Bio

Angie Jones began her career as a hands-on character animator, developing a deep understanding of performance, timing, and visual storytelling before moving into supervisory and studio leadership roles. That foundation continues to shape her approach to production today.

Over three decades, she has worked across feature films, episodic series, video games, commercials, live-action visual effects, and emerging media. Her experience spans on-set collaboration, large-scale CG pipelines, global vendor coordination, and cross-studio production strategy. Having operated inside both creative and technical environments, she understands how easily alignment can drift when communication, tools, or priorities fall out of sync.

Throughout her career, Angie has built and led animation and VFX teams from the ground up, mentoring artists while navigating complex production schedules and infrastructure demands. She is known for fostering environments grounded in clarity, trust, and accountability, where creative intent and production realities can coexist without compromise.

Beyond studio leadership, Angie advises animation and VFX studios, software developers, and production teams on pipeline design, workflow integration, and scalable systems. Her focus remains consistent: build processes that genuinely support artists while remaining practical and sustainable for production.

Operating under the Spicy Cricket moniker since 1994, her practice reflects a long-standing commitment to creative excellence and thoughtful leadership.

Author

Angie is the author of four books on animation and visual effects: Inside 3D Studio Max 2, Vol. 3: Animation, 3D Studio MAX 3 Professional Animation, Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG, and The New Animation & VFX Playbook.
→ Publications and resources at ThinkingAnimation.com