WASHINGTONVILLE — As a kid growing up in Washingtonville, Brian Walters used to hike with his dad around the Hudson Valley. Little did he know he would someday revisit his old stomping grounds — with superheroes in tow.

Walters was the Rough Layout Lead for many of the sequences in 2019 Academy Award winner “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse,” including "Escape from Hudson Valley." The animated film was released in December.

"For obvious reasons, it was a special sequence for me and brought back many good memories,” said Walters, 40, who has worked for Sony Imageworks for the last nine years.

Walters had been fascinated by visual effects as a kid — "the miniature worlds built for movies like 'Star Wars' and 'Superman.' From that point, I just wanted to make movies," he said.

"In high school, that led me to photography. A big influence was my photography teacher Michael Mahar. He always believed in me," said Walters, who graduated from Washingtonville High School in 1996. Walters' first paid photography gig was with the Times Herald-Record, he added.

He earned a degree in directing from Ramapo College School of Communications, and began teaching himself animation after graduation. He co-designed a 3-D background for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and 3-D graphic packages for the Grammys and other award programs. But the way to get the attention of a major animation studio, he knew, was through his camera work. His episodes for Animal Planet's “Untamed and Uncut” did the trick.

Sony hired him as a Rough Layout Artist (RLO), a job he'd never heard of before. Basically, RLO is in charge of cinematography and blocking, using computer graphics to move characters through a 3-D environment. After the director gives their shots the OK, they are sent to animators who "spend the time to capture the true performance of every shot." Over the years Walters has worked on "Arthur Christmas," "Hotel Transylvania 1 & 2," "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," "Angry Birds 1 & 2" and others.

jschensul@th-record.com