I graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in November, 2008 with a BFA in Animation and a concentration in Japanese. Since then I have worked professionally at Rhythm and Hues on the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakuel as a Technical Animator. I have spent the rest my time polishing the short film my film partner, Riannon Delanoy, and I started at RIT: Deep Fishing.

          From an early age I enjoyed puzzles and computers. I built my first computer with my father at the age of 12. Later in high school I fell in love with the arts, especially animation. I try to use my knowledge with programming to solve problems using elegant and artistic solutions for the animation field.

          Professionally I specialize in Character Rigging, specifically with cartoony characters. I enjoy developing unique tools and scripts to find novel solutions for specific problems. Because of my passion for solving problems, I hope to eventually be part of the research and development department of an animation studio. For now though, I want to concentrate on honing my scripting and rigging skills.

          While at Rhythm and Hues my responsibilities included hair, fur and cloth simulation and general deformation cleanup. I also completed a few scripts which increased my productivity as well as a few team members. On Deep Fishing my responsibilities were more varied. I rigged all three unique characters for the film and the props. I came up with several scripts to facilitate faster and more flexible rigging, as well as any Riannon Delanoy requested – and a few she didn’t. I was in charge of buying, building and maintaining a small cost-effective render farm of six headless nodes running linux. I created the scripts which maintain the farm, including a render-queue manager written in python. I was also the general tech guy on the project, resolving any tech related issues.

          In my free time I enjoy long walks on the beach under the full moon with two beautiful women under each – what? What? This isn’t a personals ad? Okay, lets try this again.

          In my free time I enjoy exercising my artistic muscle by sculpting in clay. Sometimes it’s nice to have something psychical and tangible result from my artistic efforts. I have also played with virtual sculpting and enjoy the level of freedom and detail it allows me. I enjoy learning new things in my free time from dabbling in new programming languages – my newest being php and bash – to learning about strange plant life – did you know a Corpse Flower can reach a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit? And yes, I really do like walks on the beach.