Catapult co-owns Studio 345, a computer animation studio in downtown Toronto where Monster By Mistake was produced.

Kim Davidson - President, Executive Producer

Kim Davidson is president of Catapult Productions and was executive producer on 52 episodes of Monster By Mistake. He is also president of Side Effects Software, a company which designs and distributes Houdini 3D animation software that is sold worldwide. This software is regularly used in feature films for character animation and special effects, including Spider-man, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, X-Men, Harry Potter, and The Day After Tomorrow.

Kim graduated from the University of Waterloo with degrees in Architecture and Mathematics. He has done extensive graphics programming since 1980. He was the animation director at two large commercial animation houses in Toronto from 1986-1990 and worked on or directed over 300 hundred computer animated pieces in that time. Since 1990, Kim has been developing 3D software, particularly in the area of character animation.

Kim's contribution to the field of computer animation was recognized by two Scientific Achievement Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, he was the recipient in 1999 of the J. Wesley Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation from the University of Waterloo.

Mark Mayerson has worked in cel animation since 1976 and in computer animation since 1985. He has worked as an animator on four television series, nine TV specials, one theme park ride and dozens of commercials. He was one of the animators on Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, the first television series to include computer animated characters. He also contributed special effects to the first season of The War of the Worlds Some of the TV specials Mark worked on include Ira Sleeps Over (Cable ACE winner), Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Red Shoes, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Care Bears vs. the Freezing Machine.

Some of the other companies that Mark has worked for include Nelvana (as a writer and animator), Michael Sporn Animation, Omnibus Computer Graphics, ARCCA Animation and Dome Productions.

Mark is the creator of Monster By Mistake. He served as producer on 39 episodes, director for 15 episodes and writer for 7 episodes.

Mark has written about animation history and technique for a variety of print and web publications, including Animation Magazine, Animation World Magazine, Cartoon Brew, Animation Blast,The Comics Journal, fps and Animato. He contributed five articles to the book Animation Art, edited by Jerry Beck and published by Harper Design International.

View Mark's director reel (22 Mb download).

View Mark's animation reel (14 Mb download).

Since graduating from Sheridan College 9 years ago, Michael has worked extensively in the computer animation industry. Working as a demo artist at Side Effects Software, Mr. Carter contributed to the development group awarded the Computer Graphics World 1996 Technical Innovation Award for the creation of Side Effects Software's Houdini.

On Catapult Productions fully 3D television series, Monster By Mistake, Michael provided hands-on leadership, training and supervision within the special effects, modeling and lightning departments, as Technical Director.

Teaming with Ken Perlman and Athomas Goldberg at Improv Technologies, Michael managed the product development of the first character animation motion layering and blending application in the industry; Orchestrate3D. Improv was awarded the CGW 2000 Technical Innovation Award for its efforts.

Michael then took on the task of designing, developing and implementing the first large scale CGI series production facility for Calibre Digital Pictures in Toronto. He then took a one year leave to help prepare Aardman Animations in Bristol UK for CGI integration into their renowned stop-motion production pipeline as Head of CGI.

Michael returned to Calibre in the summer of 2003 as Executive Producer on the series Ace Lightning, Shoebox Zoo, Henry's World II, and was Studio Manager on Hey Joel.

In addition to Monster By Mistake, Catapult is developing other television series as well as feature films. For a look at some of those projects, click here.