His knowledge of theatre technology made him a desirable asset to the team building the Charles Eames-designed audio animatronic puppet theatres for the I.B.M. Pavillion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Moving to Los Angeles, he maintained dual careers in both the entertainment and industrial/exhibit design fields. His eclectic backgrounds merged harmoniously when his industrial design knowledge made him a perfect fit for Industrial Light and Magic, the group formed by John Dykstra, ASC, to create the visual effects for the 1977 film, Star Wars. He continued his association with Dykstra, serving as Director of Research and Development for Apogee Productions. At Apogee, he received patents and Academy Awards for Reverse Bluescreen, the Blue-Max flux projector and a method for making front projection screens.
The author of some twenty Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineering (SMPTE) papers, he has received the Society’s Journal Award and the Fuji Gold Medal. In 1993, he served as program chair for the SMPTE Technical Conference. He is a Life Fellow of the Society, an Associate of the American Society of Cinematographers (since 1986 the A.S.C. Manual has carried an Erland tutorial: “The Future of Traveling Matte Photography,” and he was a founder of the Technology Council of the Motion Picture and Television Industries. He was also a founder of the Visual Effects Society (VES), for whom he has served as a Director, and, for seven years as Membership Chair as well as a member of the Technology Committee. In 2006, the VES awarded him their inaugural Founders Award. In 2010 he, along with Douglas Trumbull and Dennis Muren, became the first Fellows of the VES.