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Michael O'Brien(VII)

  • Visual Effects
  • Additional Crew
  • Production Department
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Michael O'Brien joined Pixar Animation Studios in February 2000 as a member of the Tools department. The first feature film he worked on was "Monsters, Inc." and from there he went on to work in the production department for the Academy Award®-winning "Finding Nemo," and returned to the Tools department on "The Incredibles," "WALL.E" and "Up" where he helped implement and support the effects pipeline. O'Brien came back into production to work as part of the Effects team for Golden Globe®-winner "Cars," and as the technical effects lead for Academy Award®-winning "Brave," for which he won a Visual Effects Society (VES) award for "Outstanding Effects in an Animated Film." In addition to his work on feature films, O'Brien has lent his effects talents to the short films "BURN.E" and "Tokyo Mater." He served as the Effect Supervisor on short film "The Blue Umbrella," and as the Technical Effects Lead on Pixar 2015 short "LAVA," which opened theatrically in front of "Inside Out." O'Brien continued on as the technical effect lead on "The Good Dinosaur," for which he won an Annie Award for "Outstanding Animated Effects in an Animated Production." He was the effects supervisor on Disney.Pixar's "Coco".

Prior to joining Pixar, O'Brien worked as a software developer at Alias/Wavefront working on Maya. Before that, he worked at SGI as a software developer while getting his degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Santa Clara University. He currently lives in the Bay Area with his wife and their four children.
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    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 1 nomination total

    Known for

    Kelly Macdonald and Dina Gardner in Brave (2012)
    Brave
    7.1
    • Visual Effects(as Michael K. O'Brien)
    • 2012
    Raymond Ochoa and Jack Bright in The Good Dinosaur (2015)
    The Good Dinosaur
    6.7
    • Visual Effects(as Michael K. O'Brien)
    • 2015
    Alfonso Arau, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Gael García Bernal, Dyana Ortelli, Herbert Siguenza, and Anthony Gonzalez in Coco (2017)
    Coco
    8.4
    • Visual Effects(as Michael K. O'Brien)
    • 2017
    Chris Evans in Lightyear (2022)
    Lightyear
    6.1
    • Visual Effects(as Michael K. O'Brien)
    • 2022

    Credits

    IMDbPro

    Visual Effects



    • Catherine O'Hara, Thomas Newman, Jonathan Adams, Wilma Bonet, P.L. Brown, Ronnie Del Carmen, John Hoberg, Alex Kapp, Jean-Claude Kalache, Matthew Yang King, Ronobir Lahiri, Denise Ream, Stephen Schaffer, Don Shank, Peter Sohn, Kat Likkel, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Jeff LaPensee, Innocent Ekakitie, Mason Wertheimer, Clara Lin Ding, Brenda Hsueh, Shila Ommi, Leah Lewis, David Juan Bianchi, Ben Morris, Joe Pera, Mamoudou Athie, and Reagan To in Elemental (2023)
      Elemental
      7.0
      • effects artist (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2023
    • Chris Evans in Lightyear (2022)
      Lightyear
      6.1
      • volumetric clouds artist (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2022
    • Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey in Soul (2020)
      Soul
      8.0
      • effects artist (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2020
    • Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Ratzenberger, Tracey Ullman, Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna, Wilmer Valderrama, Catherine Apple, Sharon Calahan, Grey DeLisle, Chris Pratt, Kori Rae, Mel Rodriguez, Dan Scanlon, Octavia Spencer, Keith Bunin, Kyle Bornheimer, Noah Klocek, Lena Waithe, Adam Habib, Jason Headley, Tom Holland, Ali Wong, and George Psarras in Onward (2020)
      Onward
      7.3
      • effects artist (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2020
    • Pat Wintersgill, Callum Andrew Johnston, and Abrar Hussain in One Night in Al Aqsa (2019)
      One Night in Al Aqsa
      9.2
      • visual effects artist
      • 2019
    • Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Christina Hendricks, Keegan-Michael Key, Ally Maki, and Jordan Peele in Toy Story 4 (2019)
      Toy Story 4
      7.6
      • effects artist (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2019
    • Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, Brad Bird, Michelle Rodriguez, Bill Wise, Sarah Vowell, Eli Fucile, Mina Sundwall, Clarke Wolfe, Gillian Flynn, and Huck Milner in Incredibles 2 (2018)
      Incredibles 2
      7.5
      • effects artist (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2018
    • Alfonso Arau, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Gael García Bernal, Dyana Ortelli, Herbert Siguenza, and Anthony Gonzalez in Coco (2017)
      Coco
      8.4
      • effects supervisor
      • visual effects supervisor (as Michael K. O'Brien, as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2017
    • Sigourney Weaver, Willem Dafoe, Diane Keaton, Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, John Ratzenberger, Deb Fink, Andrew Stanton, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, David Arnott, Torbin Xan Bullock, Doug Burch, Ty Burrell, Cathy Cavadini, Judi M. Durand, Idris Elba, Bill Hader, Barbara Harris, Aaron Hendry, Andy Hirsch, Carlyle King, Eugene Levy, Vicki Lewis, Angus MacLane, Jeremy Maxwell, Kate McKinnon, Daniel Edward Mora, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Jason Pace, Austin Pendleton, Bob Peterson, David Randolph, Jerome Ranft, Katherine Ringgold, Stephen Root, Andreana Weiner, Dominic West, Aaron Fors, Alexander Gould, Will Collyer, Nancy Truman, Regina Taufen, Liza Seneca, Willow Geer, Dylan Naber, Carrie Paff, Terrell Ransom Jr., Alex Puccinelli, Dashell Zamm, Gunnar Sizemore, Molly Jackson, Emma Shannon, Daniella Jones, Dara Iruka, Carter Hastings, Paige Nan Pollack, Hayden Rolence, Riley Lio, Veronika Bonell, Ashlyn Faith Williams, Gabriel C. Brown, Bennett Dammann, Sloane Murray, and Lucia Geddes in Finding Dory (2016)
      Finding Dory
      7.2
      • effects artist (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2016
    • Raymond Ochoa and Jack Bright in The Good Dinosaur (2015)
      The Good Dinosaur
      6.7
      • effects technical lead (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2015
    • Kuana Torres Kahele in Lava (2014)
      Lava
      7.2
      Short
      • effects technical lead
      • 2014
    • The Blue Umbrella (2013)
      The Blue Umbrella
      7.5
      Short
      • effects lead
      • 2013
    • Kelly Macdonald and Dina Gardner in Brave (2012)
      Brave
      7.1
      • effects technical lead (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2012
    • Dug's Special Mission (2009)
      Dug's Special Mission
      6.9
      Video
      • simulation and effects artist
      • 2009
    • Harrison Montgomery (2008)
      Harrison Montgomery
      7.4
      • effects artist
      • 2008

