It was either E.T.or art professor Kathy Hoffman who steered a Saint Anselm College criminal justice major into a career producing computer animated films. Instead of following up his bachelor's degree with law school as he had planned, Sean Murphy now collaborates with artists and directors to make sure a saber-toothed tigers' lips move correctly and a woolly mammoth's fur shimmers when the sun shines on it.

He is part of the team that created the computer animated feature films Robots and Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Sean has been interested in film making ever since seeing E.T. at age six or seven. "It was just a dream," he says from his office at Blue Sky Studios outside of New York City. But during his junior year, while taking a film elective, Sean saw a notice outside his professor's office about an internship at New York University. After a summer on the set of an independent film, his plans for law school were replaced by plans for a master's degree in film and television production.

After graduating from Emerson College, Sean worked on several projects in Los Angeles before finding his niche with Blue Sky Studios.

"I totally latched onto the organization side of the animation business," he says. "Every scene is broken down into sequences. The artistic part of me is involved in making it all happen. I get to see the film process from its inception all the way onto film." As many as 350 people work on each film, including animators, effects artists, directors, and editors.

Hired as a production assistant, Sean was promoted twice in two years and manages a department of 20. His latest project, Horton Hears a Who , is scheduled to open in 2008.