About Michael Cawood

Michael Cawood, has been creating animated films since 1994. He’s a multi-award winning British/American Animation Director and Supervisor based out of Los Angeles with credits in Film, Commercials and Games working with Dreamworks, Disney, Warner Brothers, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Microsoft, Activision, Nintendo, Sega and many more.

Michael has a broad creative skillset including directing, story development, animation, game design, character design, storyboarding, producing, previs, layout, rigging, editing, and supervising. He has a unique strength in directing online collaborations as first showcased in his 'Orson Welles Award' winning short film, 'Devils Angels & Dating', which attracted over 19 millions of views online. He repeated this success again with 'The Wrong Rock' which toured various Oscar qualifying festivals worldwide. Both films won 'Best Short Film' at the Burbank Film Festival (2012 and 2019). He also served as Head of Story for the multi-award winning 'The OceanMaker' which was screened at South by SouthWest. All three films screened at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, at the Hollyshorts Festival.

Michael supervised both, the previsualisation for Universal's new take on 'The Mummy' with Tom Cruise, and the postvis animation for 'Bumblebee'. Credits also include 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes', 'Happy Feet', 'Pete’s Dragon', 'Ghostbusters', 'Pirates of the Caribbean 5', and 'Night at the Museum 3'. He was the Animation Director for the game cinematics in 'Skylanders Giants' and Lead on 'Starfox Adventures' and the XBox 360 launch title 'Kameo'.

In 2025, Michael shipped his first game as a Director, Game Designer, Producer and Generalist. The Phoenix Gene is an exceptional expereince in VR gaming with unique mechanics that really takes advantage of wireless VR. It's availble on Steam and the Meta Quest.

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info content

Dinosaur Planet to The Phoenix Gene
The Making of the Wrong Rock
Devils Angels and Dating Deleted Scenes
Head of Story on The Ocean Maker
Pitching the Wrong Rock

Recommendations

  • Grant Kirkhope,
    Bafta Nominated Composer - The Wrong Rock, GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64

    "Working with Michael has been a total pleasure. It's so great for composers when the director has a very clear vision of the kind of music they are looking for and can articulate that vision in a very precise manner. Whenever I was slightly unclear of the mood of a scene Michael would always be able to give me the exact thing that I needed to hear/read that made it easy for me to compose what he wanted. It's so refreshing to work with a director that really cares about the score. The Wrong Rock has been a delight to work on and I look forward to working with Michael and Heromation again!"

  • Keith Sintay,
    Animation Supervisor - Encore VFX

    During the time I have worked with Michael, I have seen first hand his skills and abilities as a solid animator as well as a first rate previs and shot planner. He has a great work ethic, a friendly disposition and a willingness to learn and take direction to further improve his animation. I was very impressed with Michael's ingenuity and problem solving abilities. I strongly recommend Michael Cawood for any animation position.

  • Justin Barrett,
    Reel FX

    "I had the pleasure of working as a voice talent for Michael on his short film, "Devils, Angels & Dating." Through that work and later interactions, I came to know of Michael's amazing talent, versatility, and organization. He's got tons of experience in numerous disciplines in the CG animation industry, and brought all that experience to the table as director of the short. His goals for the project were very clear, and he did an awesome job of keeping the team on task in order to achieve those goals. And on top of all that, he's just a great guy; very relaxed and easy to work with at all levels. Michael would be a great asset to any company or project. I highly and heartily recommend him!"

  • Josh Lange,
    Previs Lead - Proof

    "So far, Michael and I have worked on two feature films together as previs artists, and I considered him to be a great asset on both projects. In addition to his wide range of knowledge in the 3D Animation and film-making disciplines, Michael is also a friendly person with an eye for detail, who has the discipline and motivation to see things done correctly. Lastly, he was also a regular at the weekly Proof sketch lunches, and was a fun to develop with whom to develop ideas."

  • Kevin Williams,
    Previs Supervisor - Proof

    "Michael has a great eye for animation and camera. He is a team player and a true professional. I have recommended Michael for other jobs, and will definitely work with him again."

Press, Interviews and Presentations