Charlie Breakiron, a pioneer in high-technology graphics, was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1959 and grew up in Indian Head, Pennsylvania. At the age of 14, he entered a simple "Draw Me" Contest and was accepted into Art Instruction Schools of Minneapolis. By the time he graduated high school in 1977, Charlie had 5 years of Graphic Arts training under his belt, including 3 years attending the North Fayette Area Vocational Technical School. This paved the way for earning his Commercial Art Degree from Ivy League of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

After Art School in 1979, Charlie took a 6-year sabbatical from art and joined a touring Ukrainian dance group. Somewhere along the way, his urge to draw resurfaced and he created a line of greeting cards called "On an Ethnic Note," documenting the Eastern European Culture.

In 1985, Charlie settled into Youngstown, Ohio and began his career as an Art Director for an advertising firm. Soon after, he opened his own computer graphics and design studio and within 3 years, it grew to13 people. But running a business took him too far afield from the day-to-day graphics work he loved, so Charlie started along another path.

One week after arriving in Dallas, Texas in summer of 1990, Charlie attended the annual SIGGRAPH conference, an event that changed his life and confirmed his new choice in careers. A drawing was held during the annual users group meeting and each member received a chance for the brass ring: a Silicon Graphics workstation loaded with Softimage 3D. Charlie won!

Workstation carefully tucked under his arm, for the next 6 years, Charlie moved from company to company starting, growing and leading 3D graphics departments, then moving on as they matured. His success attracted the interest of Softimage, who hired him as a demo jock and trainer. Charlie spent 2 years based in Germany and travelling throughout Europe training resellers, attending trade shows, creating demo material and giving demos.

Softimage relocated Charlie to Los Angeles, California in 1998 to continue his demo and training work, but now for feature film studios like Disney, Sony Image Works, Dream Works, Digital Domain, and Centropolis. Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, Arizona was also among the list of titans. Charlie was wooed away from Softimage by Fox and worked as a Lead 3D Animator on Titan AE. During that time, Charlie also beta tested Softimage XSI.

Following the closure of Fox in Phoenix, Charlie became a 3D hired gun, working around the West for Pixel Liberation Front, Moon Crescent Studios, and Scottsdale Community College.