James Cunningham

James Cunningham believes that although animation is ultimately just a tool, it can be a very powerful tool — in allowing filmmakers the ability to craft exactly the images and angles they need to realise their vision.

Cunningham’s own career has seen him specialising in computer-generated imagery — be it full 3D animation, or visual effects added to live action. Since graduating from Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1997, he has crossed back and forth between the stylised CGI images found in his own shorts, and the photorealistic kind used in live action commercials and movies.

Says Cunningham: “When partnered with strong stories and great acting,the medium of computer generated imagery opens up possibilities in telling stories that might otherwise be too difficult, or not possible at all. I like to push those boundaries."

Cunningham studied photography at Elam, following it with a Master of Fine Arts in digital animation. In 1997, working alongside his then regular producing partner Paul Swadel, he completed rollercoaster-style short film Delf (short for ‘digitally engineered life forms’). Set to a driving Pitch Black soundtrack, the film featured two tadpole-like creatures on the chase. Delf — and follow-up films Blinder (1998) and Infection (2000) — all starred computer programmes as on-screen characters, moving through their own digital worlds.

Delf and Blinder both won attention — Blinder even got local theatrical release alongside movie In the Company of Men. But it was Infection that gave Cunningham his international breakthrough. Keen to find a tactile, "gooey" and original imagery to represent banking transactions, Cunningham created a troupe of syringe soldiers, and bought back the Dali-like moving eyeball seen in Blinder.

Infection became one of the biggest selling Kiwi shorts to date. Among invitations to 20+ festivals, the stylish tale of digital robbery competed at Cannes in 2000, and Cunningham and Swadel also pressed the flesh at indie showcase Sundance in the US. Powerhouse agency ICM came sniffing. He'd certainly put in the work — 10 months of 60 hour weeks, rendering 11,000 frames of images on a dual 350mhz processor workstation with 512 megabytes of RAM and 28 gigs of hard drive. In this period Cunningham made his first music video: a Strawpeople remake of Cars classic 'Drive' featuring an animated Bic Runga, accompanied by a bug DJ. 

By now Cunningham had joined the crew at Wētā Digital in Wellington, as a shot-lighting technical director on the first instalment of The Lord of The Rings. In 2005 he took up a position as Head of 3D at Auckland post-production house Digital Post, where for four years he led a team providing digital effects for a range of TV commercials, plus big screen comedy The Devil Dared Me To. 

When Cunningham heard the pitch for Poppy, a tale of WWI soldiers from talented young writer David Coyle, he felt strongly that it would gain added power if it was told via animation. Months later, Cunningham and film-making partner Paul Swadel began rehearsing with actors Paul Glover and Matthew Sunderland, with umbrellas and golf-clubs filling in for rifles. Later they captured footage of the actors during an extended day of motion capture at Wētā Digital.

As Swadel put it, Cunningham’s desire was to use CGI "to pare everything back to a desolate landscape, to focus right in close on our two main characters, and allow the actors to lead". For Cunningham, Poppy was the chance to make a serious performance-driven CGI animated film for adults — one "with the emotional power to move an audience".

Cunningham spent 14 months making Poppy, aided by a small support team that grew from one to three artists over a year. It would take 4,500 hours to produce the 10 minutes of animated film. The result won two awards at international computer graphics conference Siggraph, a ‘Best Technical Contribution’ Award back home, and invites to a run of festivals, including Melbourne, SXSW and Telluride.

Starting in late 2009, Cunningham taught the 3D animation course at Auckland’s Media Design School for almost eight years. Among his goals was making sure the work of students won international recognition. The goal turned out not be madness after all; Cunningham led students across a run of short films which stacked up 20+ awards, and an impressive run of international festivals.

Two shorts from the Advanced 3D production class were finalists at the 2010 Visual Effects Society awards: Time for Change, and submarine tale Das Tub. Time for Change and sci-fi spoof First Contact were also selected for premier CGI showcase SIGGRAPH, as were many Media Design School shorts that followed. Das Tub was named Best Short Short at the 2011 Aspen Shortsfest, and Cunningham took Best Director at the Honolulu Film Awards.

Next came The Deadliest Game, a colonial-styled alien encounter tale based on the retro Dr Grordbort universe created by Wētā designer Greg Broadmore. Broadmore collaborated with media design students again, when he helped corral the robot stars of slacker comedy Shelved, which won further gongs.

Possum tale Accidents, Blunders and Calamities (2015) was invited to compete at Clermont-Ferrand in France, arguably the most prestigious short film festival on the globe. Meanwhile Cunningham/The Design School's zombie romcom Rotting Hill (2011) has been viewed more than a one and half million times on website Vimeo.

Since going freelance in mid 2017, Cunningham has worked for everyone from Wētā FX to Amazon Studios. He was part of both the senior layout team on Avatar - The Way of Water, and the effects design team on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Since 2022 he has been the Layout and Lighting leader at Auckland's Cause and FX. 

Updated on 28 February 2025

Sources include
James Cunningham
James Cunningham and Paul Swadel, 'Abdominable Snowmen: two go mad at film fest' Onfilm, April 2001, page 11 (Volume 18, no 4) 
Bianca Zander' Viral View' (Interview) - Pavement 41, June 2000, page 48
Media Design School website. Accessed 19 February 2025
'Digital Filmmaking: Poppy art' (Interview with James Cunningham and Paul Swadel) - Onfilm, July 2009
Poppy website (broken link). Accessed 7 December 2015
Poppy press kit