Experience:
June 2006 – current
June 2003 – 2006 Instant Effects (www.InstantEffects.com)
Title: Director of Production
· Manage and produce all content for the company’s premier product, OfficeFX. This includes the design and production of Power Point themes for use in company product demos and the creation of presentation tools for high profile corporate clients (ATI, HP, Microsoft, EA)
· Produce product demo videos for CD and Web distribution.
October 2001 – present discreet (now www.Autodesk.com)
·
Responsibilities include testing discreet products
ranging from Combustion to 3d Studio Max, specializing in rendering output,
advanced lighting and network rendering tools.
· Responsibilities included managing the technical side of the company by reviewing various software products for inclusion in production. Acted as principal technical director and senior animator for dph’s projects. To get the best picture of the work I’ve done with digital phenomena, see the credit list and/or visit www.dph.com.
Nov ’86 – July ’94 Autodesk, Inc. (www.autodesk.com)
·
Founded Autodesk’s corporate marketing group, the
Visual Productions Group (VPG). Its
charter was two-fold: to support global marketing efforts by creating cutting
edge images and animations using Autodesk software, and to provide production
level testing and usability feedback of Autodesk products. As the Manager of
the group, I was also the senior animator, primary technical director and
served as the network systems operator / hardware specialist.
1991 to 1992 - Multimedia Division – Production Manager / Graphic
artist
· Production Manager for NCGA '91 video.
· Production manager for Autodesk’s MPC Infomercial.
· Contributed to the Design Specification for 3D Studio 2.0.
· Developed the AutoCAD Release 12 signature image (the nautilus).
· Developed and tested Autodesk's first networked 'Render Farm' of computers
1989 to 1991 - Development Test Group –
Software Developer
· Was a key member in the development team for Chaos: The Software.
·
Coordinated all efforts in the production of
AutoFlix 2.0.
·
Authored and published the Animation Tool Kit (ATK)
for AutoCAD.
·
Received a NCTPC Technical communication Award for
writing the AutoFlix and the ATK user guide.
· Did quality assurance testing for Renderman for AutoCAD + AutoShade.
· Developed initial quality assurance testing tools for Proteus (AutoCAD custom UI design language).
· Was production manager for 3D Studio 1.0’s first production test animation “The Bored Room”.
1986 to 1989 - Product Support -- Product
Support Technician
· Acted as Sysop (forum manager) for Autodesk's CompuServe Forum 1986-89 and negotiated Autodesk's continuing contracts with CompuServe.
· Created 3D promotional drawings for AutoCAD 2.6 to Release 10,
· Created 2D drawings for AutoSketch 1.0
· Created demo animations for AutoFlix 1.0.
· Created demo animations for Autodesk Animator
· Became proficient in the AutoLISP programming language.
· Created "MacMenu", the first Icon menu for AutoCAD Mac Release 10
· Trained AutoCAD Dealers and Autodesk staff on using telecommunications software for better support networking.
Hardware and Software:
Software Knowledge:
Proficient: 3D Studio Max, Adobe Aftereffects, Photoshop, Alvy Ray Smith’s Composer, Elastic Reality, Speed Razor, Poser, Microsoft: Word, Excel, Explorer and FrontPage, Windows 95/98/Me/NT/W2K/Xp.
Functional: PRman for NT, Combustion2, SoftImage, Adobe Premier,
Nendo, AutoCAD, Linux, Irix 5.3, Unix script.
Limited Exposure: Maya, Cinema 4D, Mirai
Hardware Knowledge:
Proficient: All aspects of PC and Macintosh systems, SGI Indigo 2 Extreme, complete motor home repair, Honda automotive repair, Radio Control systems, Closed circuit video, household appliances.
Functional: Network routers, hubs and DSL modems, Gas and Arc welding.
Limited Exposure: Sun platforms, F16 instrument display systems.
Language Knowledge:
Proficient: MaxScript, Visual Basic, AutoLISP (a flavor of Golden Common)
Functional: C/C++, JavaScript, HTML
Education:
Screenwriting
Radio Drama: script writing course that focused on developing character dialog.