    Additional Crew



    • Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Tristan Allerick Chen, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, and Rosalie Chiang in Turning Red (2022)
      Turning Red
      6.9
      • development: Pixar Studio Team (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2022
    • Marco Barricelli, Jim Gaffigan, Maya Rudolph, Peter Sohn, Emma Berman, Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Saverio Raimondo in Luca (2021)
      Luca
      7.4
      • development: Pixar Studio Team (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2021
    • WALL·E (2008)
      WALL·E
      8.4
      • development engineer
      • software engineer (as Michael K. O'Brien, as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2008
    • Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Brian Dennehy, John Ratzenberger, James Remar, Will Arnett, Brad Garrett, Kathy Griffin, Brad Bird, Lindsey Collins, Walt Dohrn, Tony Fucile, Michael Giacchino, Bradford Lewis, Danny Mann, Teddy Newton, Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Peter Sohn, Jake Steinfeld, Stéphane Roux, Lori Richardson, Thomas Keller, Julius Callahan, Marco Boerries, Andrea Boerries, and Jack Bird in Ratatouille (2007)
      Ratatouille
      8.1
      • software engineer (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2007
    • Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Craig T. Nelson, Brad Bird, Sarah Vowell, and Spencer Fox in The Incredibles (2004)
      The Incredibles
      8.0
      • software engineering (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2004
    • Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, and Barry Humphries in Finding Nemo (2003)
      Finding Nemo
      8.2
      • studio tools research & development (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2003
    • Billy Crystal and John Goodman in Monsters, Inc. (2001)
      Monsters, Inc.
      8.1
      • software engineer (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2001
    • Toy Story 2: Facing the Fear (1999)
      Toy Story 2: Facing the Fear
      Video
      • information systems manager
      • 1999

    Production Department



    • Tom Hanks, Joan Cusack, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Jodi Benson, Blake Clark, Estelle Harris, Jeff Pidgeon, Don Rickles, and Frank Welker in Toy Story 3 (2010)
      Toy Story 3
      8.3
      • production engineer (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2010
    • Edward Asner, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai in Up (2009)
      Up
      8.3
      • production engineer (as Michael K. O'Brien)
      • 2009

    Personal details

    • Official site
      • Zerply
    • Alternative names
      • Michael K. O'Brien

    Did you know

    • Nickname
      • Michael K O'Brien

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