After being an engineer for years, Landreth quit and began a second career as an animator. He received a BS (1984) in general engineering and an MS (1986) degree in theoretical and applied mechanics at the
University of Illinois. Three years following, he experimented in fluid mechanics research, until he made baby steps into the world of computer animation. In 1994, he was hired to define, test, and sometimes even abuse computer graphics software products. Such products include "movie-grade" software, not limited to but including programs, such as
Maya, from the
Toronto-based animation firm,
Alias (formerly Alias|wavefront, now owned by
Autodesk). This resulted in the productions of
The End and
Bingo.
The End was nominated in 1996 for an
Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Afterward, he met
Ryan Larkin, a renowned animator in the 1960s and 1970s, who had recently fallen into a spiral of excessive drinking, cocaine abuse, and homelessness. This resulted in the 2004 production of
Ryan, which won an Oscar in 2005. Landreth's 2009 film
The Spine won the Best of the Festival award at the
Melbourne International Animation Festival. Produced by the
National Film Board of Canada in association with Copperheart Entertainment,
C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures and
Seneca College,
The Spine depicts a man who's physically and figuratively spineless and the breakdown of his marriage.
Subconscious Password was his third with the NFB, Seneca College and Copperheart Entertainment. It won the best short film prize at the
Annecy animation Festival 2013. In 2016, he created the animated vignette
Be Cool for the NFB satirical
public service announcement series,
Naked Island. Landreth is currently an
artist in residence at the
Dynamic Graphics Project of the
University of Toronto. He is working on a feature-length adaptation of Hans Rodionoff, Enrique Breccia and Keith Giffen's graphic-novel biography of H.P. Lovecraft. Landreth's films
Ryan,
The Spine and
Subconscious Password were included in the
Animation Show of Shows. Landreth is a master with The Beijing DeTao Masters Academy (DTMA), a high-level, multi-disciplined, application-oriented higher education institution in Shanghai, China. =="Psychorealism"==