Virtuosity: (credited animator) Started out as a technical consultant but ended up being called in at the last minute to produce a couple of shots that were running behind schedule. I worked with the special effects supervisor, Jon Townley from my Lucas Valley studio and controlled systems in Los Angeles (via modem) to produce the primary elements for the climactic scene at the end of the film where Parker Barnes (Denzel Washington) escapes SID (Russell Crowe) ’s cyber hell.
Thomas Crown: (un-credited) Compositor for security camera footage. The security camera sequence was shot using 2 infrared cameras on 8mm video. I had to take the two video streams, sync them up, time lapse sample them to 10 fps, then blend them together to make a single image. Not as easy as it sounds, 40 minutes of 8mm video wasn’t frame accurate and the cameras had different heat detection levels.
13th Warrior: (company credits) Previsualization and Compositor. I assisted John Sullivan and John McTiernan with previsualizing the “big sea” shot, and then assisted Cinesite with the final production of the shot. There was also a shot that ended on the cutting room floor that involved adding a crow to a scene where it needed to fly at the camera where I acted as the final compositor.
Spawn: (un-credited) 3D Tracking. Loaned out one of my contractors, Lance Thompson to IDIG and assisted him with the creation of the “retracting claws” shot, where Spawn punches out a dumpster. I did the 3D tracking of the claws to the original plate and supplied IDIG with the rendered elements.
Virtual Jay Leno on the Tonight Show: (un-credited animator) Compositor, and Technical Director. This project came in with such a small budget we had to cut corners on the production “quality”, meaning the time spent per animated segment. Despite this, we were able to create entertaining segments that were perfect for the target audience (Jay Leno’s Tonight Show).
Star Wars Math: Working with design sketches supplied by Lucas Learning, I produce models and did the animation rigging for a number of the characters used in the game. Because licensing would often request changes well after animation morph targets were developed, I had to create a technique that would allow me to retro-fit the morph targets with the updates.
SimMars: Working with drawings from Maxis, I assembled and textured the final spacecraft with components created by other members of my team. Ultimately, I was responsible for matching the design sketches (and producing the final animation cinematic.) Note: Maxis shelved the SimMars project for now.
And now for something
different – an example of my “TD” skills: The following is a excerpt from a
CG-CHAR discussion regarding Blue Sky’s “Bunny”. They had posted a segment of
the animation, soliciting comments. (Note: this was before “Bunny” had won the
Academy Award.)
JC = Jamie Clay, ST= Steve Talkowski
of Blue Sky Studios.
Subject:
Bunny - lighting
JC: Actually this one the one thing that "bugged" me, when that huge moth is hitting the light in the kitchen, it doesn't seem to be changing the light falling on the Bunny and the table. The shadow for the light cone moves but I would have expected to see some flittering/dimming (or subtle shadowing) on the Bunny, especially in the overhead shot.
ST: Hmmm, I’d have to ask the particular TD on that shot about that. It could be that a lot of "cheats" were used down the road simply to get the thing to final render. But you bring up an excellent point and observation.
JC: Now in contrast, when the moth got to the light outside and it struck the bulb, it dimmed the surrounding wall, almost like the moth got between the light and the wall. I would think if you're going for a true light model the Moth's wings might reflect light back to the wall and thus make it a flash lighter with an irregular shape, dunno.
ST: Ever consider being a
lighting TD? ; )
JC: And on a trivial note, I felt the chain on the light over-reacted to the moth striking the bulb, plus it looks like it's missing in the overhead shots.... but it's trivial, truly.
ST: Oh, I don't know
about that - those chains can be rather jangly - and they react differently
every time you hit one... Regarding the overhead shot, I noticed that
too, but i think the perspective angle and the placement of the bulb could
block it from view.
JC: I agree they're jangley but with that amount of movement, I would have expected the fixture to be loose and moving too. I just 'field tested' this on a similar bulb I have here and I had to really whack it to get the chain to move even 1/10th that amount.
Don't get me wrong there's a time to step away from reality, especially when it improves the scene's composition. This really is more of a creative decision and it really doesn't hurt the scene.