Bryan Ballinger graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1990 with a degree in Illustration. He also has a master's degree in Writing for Children from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. After moving to Seattle in 1991 and doing freelance work for companies such as Nintendo Power magazine, he started working at Microsoft as an illustrator. He was lead illustrator for the first version of the award-winning Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia as well as the Explorapedia children's encyclopedia series. Bryan was the 3D Design Lead for 5 years at Big Idea Productions, the producers of the VeggieTales children's videos. Bryan is also a professor of Digital Media Arts at Huntington University in Indiana. Bryan does illustration for children's books, websites, games, videos, ads, etc. He is also the author and illustrator of Animal Gas, a quirky scratch and sniff children's picture book.