Featured · Live experienceNo. 01
Innovation GalleryCollege + Tech Innovation Tour
- AI challenges
- 10
- Students
- 360
- Campuses
- 3
ConnectSTL · SLU · SIUE · Webster · Oct 5–7, 2026
01 / Creative Technologist · AI Filmmaker
Building worlds is my love language.
I don't make content. I build the machines that do. For brands, studios, and public stages: cinematic films, AI production systems, and experiences people can step into.
- Currently
- Technical Artist @ Meta via Tundra
- Studio
- Founder, Digital Storytellers Ink
- Creative partner
- Luma AI Creative Partner
- Now · Oct 2026
- Shipped the Innovation Gallery · Spoke at Adobe Create Now
Trusted by
- Meta
- Adobe
- LVMH
- HSBC
- NASA
- Lexus
- Luma
Now / Proof
Proof you can see.
Current roleTechnical ArtistTechnical Artist @ Meta via TundraAgentic workflowsNode-based pipelinesGenerative videoAI filmmakingMultimodal AIConsumer scaleFront-facing engineeringCreative technology
Speaker · Commissioned artistSpoke at Adobe Create Now.“Reality by Design” · St. Louis Design Week · The Sheldon · Oct 6, 2026
Builder recognitionNamed by ComfyUI's co-founder.Robin Huang · Reposted by ComfyUI's official page
Product recognition“This is amazing.”Jo Zhang · Founding Member and PM of Agentic Experience, ComfyUI
02 / Selected Work
Architecture in action.
Real systems, films, and public experiences — built to be seen in the world.
Reality by Design · Proof in public
A fast, hands-on way to turn an idea into something real with AI.
Designed and built by Digital Storytellers Ink for ConnectSTL's College + Tech Innovation Tour, the Innovation Gallery built ten guided AI creative challenges for the 360 high school students registered to tour Saint Louis University, SIUE, and Webster University.
- Your idea
- AI helps
- Create
The centerpiece of my Adobe Create Now St. Louis talk, Oct 6, 2026.
- Creative Technology
- Interactive UX
- AI Guides
- Video Direction
- Rapid Prototyping
- Digital Storytellers Ink
- ConnectSTL's College + Tech Innovation Tour
- Saint Louis University · SIUE · Webster University
- Oct 5–7, 2026 · Digital Inclusion Week
- ConnectSTL Digital Inclusion Coalition · Regional Business Council · SLDC
- Built-in AI ×3
- Anthropic Claude
- Gamma
- Lovable
- Adobe Express in ChatGPT
- Adobe Firefly
- Suno
- HeyGen
- Vidlo
Bring it to your school or event.
Want the Innovation Gallery at your school, conference, or company event? Tell me the audience and the date.
An independent Digital Storytellers Ink project.
More work
Browse the worlds.
Reality by DesignAdobe Create Now St. LouisMy Adobe Create Now talk at The Sheldon: technology as an actuator, built around the final minute of The Signal.Read the case study 
Night OneComfyUI MCP Launch BuildBuilt the night ComfyUI's MCP connector launched: a working agentic video pipeline, named by ComfyUI's co-founder.Independent buildRead the case study 
The SignalAI Spoken-Word FilmAn 11-minute spoken-word film in five acts, made on a single Luma board and featured in Luma's Creative Partner newsletter.Created with Luma · @LumaLabsAI · #LumaCPPRead the case study 
If Life's a GameAnthem Film + HUD SystemStadium to stratosphere: a self-cast anthem and a game-HUD system, ending on a line I wrote in 2018.Created with Luma · @LumaLabsAI · #LumaCPPRead the case study 
Heroes of the StormSt. Louis Recovery LeadersA tribute film for MOKAN's 49th Anniversary, honoring the leaders who carried St. Louis through its 2025 tornado recovery.Watch on YouTube 
The Nessa DressMaking The Unseen VisibleCreative direction on the original Natalie/Ernest/DSI team; later Unlimited3D product-and-content scope for a 3D dress shown at Metaverse Fashion Week.Read the case study 
First WaveAfrofuturist ShortFirst contact, retold as a homecoming: one diver held from the seafloor to the portal.Created with Luma · @LumaLabsAI · #LumaCPPRead the case study 
Crystal AGIBrowser Narrative GameA browser game: spend compute to bring an AI named LYRA into being, shipped with a trailer, key art, and a landing page.Cinematics: Created with Luma · @LumaLabsAI · #LumaCPPRead the case study 
Still StandingA Mural by Gonz JoveA documentary following Gonz Jove's mural for the St. Louis Mural Project and the Indigenous Collective Team.Watch on YouTube
03 / About
I think in frames, feel in story, and build in systems.
