Joel Payne has worked closely with Disney, Disney Imagineers, and Digital Backlot, building a strong foundation within the creative Disney landscape. He has made his mark in the world of artistry through his contributions to Disney Fine Art.

A native Californian, Joel Christopher Payne's story starts with a life changing moment at the age four that would change the course of his life forever. Joel tells us, “My earliest memory that inspired my career came when I was riding on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and I looked up to my mom and said, Look Mom! Look how real the robots are!! At which point my mother without hesitation replied , -son, those are the waiters at the Blue Bayou... You'd think I was destroyed... but it was in that moment that I realized just how amazing Walt Disney really was. I couldn't tell difference between the fantasy and the real thing and I knew that I wanted to learn how to harness this kind of unique magic!” Disneyland and Disney feature animation would ignited a lifelong passion in Joel that would lead him to inspire others through his own style of breakthrough art.In 1996, Joel finally got his chance to work with Disney on “Disney's Virtual Jungle Cruise” ride still in operation in Florida's Disneyquest. Responsible for creating the rides river rafting track and 3D backgrounds, Payne learned from Disney Imagineers about the power of storytelling, color and lighting techniques that he still uses in his paintings today.From 1996 to present day, Joel would go on to build 3D worlds for Steven Spielberg's “Sky Pirates”, Art Directing Disney's Atlantis the video game, Mortal Kombat:Shaolin Monks, Max Steel and Star Ship Troopers:Roughnecks, Silent Hill:Homecoming and Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance. He would also score film music for world renown Stan Winston.In 2008 Joel would head up Universal Studios very first virtual version of their world famous Backlot facades creating digital doubles of the famous "Back to the future courtyard" and in 2009 Joel's company Digital Backlot would design 75 original 3D characters for the project Growums. Featured on the show “The View” Joel not only animated the growums characters, but like Walt, voiced several of the lead characters to the tune of more than 100 cartoons.

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Original YouTube air date 2-27-24