Jared Krichevsky recently had the opportunity to achieve a childhood dream.
The 2005 graduate of the William Woods University theater department worked on the team that designed the digital title characters for the new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie.
Krichevsky went on from William Woods to attend Gnomon, a school for visual effects in Hollywood. Krichevsky said in an email he was first connected with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when it was initially sent to The Aaron Sims Company in 2011 where he was working as an intern (he is now employed there).
"I was a huge fan of the show so I begged them to let me take a pass at one of the turtles, I did Donatello, because he was always my favorite, but the design I did was sooo awful, that it became the example of what not to do," Krichevksy wrote. "Later TMNT ended up coming back to us in 2012, by that time I was a more experienced artist, with a few shows under my belt, and I was given the opportunity to work on it with the team."
He said his team's role "was to try to bring the Turtles into the real world as much as possible and give them each unique appearances based on their already well established personalities."
"We want to make sure that we paid homage to the characters and the franchise, while at the same time updating them for a new generation," Krichevsky wrote, noting the design process included a lot of feedback from director Jonathan Liebesman.
He said technology also played an important role.
"We wanted to push the design to take advantage of what they could do with them now," Krichevsky said.
He said the team used a program called Zbrush to help design the turtles in 3D.
Krichevsky, who has also worked on "Once Upon a Time," "Falling Skies," "I, Frankenstein," and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," said working on "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was a dream come true.
"It was a total blast ... for a long time fan of the franchise. I had all the figures and vehicles ... my mother always carried around a ninja turtle in her purse, just in case," Krichevsky wrote. "The most fun was when Director Jonathan Liebesman would come in and work with us.
"He has a lot of energy and a great sense of humor, so the sense of camaraderie with the team was great."
He said the biggest challenge "was actually the crotch. No one wants to see real mutant turtle crotches, so we needed stuff to cover them up with."
"I got a real laugh out of the "Onion' spoof video that they did, and that was exactly why we covered them up," Krichevsky wrote.
Although TMNT is his first work on a big franchise, Krichevsky said the first major movie he did work on was "Jupiter Ascending," a science fiction epic starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum, set for release in February 2015.
"It was a really wild and fun movie to work on so I'm really looking forward to it," Krichevsky said.
Krichevsky said his time at William Woods helped prepare him for what is turning into a busy career in film.
"I definitely think that my degree in Theatre Arts at WWU allowed me to become a better character artist," Krichevsky said. "Understanding where interesting characters come from really influences how I approach character design today. Because I believe compelling characters create compelling designs."
He said being a founding father at Phi Gamma Delta also helped.
"Those experiences made me a better communicator and gave me the confidence I needed in myself," Krichevsky wrote. "Even though I graduated nearly 10 years ago, I still remember those days very fondly."