Professional History

Department Head, Creature, ILM Vancouver (January 2024 - present)
Unannounced Feature Film (Creature Supervisor)

Creature Supervisor, ILM Vancouver (May 2022 - January 2024)
Deadpool & Wolverine, Unannounced Episodic, Unannounced Feature Animation (Rigging Supervisor)

  • Directly supervised rigging and CFX teams on multiple projects while collaborating with CG Supervisors and VFX Supervisors to meet client needs
  • Responsible for ensuring body deformations, cloth and hair delivered to high standards
  • Championed new workflows for CFX
  • Worked with producers & PMs to bid and plan work based on client turnovers
  • Worked with managers interviewing, on-boarding, and training new team members
  • Worked across departments to ensure production rigs meet project requirements

Area Tech Lead - Rigging, ILM Vancouver (June 2020 - January 2024)

  • Workflow Owner for new pipeline integration in rigging
  • Product Owner for modular characters projects
  • Interfaced with R&D and Pipeline groups for tool development and improvements
  • Contributor to continued developments on proprietary rigging system
  • External leadership in technical and recruiting capacities
  • Internal leadership in improved workflows and tools, collaborating with counterparts across locations to share developments and techniques

Lead Creature TD, ILM Vancouver (April 2021 - May 2022)
Hawkeye, Ultraman: Rising (Rigging Lead)

  • Directly supervised rigging and CFX teams
  • Assisted interviewing, on-boarding, and training new team members
  • Developed and maintained hero rigs and simulation setups
  • Prototyped new techniques, tools, and workflows
  • Provided quality control and asset review for production rigs

Senior Creature TD, ILM Vancouver (April 2019 - April 2021)
Terminator: Dark Fate; Space Jam: A New Legacy

  • Designed, implemented, and maintained creature rigs and CFX setups
  • Mentored new hires
  • Assisted troubleshooting creature rigs, simulation setups, and pipeline issues

Creature TD, ILM Vancouver (April 2017 - March 2019)
Transforms: The Last Knight; A Wrinkle in Time; Aladdin (2019);

  • Designed, implemented, and maintained creature rigs and CFX setups
  • Mentored new hires
  • Assisted troubleshooting creature rigs, simulation setups, and pipeline issues

Rigging Artist, Rainmaker Studios (March 2015 - March 2017)
Open Season: Scared Silly; Barbie and Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase; Surfs Up 2: Wave Mainia; ReBoot: The Guardian Code; Spy Kids: Mission Critical

  • Created rigs for characters, props, and sets using a proprietary build system
  • Extended build system with custom modules
  • Developed scripts for animators to increase in-shot rig functionality
  • Scripted plug-ins and deformers using the Maya Python and C++ APIs

Technical Animation Artist, MPC Vancouver (September 2014 - March 2015)
Monster Trucks

  • Designed and maintained character CFX rigs to meet show and shot specific needs
  • Crafted believable skin, hair, and cloth simulations
  • Performed shot finally tasks
  • Created cloth simulation geometry using Marvelous Designer

Graduate Asst. / Production Manager/ Python Developer, Clemson University (August 2011 - May 2014)

  • Supervised a team of 8-10 designers
  • Managed workflow efficiency, prioritized projects and tasks to meet client deadlines
  • Hired and trained new designers
  • Developed a job tracking and invoice webapp build on the Django Python framework

DreamWorks Anmation Summer Industry Course, Clemson University (May 2013 - August 2013)
ROBO+REPAIR (Short Film)

  • Designed a full-featured, joint-based deformation system for the main character
  • Integrated scripts and tools into the production pipeline
  • Extended render-queue management scripts

Animation & Visual Effects Skills

Leadership & Management Skilled at mentoring and managing team members. Able to schedule and assign artist tasks to meet production schedules. Experienced with quality control and review of artist work.

Character Rigging Experienced in designing character setups using deformers, skeletal systems and blend shapes. Able to create animator friendly rigs while maintaining a high level of control over deformations.

Programming Highly proficient with Python both in and out of the Maya environment to increase efficiency and reduce user error with a focus on pipeline integration. Familiar with the Maya Python and C++ APIs.

Character Effects Experienced with simulating hair and Maya nCloth systems for digital characters. Creates character interactions with dynamics and cloth solutions as well as deformation based approaches. Comfortable creating cloth and dynamics rigs on a shot and a show basis.

Technologies
Operating Systems - Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
Software - Maya, Houdini, Mudbox, Nuke, Marvelous Designer, CineSync, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro
Programming - Python, MEL Script, C++, git, Perforce, and SVN

Academic History

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) - Digital Production Arts (2014)
College of Engineering & Science, School of Computing
Thesis: “An Automated Build Script for Articulated Characters” (Dr. Tim Davis, Chair)
Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

Bachelor of Science - Digital Media (2010)
Minor - Computer Science, College of Business & Technology
East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA
Graduated Magna Cum Laude

Affiliations

Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
Voting Member, Visual Effects & Animation, Cinema and Television Branches (2022 - present)

ACM SIGGRAPH
Member (2009 - present), Dailies Presenter (2014), Conference Student Volunteer (2009)

Greenville International Film Festival
Judge for Emerging Filmmakers Category (2012), Student Volunteer (2012)

ETSU Student ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter
Treasurer (2009 - 2010), Webmaster (2007 - 2009), Secretary (2006 - 2007)

Honours

Phi Kappa Phi - East Tennessee State University (inducted 2009)
Epsilon Pi Tau - East Tennessee State University (inducted 2009)