Smith began his career in London, where he worked as a
boom operator/sound assistant working on various film and TV productions. He discovered video editing at the advertising agency
BBDO, editing on the Apple and Pepsi accounts. He then moved over to post production house
SVC Television, to continue editing but there he also discovered the computer graphic machine Symbolics. He continued animating and FX supervising on various projects at the editing and effects house
Framestore and post house
VTR, where he established his own 3D department. Immediately prior to joining PDI/DreamWorks, Smith served at The Mill as the CG supervisor on commercial projects for
Nike,
Honda,
Volvo and
VW Polo. He was a pioneer in the field of pre-visualization, becoming the second ever head of layout in cinema history on the 1998 film
Antz, using that skill set to create PDI's Layout/Pre Viz Department which became an integral part of PDI's filmmaking process. Smith was also instrumental in helping to set up a CG layout department for
Aardman Animation for the production of
Chicken Run. Known for his work on the award-winning pop video "
Go West" for the
Pet Shop Boys, Smith also received the first ever
Gold Leaf Award for his 3D directorial work on the commercial "West Lites". Smith supervised the layout department on PDI/DreamWorks' first animated feature
Antz, serving as the head of layout in
Shrek. He then directed the
Universal Studios Theatre experience
Shrek 4-D, followed by the short
Far Far Away Idol. His first feature film as a director was in 2007, with
Bee Movie. He then directed another DVD short,
Megamind: The Button of Doom, before co-helming, with
Eric Darnell, the comedy/spy action spin-off from the
Madagascar series,
Penguins of Madagascar. He then created, wrote, and directed
Baymax Dreams for Disney. A joint Unity/Disney production to prove that a real time engine could be used to make broadcast TV content. Smith won an Emmy for the project. He is currently executive producer/showrunner on the animated superhero children's television series
Batwheels starring
Ethan Hawke for Warner Bros. ==Film credits==