Chris Edwards is the son of a Rocket Scientist and a Costume Designer. Somewhere in the middle of those two interests lies the heart of a Previs Artist.

Before previs became a known discipline, Chris when to Film School at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

Throughout college, Chris supplemented his education by volunteering at post-production houses and visual effects facilities, culminating in an internship at Cinesite Hollywood. All of these hands-on experiences helped prepare Chris for a position at Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1997.

As a 3D Layout Artist on Disney’s Dinosaur, Chris composed hundreds of key shots for the film. This was the first example of feature-length previsualization at Disney. After the film’s layout was complete, Chris joined the character animation team and became the Lead Assistant Animator for “Aladar”, the main character. In 2000, Chris moved on to design sequences for Treasure Planet as Disney’s Lead 3D Layout Artist.

In 2002, Chris joined a team of 10 artists at Lucasfilm, chosen to previsualize extensive changes to the director’s cut of George Lucas' first feature film, THX 1138. Chris helped plan the filming of new elements and was the Animation Supervisor for the creature shots. After THX, Chris continued to previsualize sequences for Star Wars: Episode III. Throughout the production, George Lucas worked closely with Chris, often designing shots live at his desk. As Star Wars was ending, Chris proposed that his fellow artists form their own previs company.

In 2004, The Third Floor Previs Studio was established in Los Angeles, with the mission of offering Lucasfilm-quality previs to clients around the world. Since then, Chris has acted as CEO, helping to grow the company to support over 30 full-time previs veterans.

Chris also remains the Creative Director at The Third Floor, advising the other Third Floor Supervisors on projects such as Cloverfield, Avatar, Beowulf, Star Trek, and Narnia : Prince Caspian. Chris has personally supervised the previs for many of the studio’s game cinematic and feature film projects, including Starcraft II, Diablo III, Valkyrie, Eagle Eye, and most recently, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.