Ernst founded 9to3animation in 2014. He continued his career by designing and developing imagination-based – non-photorealistic – shading and lighting methods used in several national and international productions. He and Christos Obretenov set out on a journey to explore the possibilities of Imagination Based Rendering. He is the early adopter of Pixar's RenderMan Stylized Looks that enables film and animation studio's to create their unique style. In 2018 Hristo Arabadzhiyski joined the team. Hristo is a self-taught Houdini artist, specializing in non-photoreal stylization as well as curve manipulation that includes grooming. He is currently on two R&D teams – one in 9to3Animation and another one in MPC. The challenges and bold expressive capabilities that NPR stylization present are the main driving forces for him on his NPR problem-solving journey where RenderMan, Houdini and VEX are his tool