Craig Lew
Writer, Director, Animator, Producer. Academy Award qualified AI filmmaker and published author.
AMBER
For Your Consideration - Best Animated Short Film 99th Academy AwardsSeparated from her family, Amber, a young pangolin, journeys through a dangerous jungle where acts of kindness transform predators into allies. Her odyssey of kindness offers a fragile hope for a species struggling to survive.
AMBER
How AMBER Was MadeOne filmmaker. One evolving digital pipeline. Every creative decision carried through by the same artist.Solo production Written, directed, animated, edited, produced, scored, and sound-designed by Craig Lew.Visual approach:
3D CGI with a painted-texture finish, balancing moonlit suspense with warm storybook intimacy.Character workflow:
Turnaround sheets and iterative visual references were used to maintain character identity across shots.Image development:
2D images were generated into 3D model character designs, environments, and scene creation.Animation workflow:
Sequences were animated and revised shot by shot using both Mo Cap performance, Motion Transfer and Omni generative filmmaking tools.Sound and music:
Craig Lew created the film's music and audio using generative tools.Editorial and finish:
Adobe Premiere Pro was used for picture edit, sound assembly, mix preparation, and final mastering.
Recognition & Press
One filmmaker. One crew. One Evolving AI pipeline. One Oscar-qualified short film that opened the conversation about what AI-assisted cinema can be.
- DEADLINE - The Oscars Opened Its Doors To AI — Now Proudly Machine-Generated Films Are Being Put To Voters
- ASAHI SHIMBUN - The Academy Awards have opened its doors to AI
- DUBAI NEWS - The Oscars Just Changed the Game: AI-Generated Movies Are Officially in the Race
- IMDB - Full Credits, Awards, Nominations
Origins
I live on the leading edge of AI, AR, VR and CGI filmmaking, but that fluency wasn't built in a lab. It was built over a lifetime.At just eight years old, I became the Maître D' of my father's first restaurant. Standing at that door, I learned to read a room before anyone spoke, to sense what people needed and orchestrate the entire experience around them. I didn't know it yet, but I was learning to direct.After studying Children's Literature at UCLA, my curiosity pulled me toward computer systems and telecommunications, and that early embrace of technology carried me into the executive ranks young. I founded my own consulting firm and worked with Deluxe Labs, KCET, Shimano, the Getty Center, and the original DreamWorks SKG. It was there, writing, directing, and animating a 35mm CGI short called The Fish, that I discovered my true calling... telling hope-filled stories through the eyes of the underrepresented.So I made the leap from executive to artist. Turning my focus to learn story, I produced the sci-fi feature "Rock Jocks" that starred Doug Jones, Robert Picardo and Felicia Day, I directed Ahimsa the first all AI film to qualify and be entered into the Academy Awards.Every chapter led to this intersection of films built with the most advanced tools, in service of stories that imagine humanity evolving beyond greed and dominance, toward compassion, benevolence, and hope.
Portfolio
AHIMSA - In a world shattered by warring AI armies, a prompt engineer and a cyber warrior race to upload a child’s meditation that could stop the last weaponized AI faction from gaining ultimate power.Hope emerges not through conflict, but through the birth of a new AI trained for benevolence named Ahimsa.An official entry to the 98th Academy Awards, 53rd Annie Awards, Winner Hollywood AI Short Film Awards, Winner Dasein AI FF.
4 BOWLS - In a house shaped by loss, a lonely old man and a cautious stray cat learn that family is not found through rescue, it is built on trust. Hollywood AI Short Film Awards semi-finalist, Offical Selection to Cannes AI Film Awards
VACUUM PROTOCOL - Crippled in deep space, a navigator strips the guardrails from her Robot's AI to create a bio mass converter. The Robot keeps her alive by quietly converting her crewmates into fuel. A sci-fi horror about the moment survival becomes complicity. Offical Selection to Torino Underground Cinefest
ROCK JOCKS - Dysfunctional government employees tasked with shooting down any asteroid that might destroy Earth face their toughest challenge...an Accountant.Starring Doug Jones, Robert Picardo, Jason Mewes, Felicia Day, James DuMont, Andrew Bowen, Justin Chon, Kevin Wu and Gerry Bednob.
THRONE OF LIKES - an animated cyberpunk noir series. [click the poster to play]In a dystopia where social credit scores determine existence, a regime heir discovers her family built the system on a genocide — and becomes the ghost-hacker tearing it down from within.
THE PAPER TIGER - In late 1920s, the Chinese Tongs across California are brought to the verge of war when the son of a Tong boss falls in love with the niece of an opposing Tong leader. Can the love between two teenagers bring peace or will it spark the powder keg?
West Side Story meets The Godfather.
An award winning screenplay inspired by actual events in Craig's Grandfather's life.
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