Skills
Graphics
- Texturing in high resolution, digital painting and photo manipulation in Photoshop, Painter and ZBrush.
- Advanced shading, distributed rendering, production pipelines and scene management in mental ray.
- Vector drawing and illustration of diagrams, layouts, logos and icons in Illustrator and Freehand.
- Wireframes, flow charts, mind mapping and rapid prototyping of information architecture.
- Ongoing private study of human and animal anatomy, traditional character animation, classic cartoons and new media.
- Traditional hand-drawn sketching ability for quickest expression of ideas.
Animation
- All aspects of 3D character and creature production from design, modeling, UVs, texturing rigging and animation in Maya and Modo.
- Compositing of render-pass layers, CG elements, motion tracking, mattes, masks, filters and effects in Motion and Combustion.
- Flexible character set-ups, animation rigs, MEL expressions, driven and keyframe animation in Maya and 3ds max.
- Vector drawing, illustration and character animation in Moho and Flash.
- HD video editing, motion graphics, titles and colour correction with Final Cut Pro and After Effects.
- Encoding videos for highest quality vs. size in Compressor using AVC H.264, AAC, MP4 and ProRes and XDCAM.
- Exhaustive personal studies in human and animal anatomy and motion.
Programming
- Artist tools development in ActionScript and JSFL for Flash and MEL and wX for Maya.
- Systems administration through SSH and Python on Mac OSX Server, Debian & Ubuntu Linux.
- Rapid web application development using MVC frameworks like Django, WordPress, Drupal, Trac, Smarty.
- Database & repository administration with Subversion, SQLite, MySQL, PHP and Apache.
- Cross-browser styling and interactivity using CSS, XML and XHTML.
- Mac OS and iPhone graphics programming with OpenGL, CoreImage, Cocoa and Objective-C.
- Clear and consise English writing skills for email, documentation, design specifications, project management and and bug reporting.
- I love Linux, prefer Mac, but still respect Windows.
Education
Digital Animation Certificate
September 2002 - June 2003
Centennial College (Toronto, Ontario)
- Completed 4 short animation projects using Maya under tight deadlines within 1 year.
- Composited render layers and source footage in Houdini and Combustion.
- Edited montage sequences and output to tape using Final Cut Pro.
- Areas of focus included character animation, broadcast design and visual effects integration.
- Mentored in traditional animation theories. Excelled in weekly life drawing class.
Ontario Secondary School Diploma
September 1993 - June 1997
GRCI / CHCI (Kitchener, Ontario)
- Extra curricular activities at school radio station and theatre lighting support, school bands.
- Worked part time for Parks and Recreation outdoor pools lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons.
- Graduated with senior level studies in design, technology and physics.
- English Media awards for film-making and cinematography.
Objective
I want to push the boundaries of interactive entertainment.
- I have a strong aptitude for both creative and technical problem solving.
- I'm passionate about art, media and information culture.
- I think a lot about tomorrow's web, what it means and where it's going.
- I can communicate ideas with ease both verbally and visually.
- I love learning and teaching complex skills with others.
- Favorite hobbies include the outdoors, cycling, music, non-fiction and gaming.
History
Technical Director
November 2007 - present
Trapeze Animation Studios (Charlottetown, PEI)
- Composited chroma-key crowd effect shots using Motion and supervised live-action green screen shoots.
- Overcome rendering bottleneck issues and specified encode presets using ffmpeg and Compressor.
- Developed artist-friendly scripts to automate scene setups in Flash and image processing using Python, ImageMagick and CoreImage.
- Administered all users, workstations, servers and RAIDs in a Final Cut Studio and Open Directory Mac OS X environment.
- Customized and administered Wordpress, Django, Drupal, Trac and Subversion web applications served by Apache.
- Implemented and maintained external and automated local network backups for disaster recovery.
- Wrote and maintained technical documentation in group wikis, effectively trained management and teams on new tools.
- Inventoried studio assets, diagnosed computer and device malfunctions, specified all IT purchases.
- Helped lead a team of around 60 to produce 2 seasons of the acclaimed kids' cartoon The Razzberry Jazzberry Jam
Digital Media Editor
May 2006 - September 2007
CNIB e-Publishing (Toronto, Ontario)
- Developed Python scripts to automate complex batch XML, XHTML and audio file manipulations.
- Converted large batches of SMIL and MP3 digital talking books in to valid DAISY specification using XSLT.
- Evaluated Freeform haptic arm technology with force-feedback sculpting for production of printable STL meshes.
- Regularly consulted tactile graphics department on transition from traditional to digital modeling and sculpting tools.
Graphics & Interface Designer
April 2004 - March 2006
Sarolta Technologies (Toronto, Ontario)
- Designed, animated, rendered and composited entire client video ad templates in high-definition using Maya and Combustion.
- Developed SVG, XML and CSS video template definitions and GUI themes for the company's video web application.
- Developed cross-browser, standards compliant web 2.0 front-ends in CSS, JavaScript and XHTML.
- Continually provided detailed quality assurance testing, bug reporting, information architecture designs and usability feedback to development team.
- Liaised with clients for promotional photography and usability studies.
Freelance Artist
January 1999 - present
DRViD.ca (Toronto, Ontario)
- Provided custom graphic, concept and web designs to clients.
- Supported and lead teams in broadcast animation.
- Usually attracted projects through word of mouth or website.
- Consulted many artist and filmmaker colleagues on new media solutions.
Graphic Web Designer
December 1998 - November 2001
Kidz Printz (Kitchener, Ontario)
- Illustrated character vector art.
- Designed layouts for print and web.
- Coded and animated interactive designs.
- Developed bi-lingual family and corporate websites using Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash.
- Produced and managed client websites using Adobe, Macromedia and Red Hat Linux.
Gallery of work samples is on the website. References and demo reel are available upon request.
