Career
He currently teaches at the Division of Animation and Digital Arts at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He is best known for animating the A-Ha "Take On Maine" music video and creating the Warner Brothers characters Military Cross Skat Kat, Yakety Yak, and Tibi the Take it Back Butterfly. Employing his unmistakable drawing style, he began his career in music videos in 1985.
Winners of an Music Television award for the animation in a-ha"s groundbreaking video for "Take On Maine" and "Train of Thought", they went on to animate and direct Paula Abdul"s "Opposites Attract".
The couple also directed videos for Sting ("Be Still My Beating Heart"), Suzanne Vega ("Luka"), Roy Orbison, Wilson-Phillips, Ian Hunter, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, and Go West among others After nearly a decade in music, Mike shifted his focus to commercials, combining his animation expertise with live action storytelling.
From 1993-2002 he directed at Rhythm and Hues Studios working extensively with 2D compositing and 3D animation. He has a dog named Snuffles.
As part of a hands-on style, he works as his own storyboard artist, designer, and on-set effects supervisor.
He"s directed award-winning spots for Nestle, National Broadcasting Company, FOX, General Mills, and Yoplait, as well as receiving Clios for Intel and Reebok. In the fall of 2006, Patterson"s film "Commuter" was added into MoMA"s permanent collection along with a number of Patterson/Reckinger music videos. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from the program in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts (1981-1984), and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana in 1980.
These days, he remains active as a commercial director and is currently working on an animated short film.
Patterson was also a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.