Like most visual artists, Jim started drawing at an early age. He was always fascinated by the possibilities of pencil and line, and their translation into likenesses. Seeing a 1963 LIFE magazine cover by Norman Rockwell, Jim was inspired to paint his first portrait. He was only seven and sold it to a neighbor for $10.

It wasn't until Jim experimented with acting in the 8th grade that he made the connection of character with caricature. But like many caricaturists, he began by drawing caricatures of his teachers. Getting laughs from his fellow students was all he needed to continue learning about the art form. His physical education teacher got him his first paying gig by drawing the wrestling team.

Jim attended Boston University's School for the Arts and graduated with a degree in painting. But he found steady employment drawing caricature cartoons, for a small company run by the cartoonist, Richard Hill. Jim's drew caricatures for Bar Mitzvahs, conventions, and colleges. From there, Jim moved to Southern California, drawing caricatures at the major amusement parks.

Jim's real luck came about when he learned about an animation school in Hollywood that could teach him the basics of animation. After learning "Inbetweening", he decided to try his luck with Disney Studios when they were gearing up for The Little Mermaid. After the second attempt, the studio accepted his application and he became one of the Disney Inbetweeners. He soon realized that the real fun was in the actual animation. So once again, he hit the books and decided to learn the mechanics of animation, and landed a job with Warner Brothers' Feature Animation unit in 1996. While he worked on features such as Space Jam and Quest for Camelot, his big chance to animate came on Brad Bird's The Iron Giant Thanks to Brad, Jim was able to display his talents by animating the character Kent, voiced by Chris McDonald.

After Iron Giant, Jim worked briefly as a character layout artist on The Simpsons and then moved on to Warner Brothers' next feature, Osmosis Jones. Seeing how the industry was changing, Jim decided to make the transition into computer animation and started working for Sony Imageworks. He animated the Troll in Harry Potter and the Quidditch match characters. (The athletes on broomsticks playing a game similar to basketball, but in the air above in a football-like stadium). Jim also animated Stuart Little, Margalo the bird, and Falcon on Stuart Little II. You can also see his work in Early Bloomers and in Attack of the Chubb Chubbs -- winner of the Best Animate Short Subject Oscar for 2002.