Michael has been drawing since he was able to pick up a writing implement. His drawing talents excelled in school where he won many awards at art shows. In his days at Baldwin High School, he took up Graphic Arts to expand his talents. In parallel to Michael’s interest in art, he began acting in Summer Theater and would later appear in TV commercials and land extra rolls in feature films. Being inspired early on by TV shows like The Monkees and The Partridge Family, Michael took up learning the drums at the age of 5 and later bass guitar at 15. Music soon took over as his main passion as he got a taste for playing in local bands and began to compose original songs. By the time he was 19, Michael was playing in front of large crowds. As a young adult, Michael would put his acting to use by combining his improvisational skills with his natural ability to mimic famous voices, such as Bullwinkle, and began making regular appearances on the Scott Paulsen Radio Show on Pittsburgh’s WDVE. He also got his first taste at producing music as he entered the studio to co-produce a charity song to which he penned the lyrics. Dream Makers was a local “We Are The World” type effort where he gathered musicians of all types from around the Pittsburgh area to take part in singing and playing on the song that would get notable air play as well as a Rockumentary that would air on TV. Thus Michael would discover yet another talent of his - team building. Michael believed in the “We are the Dream Project” and got others to see his vision for it, and talked every one of the artists into donating their time and efforts to make the project successful.
Five years later, Michael decided to produce a full-length CD of local bands performing classic rock hits. The Power-hitters Tribute to Classic Rock was recorded and released to raise money for the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation. A year later, Michael fell in love with the Internet and computer abilities, so he started teaching himself how to build websites. His vision was to start building websites for the bands that he would produce and incorporate this talent into his music production company. To further his advancement on his design capabilities, he decided to attend Duquesne University in Pittsburgh to obtain a degree in Multimedia Technologies. It was here that Michael fell in love with everything related to Multimedia Design including computer animation. Atlas Design Group was formed in December of 2001, and by 2005 Michael had built the division up with two other employees, 4 freelancers and a book of business.
Michael was then offered the opportunity to buy the company for no more than work on trade. He and his new business partner, Tim Gerwing, would look to take Atlas Design Group to the next level as their own company in 2006. In 2007, Michael formed the division that was to become zoetifex Studios to focus more on visual effects and animation for TV and Film. A few years later, an opportunity arose for Michael to put together a demonstration of zoetifex Studios’ animation capabilities, for a gentleman in New York who was looking for a company to produce a new animated TV Series based on vintage radio and TV audio. So Michael came up with the idea of taking the audio from Alfred Hitchcock’s 5 minute long trailer for his movie “The Birds”. He edited the audio down to 1 minute and began coming up with unique visuals that put a twist on the actual audio. Michael then had to put his team-building skills to use to round up some of the most talented animators that were available for work. Zoetifex Studios was coming to life, and Michael's vision was to build the studio from the ground up - with the key ingredient being the talent. The team he was able to build had experience working with such companies as Disney, Blue Sky, Digital Domain, Imagi, Electronic Arts and more. The end result was even better than Michael had hoped for. The client instantly fell in love with the piece, and so have thousands of viewers on the Internet. Michael Kadrie seems to have been groomed perfectly to run zoetifex Studios. He has been entertaining people for most of his life. From his background in music, to acting and voice-overs, to his artistic skills and award-winning designs. He has unique, creative ideas and possesses an ability to round up the most talented people available on a moment’s notice. He believes, and what’s more - he get’s others to believe in what he’s doing.
About zoetifex Studios
zoetifex Studios is a premiere animation studio in Pittsburgh, PA, that specializes in High Quality 2D and 3D Animation, Digital Visual Effects and other Media for Broadcast, DVD and Theater.
zoetifex Studios’ focus is on creating that high quality animation, while upholding the highest production standards by using some of the industry's most creative animation talent. Their key difference is the fact that, being based in Pittsburgh, they can create this high level animation at a fraction of the cost of other studios.
Great character designs, great story lines, great animation and a low budget production. This is zoetifex Studios.