Mr. James Lopez started drawing at a tender age, and wanted to be an artist almost from the get-go . . .  

Although he wasn’t sure he could make a career in animation(it was pretty much in a deep slumber when he was in high school), James hoped to make a go of art somewhere. For a time, he thought he might become an illustrator.

But two years at the California Institute of the Arts changed that perception. Offered a summer job by the Bluth-Sullivan studios at the end of his freshman year, his career was launched.