Industry professionals Maurice Kimball and Briar Lee Mitchell have co-founded Pasadena, California-based Digital Ink Illustration (Dii), a digital background paintings company. Services will include conceptual design and layout for animation or live-action, digital color comps/color keys and fully rendered digital files for animation and live-action backgrounds, overlays, underlays, flattened or layered files. Cedric Tomacruz has been named art director for the new firm. Tomacruz worked as a background illustrator on WINNIE THE POOH, LION KING, ALADDIN and POCAHONTAS, and has served as the lead painter for HERCULES the TV series. Co-founder Kimball served as illustrator and conceptual design artist for Knowledge Adventure, the PC gaming subsidiary of Vivendi Universal. He created conceptual art designs for such projects as JURASSIC PARK 3, JOISE AND THE PUSSYCATS, SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH, CROCODILE HUNTER and DINATOPIA. Co-founder Mitchell's illustrator credits include the TV series THE SYLVESTER AND TWEETY MYSTERIES, HYSTERIA and PINKY AND THE BRAIN and the feature films THE QUEST FOR CAMELOT and LIFE ON MARS.