A FORMER Foulstone High pupil who ignored advice to get a 'normal' job has signed a contract with James Cameron to work on his new film Avetar.

Michael Todd, 39, originally from Ancona Rise, Darfield, left school to study art, physics and electrical engineering at Barnsley College.

He said: "I have always loved animation ever since I watched the Star Wars films when I was a kid. At school they didn't really encourage my ideas.

"The careers advisors told us to get jobs in shoe shops."

After studying media studies at Newcastle University, he started working for Particle Solutions, a computer game developer in Sheffield.

During his time in Sheffield his love for animation developed into a desire to work in the film industry and an interview with Pixar animation studios followed.

He said: "I managed to get an interview at Pixar in California with some of the animations I had done for computer games. Amazingly I got the job."

Michael has been involved in films such as The Incredibles and Ratatouille, working on the movement of the hair for all the central characters in both movies.

He said: "If someone had said to me that I would be involved in all that I wouldn't have believed them." Now Michael, his wife Rebecca and their two children Alex, two, and Luke, four. have moved away from the Golden State and are living in New Zealand where he worked with Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

His latest project will see him working alongside Cameron on his new sci fi action movie Avetar, composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation.