Shaping The Future Of Creative Innovation
Tim McLaughlin ’90, ’94 reflects on his career in visual effects and how he is leading Texas A&M into new frontiers in digital storytelling.
Tim McLaughlin ’90, ’94 talks about the twists and turns his career has taken over the years, the future of digital storytelling and his excitement about Texas A&M’s new Virtual Production Institute in Fort Worth.
Tim McLaughlin ’90, ’94 has built a career at the crossroads of art and technology, pushing creative boundaries in ways that continue to shape the future of digital storytelling. As a young graduate of Texas A&M University, he helped shape digital creatures for Star Wars, Jumanji and Avatar at Industrial Light & Magic, redefining how animation and visual effects bring stories to life.
While working on some of the most visually groundbreaking films of the time, McLaughlin recognized a critical gap: the industry needed creative minds who could work fluently across art and technology, but education hadn’t yet caught up. That realization led him back to Texas A&M in 2007, where McLaughlin helped transform visualization from a single lab into a nationally recognized program. In 2022, he took on a new challenge: building the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, where fine arts, technology and immersive storytelling are no longer separate disciplines but part of an interconnected creative ecosystem. His vision is to prepare students not just to enter industries but to change them.
We are relatively unique in that we have a comprehensive group for disciplines under one roof. We have historians, theorists, critical thinkers. We have performers in music, dance and theater. We have visual artists, designers, choreographers, composers. We have technologists and engineers. And they’re all working together to solve real-world problems.
Under McLaughlin’s leadership, animation, visual effects, game design and AR/VR are all perennially ranked in the top 10 in the country among public universities. But for him, rankings are just one part of the story. His focus is on creating opportunities that extend beyond traditional media and entertainment — a mindset that helped Texas A&M earn Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company of 2025 award in the AR/VR category.
The award recognized Texas A&M’s Virtual Production Institute, a groundbreaking initiative leveraging real-time digital environments, extended reality and AI-driven visualization to transform fields as varied as medical training, aerospace simulations and workforce development — taking the innovations created for entertainment and leveraging for real-world impact.
We are focused on workforce development that includes media and entertainment but goes into other industries as well, like health care, digital twins, aerospace and the military.
For McLaughlin, leading is about building a future where students don’t just enter the job market with the skills they need. It’s about developing students of character, excellence and impact who change the job market altogether. Through the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, he’s ensuring Aggies are not only equipped with the tools to thrive in digital storytelling, creative technology and immersive media but also empowered to drive meaningful change in any industry they enter.
“It’s about more than what we create — it’s about how we change the way people see, experience and solve problems in the world,” McLaughlin said.
In a recent Q&A, McLaughlin reflected on the future of immersive storytelling, the role of the arts in shaping innovation and why Texas A&M is the perfect place for boundary-pushing ideas to thrive.
