Ian Taylor

Ian Taylor was first seen on New Zealand television screens as one of the hosts of Play School, and children's magazine show Spot On. In 1989 he founded Dunedin companies Animation Research Limited and Taylormade, for whom he has produced documentaries Blokes'n'Sheds (based on the bestselling book by Jim Hopkins) and Britten: Backyard Visionary.

Animation Research Limited made its name developing the first ever real time yachting graphics package, for the 1992 America's Cup in San Diego. The company's Winged Keel programme allowed races to be tracked and displayed on screen in real time, using global positioning. The company has gone on to bring its computer expertise to broadcasts of golf, high speed car racing, and the Whitbread Around the World Yacht Race. In 2006 alone, graphics developed by ARL sporting division Virtual Eye were used in more than 30 golf tournaments, including the US Open and the Ryder Cup.

In July 2008 ARL trialled a new ball tracking system, at a cricket match in Sri Lanka. The system allows players to challenge umpire's decisions to another umpire, who uses the technology to help make a call.

Outside of sports, the company has contributed computer animation to television shows both within New Zealand and overseas: including Kiwi documentary series Human Potential, the BBC's Inventions that changed the World, and National Geographic's Mega Disasters.

Jamie Belich TV series The New Zealand Wars contained half an hour of ARL computer animation, recreating Māori Pas and European settlements from the 1800s. The company has also re-imagined an encounter between a sperm whale and a giant squid (for NZ Natural History Unit show Animal Face-Off) and used motion capture to create Jenna, a virtual dancer (for TV2 children's show Studio2).

Animation Research won a number of awards and inclusion in the prestigious SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre, for a Bluebird commercial featuring a skiing penguin.

Taylor has also worked on some landmark Māori graphic developments, including the award winning Moko Toa series. The Māori language children's drama combined live action with computer generated landscapes and characters. Set in "the mythical land of Hawaiki", the show centres around a Māori boy who is the modern transformation of ancient hero Moko Toa.

In other fields, Animation Research has also created air traffic control simulators and worked in the fields of building and tourism, including a virtual tour for the company Whalewatch Kaikoura.

Taylor is one of four Trustees on the Secondary Futures Trust, developing a strategy for education in 2020. He also helped Dunedin director Robert Sarkies bring his breakthrough short film Signing Off to the screen.

A lawyer by training, he was lead singer for seventies band Kal-Q-lated Risk. Born in Kaeo, his mother's papakainga, Taylor grew up in Kahungunu amongst his father's people.