For more than a decade I've directed brand films, spec ads, motion graphics, and campaign content. In the generative era, I also build the production systems behind that work. Today I'm a Technical Artist @ Meta via Tundra.
I founded Digital Storytellers Ink to build the kind of studio I wanted to work in: one where cinematic instincts meet multimodal AI production, and where APIs, automation, and integration are the new creative frontier.
I own production end to end — from brief and art direction through motion, editorial, compositing, color, and sound — and I design the API-driven workflows that make that craft repeatable. As a Luma AI Creative Partner since 2024, I was selected for early access to Luma Agents and worked directly with Luma's product and engineering teams.
My working idea is simple: intention over capability.
“Technology is an actuator. My job is to turn a human intention into motion, then into a voice that reaches someone else.”
Interlude · Identity film
Reality by design.
04 / Recognition
What the builders say.
Founders, hosts, and clients, each linked to the original.
“His line stuck with me: when a new tool drops, he doesn't bookmark it, he plugs it in and builds something real the same day.”
“This time, that started night one.”
Official Adobe featureCreate Now · St. Louis Design Week“Reality by Design” · Speaker and commissioned sticker artist · Local Creator Showcase · October 6, 2026 · St. Louis, MO · The Sheldon“Xander works at the intersection of narrative craft and AI-assisted production, translating creative intent into repeatable, on-brand pipelines.”Speaker bio on adobe.com · View the event (opens in a new tab)ComfyUI product recognitionComfyUI's PM shared the pipeline.“Thank you for sharing the pipeline! This is amazing.”Jo Zhang · Founding Member @ComfyUI · PM of Agentic ExperienceLinkedIn · Public repost (opens in a new tab)“Can't recommend my Designer friend Xander Simms highly enough … If you need a quick and high quality GenAI based project, he's your man.”
“He is easy to work with and cares deeply in creating the final product to meet your project goals.”
Sherry Farmer-Hebert
LinkedIn recommendation from Sherry Farmer-Hebert (opens in a new tab)“Not only did the work exceed my expectations — the high level of communication that Xander provided was the true game-changer.”
Kashaun Cooper
LinkedIn recommendation from Kashaun Cooper (opens in a new tab)
05 / Contact
Let's build something real.
Open for conversations · Updated Oct 2026
Hire a creative technologist.
For teams hiring a senior creative technologist, creative-AI lead, or AI creative director: someone who directs the story and builds the system that ships it. Based in St. Louis and open to remote roles.
Commission Digital Storytellers Ink.
Brand films, AI production pipelines, and public experiences like the Innovation Gallery, by the project or on ongoing contract, including bringing the Gallery to your school or event.
Book a talk or a live build.
Talks on creativity, intention, and AI, like Reality by Design at Adobe Create Now, plus panels, workshops, and building in front of the room.
Partner on a launch.
For AI-tool and brand teams: day-one builds, films, and education made with your tools, credited on every piece. Luma AI Creative Partner; ComfyUI's MCP launch build, highlighted by its co-founder.
Quick answers
- What does Xander Simms do?
- Xander Simms is a creative technologist and AI filmmaker based in St. Louis. He directs cinematic films and builds the AI production systems and interactive experiences behind them, through his studio, Digital Storytellers Ink.
- What is the Innovation Gallery?
- A hands-on AI experience designed and built by Digital Storytellers Ink for ConnectSTL's College + Tech Innovation Tour. It built 10 guided creative challenges for the 360 high school students registered to tour Saint Louis University, SIUE, and Webster University in October 2026.
- Can the Innovation Gallery come to my school or event?
- Reach out through the contact form and choose “Innovation Gallery for my school or org,” with your audience and timing, and Xander will follow up about scope.
- Does Xander take studio projects?
- Digital Storytellers Ink takes on select brand-film, AI-pipeline, and public-experience projects. Start with the contact form or email.
- What was The Nessa Dress?
- Blind fashion designer Natalie Trevonne's NFT wedding dress, shown in the Threedium Plaza at the first Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland (March 2022). While at Threedium, Xander produced its 3D assets, AR filters, renders, and the film Making The Unseen Visible. The full story is at xandersimms.com/work/nessa-dress.
- Where is Xander Simms based?
- St. Louis, Missouri.
- What tools does he work with?
- ComfyUI, Luma AI, Adobe Firefly and Creative Cloud, Claude, ElevenLabs, Premiere Pro, and After Effects, chosen to fit each project.