Michael Scheffe

Adjunct Associate Professor
Entertainment Design

Biographys

Growing up, Michael loved drawing and making things, which continues... Long before ArtCenter had Entertainment Design, he was a Transportation Design major. After that, Michael worked on lots of cheap movies—where prop, set, graphics and VFX work led to art direction and production design. Later, he contributed to Avatar, Back to the Future I, II, and III, Brainstorm, Class Action, FernGully, Radio Flyer, Spider-Man, Stuart Little I and II, TinTin, Tough Guys, and many more. Michael's checkered past includes concept design for theme parks and restaurants, including Universal’s Islands of Adventure and the Spielberg/Katzenberg submarine restaurant, “Dive!”. Afterward, Scheffe was Visual Effects Art Director on many films, including James and the Giant Peach, Michael, Monster House, Starship Troopers, and others. More recent work includes a new Batmobile and Gotham Cty for Warner Bros’ new park in Abu Dhabi, the "High Roller" Ferris wheel in Las Vegas, and concept design for the “Flying Aces” ride at Ferrari World. Plus lots of things he can't talk about. Scheffe's design work on commercials included clients like Honda, BP, Nike, and others. He also designed and built the original dash and nose for the Knightrider car, KITT... plus indoor flying toys, and prototype development for Mattel and others. Since 2011, Michael has been lucky enough to work with the talented students at ArtCenter.