Bret’s ability to combine creative with technical has resulted in his expansive background including visual effects supervision, digital animation, fine art photography, and broadcast and title design.

After attending the Film and Photography program at Ryerson University in Toronto, Bret quickly worked his way to Senior Animator and Designer at various Toronto production companies. He helped design and animate many award winning commercials, broadcast design, and title sequences for companies such as Coca-Cola, The Discovery Channel, and the TekWar television movies.

In 1993, Bret was selected to design and animate 3D visual effects for the opening titles for William Shatner’s made for television movies based on his science fiction Tek novels. The sequence that Bret produced won the 1994 International Broadcast Association Award for Best Show Opening, as well as being nominated for the 1994 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences.

In 1994, as William Shatner, Bob Munroe, John Mariella, and Kyle Menzies were forming C.O.R.E. they asked Bret to join them to help make the Toronto based company a world class creator of visual effects. They have successfully built four divisions with a staff of more than 400 people: C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, having created visual effects for well over 80 films and television movies, C.O.R.E. Toons, C.O.R.E. Feature Animation and C.O.R.E. Film Productions.

As a Visual Effects Supervisor, Bret has directed C.O.R.E.’s team to create awe-inspiring visual effects on projects such as TriStar Pictures Silent Hill, Lions Gate Films Saw II, EPSN’s Code Breakers, Warner Brothers Duma, and Mixamax/Pandora’s Cypher, the latter having won the 2003 International Fantasy Film Award for Best Visual Effects. As Head of Visual Effects, Bret oversees the creative and management of all C.O.R.E. visual effects production.

Bret draws on his knowledge of filmmaking to quickly and efficiently solve challenging problems that arise while filming. He helped devise a crowd duplication technique that allowed for the efficient creation of 100,000 people in the long since disappeared JFK Stadium in Philadelphia from fewer than 400 extras in ESPN’s 1951 period piece Code Breakers. Using this innovative technique C.O.R.E. created directable virtual crowds while minimizing resource requirements from the main unit.

In 2001 Bret began his collaboration with the director of the Canadian Film Centre’s cult hit Cube, Vincenzo Natali. Bret was the visual effects director for Natali’s Miramax/Pandora spy thriller Cypher, in 2002 as visual effects supervisor for Natali’s Nothing, creating over 250 visual effects on a low budget, and again in 2005 directing the Monty Python inspired animated sequences for Natali’s Terry Gilliam documentary Getting Gilliam.