Mike Sanders is the senior visual director for Activision’s Central Studios, where he’s overseeing innovation in art, animation and production across Activision’s game franchises, most notably Call of Duty. He’s is also focusing on bringing film quality VFX to game development and emerging AR/VR markets.
Sanders is one of the entertainment industry’s leading experts in advanced technologies for realism in computer graphics for films and games. He has over 20 years of experience in creating cutting edge imagery for more than 85 major motion pictures and AAA game titles.
Previously director of virtual production for Industrial Light & Magic, Sanders was collaborating with Disney divisions such as Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel and Imagineering, and built much of the foundational creative technology of the ILMxLAB.
Sanders has worked with most top directors and every major studio, including such memorable projects as the digital cast in Titanic, many of the effects in recent Star Wars films, the behind-the-scenes tech that launched Avatar, and the believable characters in Pirates of the Caribbean.
He has many patents awarded for digital production and virtual cinematography. In 2009, Sanders was recognized by the Producer’s Guild of America as a member of their inaugural Digital 25 list for the most notable contributors to digital storytelling.
