Technical Artist; particles, shaders, asset optimization, & pipeline
Houdini / VEX
Maya / MEL
Unity / C#
Photoshop
Python
PyQT
GLSL
JavaScript
New York Metropolitan Area
email
I'm given the title 'Technical Artist' (when doing real-time jobs)
or 'Technical Director' (on films)
or 'Creative Technologist' (for immersive)
It's all the same types of mental challenges though,
Just in different mediums of digital graphics.
or 'Technical Director' (on films)
or 'Creative Technologist' (for immersive)
It's all the same types of mental challenges though,
Just in different mediums of digital graphics.
So I says, blue M&M, red M&M, they all wind up the same color in the end.
- Homer Simpson
Ya know... I don't really know what I am,
I just know I like figuring out puzzles, and for the life of me, can't seem to stop my fidgety fingers.
Always gotta be tapping away at some code,
or building some diy contraption,
or 3d modeling,
or sewing,
or writing,
or ... well, you get the idea.
An undiagnosed something-or-another,
Who spawned-in with the energy befitting a gift from the mythical Red Bull itself!
I just know I like figuring out puzzles, and for the life of me, can't seem to stop my fidgety fingers.
Always gotta be tapping away at some code,
or building some diy contraption,
or 3d modeling,
or sewing,
or writing,
or ... well, you get the idea.
An undiagnosed something-or-another,
Who spawned-in with the energy befitting a gift from the mythical Red Bull itself!
In the past, I worked on 9 films, 8 of those at Blue Sky Studios.
Character Simulation Technical Director (TD) for hair / clothing sims & tools in Maya on -
Epic, Rio 1 & Rio 2 Effects TD doing volume sims (snow & dust plumes), particles, some RBDs, & tools in Houdini & Maya on -
Ice Age 4 Crowds TD navigation, sims, & tools in Houdini on -
Ferdinand, Rio 2, Peanuts, Ice Age 5, & Spies In Disguise
I was part of 2 published Siggraph papers and was allowed the opportunity to speak at Siggraph 2015.
The talk was to a decently full room about camera based crowd navigation for Peanuts.
While working in Crowds,
I built most of the navigation tools, placement, pathing, obstacle detection, and made the usual crowd/boid navigation logic itself in Houdini for Birds & Land critters.
I wrote systems to understand the terrain and how to follow the flow of the ground,
Multi-limb IK for the people & animals to walk over uneven terrain, and a 'lookAt' system for the characters to look around with multiple neck joints smoothly.
While calculating the linear algebra to limit joint rotation in the neck to determine if the agent could look at their target or not.
One of the personality traits I gave the crowd agents was 'rudeness';
This allowed some agents to push past each other, while others would slow/stop and wait for them to pass.
This gave the crowd a more natural feel, as if a few had "somewhere to be".
I could talk about the horse-and-jockey system I helped build, or the post-simulation joint editing tools, or the IK heel offsets & foot locking,
But I think I'll save that for another time.
Epic, Rio 1 & Rio 2 Effects TD doing volume sims (snow & dust plumes), particles, some RBDs, & tools in Houdini & Maya on -
Ice Age 4 Crowds TD navigation, sims, & tools in Houdini on -
Ferdinand, Rio 2, Peanuts, Ice Age 5, & Spies In Disguise
I was part of 2 published Siggraph papers and was allowed the opportunity to speak at Siggraph 2015.
The talk was to a decently full room about camera based crowd navigation for Peanuts.
While working in Crowds,
I built most of the navigation tools, placement, pathing, obstacle detection, and made the usual crowd/boid navigation logic itself in Houdini for Birds & Land critters.
I wrote systems to understand the terrain and how to follow the flow of the ground,
Multi-limb IK for the people & animals to walk over uneven terrain, and a 'lookAt' system for the characters to look around with multiple neck joints smoothly.
While calculating the linear algebra to limit joint rotation in the neck to determine if the agent could look at their target or not.
One of the personality traits I gave the crowd agents was 'rudeness';
This allowed some agents to push past each other, while others would slow/stop and wait for them to pass.
This gave the crowd a more natural feel, as if a few had "somewhere to be".
I could talk about the horse-and-jockey system I helped build, or the post-simulation joint editing tools, or the IK heel offsets & foot locking,
But I think I'll save that for another time.