About

Dreaming Big

Andrew Cunningham is a digital matte painter with a strong background in traditional art and design fundamentals and their integration into motion pictures and animated feature films.

Painting has been a part of Andrew’s life since early on, and his joy of painting led him to pursue a career in the animation and film industry as a digital matte painter.

Whether adding to the dramatic texture of a scene by producing believable digital matte paintings or creating inspiring concept art, the main emphasis of Andrew’s work is to represent the effect of light on form to achieve an enhanced illusion of reality.

Andrew’s career in visual effects began when he was recruited by ImageMovers Digital to work on Disney’s A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms. While there, he was exposed to many talented artists and had the chance to work closely with mentors whose artwork inspired him in his early development as a digital matte painter.

Soon after, he was brought on board to work alongside the creative team of artists at Aardman Animations in Bristol, UK on the Academy Award-nominated production of The Pirates! Band of Misfits, directed by Peter Lord.

Since then, Andrew has worked in the Canadian Visual Effects Industry at various vfx studios on films such as R.I.P.D. and even reunited with some of his former colleagues from ImageMovers Digital in Montreal to create matte paintings for Robert Zemeckis’ film The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. After that, he returned to Vancouver to work at Sony Pictures Imageworks on animated feature films such as Marvel Entertainment’s Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse, which won both the 2019 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film of 2019.

More of Andrew’s astounding matte painting work can be seen in feature films such as Sony Picture’s Men In Black: International, Spider-man: Far From Home, NETFLIX Animation’s zany production of The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, and Warner Bros. Animation and Animal Logic’s pet project, DC League of Super-Pets, starring “The Rock” and Keanu Reeves. He also worked on the modern day musical comedy Spirited, starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrel and the mysterious J.J. Abrams’ suspense thriller, “Lou”.

Andrew most recently contributed to the long-awaited fantasy epic based on the classic role playing game, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves!

“I’m very thankful for the amazing career that I have, and the incredible journey I’ve taken while following it. I believe that it is important to follow your dreams, and I strive to be an example for other young artists to help inspire them to follow their dreams and to pursue their own journeys of self-expression through painting and other art forms.”