Eric Tobiason

Eric Tobiason joined ILM in 2015 as a Concept Artist, specifically to work on the newly reconstituted Star Wars Image Unit for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and was promoted to Art Director two years later. He began his career in art at the tender age of 12, when he completed an illustration class and was hired to help teach the younger students as his summer job. His next summer job began at 14, when he was hired to ink and paint animation cels. Yes, acetate animation cels. Don't ask how old he is now. Eric has been involved in the creation of complex composite images which combine multiple photographs as well as multiple CGI renders for advertising and marketing for nearly twenty years, starting as a CGI generalist and retoucher/compositor and going all the way to Creative Director, and he began his career in the overall field of marketing and advertising over twenty years ago. Eric was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, where he learned what does and does not belong on a hot dog, and that if you can fold your pizza, something is wrong with it. Having lived in Japan, he has become deeply conflicted not only about where the best pizza in the world can be found, but also about how steak, potatoes, and mayonnaise can be so good on pizza. But probably not the brand of mayonnaise you're thinking of; it has to be Kewpie brand. Also known as, "The Only Mayonnaise," or, "Ruler of All Mayonnaise." He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife and their three children.