I was born Feb 3 1981 in Santurce at the San Jorge hospital, in Puerto Rico. My Grandfather, Rafael Toledo Ruiz, intoduced me to drawing at the early age of five. He would turn out to be my biggest inspiration. He passed away on december 22, 1988. I was devastated by this, but I forged ahead and continued to find inspiration on his teachings and skills. I always love and thank him for that.

I would further enhance my art when I got in La Central de Artes Visuales, in Santurce on 1994. There I was able to get my formal education and also my art education. I graduated in 99 and quickly started college that summer at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

I recieved a bachelors degree in Media Arts & Animation, and it was here where I began specializing in 2d animation. I went on to win first place on the Portfolio Assesment in the Spring of 2000 and another in Summer 2001. While on my last year of school I got numerous jobs. I eventually settled in with the Exodus company, where I worked as a 2d animator. Working on various projects which ranged from video game to t.v. pilots.

I graduated in 2003 and got another job, with the company whom I'm currently in, Shadows in Darkness. I began with pixel animations for videogames on the Gameboy system. I also worked on concepts for their propietary ID, and have since moved up to working on Keyframed Animation for games like Atari's, Mark Eckos Getting Up. Today I multi-task from Keyframed Animations to Texture painting jobs.
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If you’d like a copy of my Resume, click here
If you’d like to drop me a line, you can contact me at: rafael@theartoftoledo.com