer for the Burbank, California and Dublin, Ireland studios of Murakami Wolf Swenson -- the studio run by veteran animators Jimmy Murakami and Fred Wolf. That studio was later renamed Fred Wolf Films. Luckey's most notable work during that time was on the animated TV series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, based on the Mirage Studios comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and "Five Decades with The Chimpmunks, Rockin Through the Years" -- featuring Ross Bagdasarian's characters of David Seville and the Chimpmunks--Alvin, Simon and Theodore -- sometimes known as Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Video games

From 1992-'98 Luckey was involved in the video game industry including stints as a Director and Executive Producer for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Interactive, President and Chief Operating Officer of Pure Interactive Entertainment and Principal and Executive Producer- Interactive for The Krislin Company. Luckey's most notable work of this time was the video game derivative of Walt Disney's Aladdin which was co-produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and Virgin Interactive.

eminary and Ministry

From 1998-2001 Luckey took a self-imposed sabattical to earn a Master of Divinity, M.Div, degree from Biola University's Talbot School of Theology. He worked as a Youth Pastor and College and Career Pastor during that time for several churches in Southern California.

ymaxxis, Inc.

From 2001-2002 Luckey served as the interim Chief Executive and as a Corporate Director of Symaxxis, Inc.-- a Los Angeles based biometric science company. He left those positions upon forming Greater Family, LLC in 2003.

Greater Family, LLC and Greater Family Press

Greater Family, LLC was formed in 2003 with Andy Luckey as a co-founder and President. It is a family oriented media company headquartered in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Industry Speaking and Writing

Luckey is a frequent speaker at industry events including SIGGRAPH and The Game Developer's Conference.

Luckey has co-authored and co-edited two white papers for the International Game Developer's Association, IGDA. The first of which was on Intellectual Property Rights for Game Developers and the second on Quality of Life in the Game Industry. Both white papers are available free of charge at [www.igda.org] .

Education

Andy Luckey holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the California State University, Northridge's Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Biola University's Talbot School of Theology.

Family

Andy Luckey is the son of Pixar Animator Bud Luckey.

Quotes

*"Kids are smart. They can tell when you're just trying make a quick buck and sell them, or there parents, a toy. Give 'em your best work --it's good practice and good business."

*"Just because animation is expensive doesn't mean it's good. You can spend a fortune animating a poorly designed character in an equally poor story -- a stickman with great timing and a good story is a far better work and costs next-to-nothing. People just need to think about what they're doing."

*"The Hell that is "O-Chem" (Organic Chemistry) drove me to switch from Premed to Film and, in so doing, probably saved countless lives."

ources

*http://www.imdb.com/
*http://www.greaterfamily.com/
*http://www.spin-n-sparkle.com/
*http://www.panda3d.org/acm/biopics/luckey.jpg
*http://www.panda3d.org/acm/program.html
*http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1179171.1179175&coll=GUIDE&dl=&type=series&idx=1179171&part=series&WantType=series&title=International%20Conference%20on%20Computer%20Graphics%20and%20Interactive%20Techniques&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618
*http://www.kidscreen.com/articles/magazine/19960101/16844.html?word=Luckey

External links

* [http://www.greaterfamily.com/ Greater Family's Website]
* [http://www.spin-n-sparkle.com/ Website for the Spin & Sparkle book series by Andy Luckey -- Greater Family Press]
*imdb name|id=2360322|name=Andy Luckey
**imdb name|id=0524726|name=Bud Luckey
*http://www.csun.edu/~ctva/Alumni/AlumniHTML/NetworkingListA.html
* [http://www.siggraph.org/s2007/attendees/panels/1.html/ SIGGRAPH 2007]
*http://sandbox.siggraph.org/archives/program06.html
*http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=media&p=factsheets&s=factsheet8
*http://www.igda.org/
*http://www.kidscreen.com/articles/magazine/19960101/16844.html?word=Luckey