Creative & technical lead · 22 years
The tools were never the problem.
Neither were the artists.
Twenty-two years building digital characters at Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic and Sony Pictures Imageworks. I lead teams and still do the work. Lately I build the tools too.
What’s missing sits between them — and it is taught, not built.
Guide curves — the structure a viewer never sees
What changed
- 12 wks→2 wks
- Downstream rework per lead character
- 4–5→~1
- Characters in serious schedule jeopardy, per film
- 40
- Artists supervised at Sony Imageworks
After building and teaching the cross-department curriculum
And now typically an edge case rather than a fire
Two leads and two managers reporting
Selected work
- Leadership
Two departments, one wall
A hero groom took twelve to sixteen weeks to build and win creative approval, then arrived downstream in a state simulation couldn't use — costing roughly twelve more weeks. The fix wasn't a tool.
- Judgment
The toolset nobody could use
Across four studios I've watched the same tool project fail the same way. The rooms had engineering authority and domain authority. What they never had was design authority.
- Stakeholders
Delivering under two approval chains
Lead groom and simulation on a Warner Bros. production serviced by Imageworks — where notes arrived from an internal review chain and an external client, and both had to be satisfied without a second build.
- Technical
Building my own tools
I went in early on generative AI and went in wrong — two months of enthusiastic slop before I stopped. What changed it was building software instead of generating images.
Recognition
Co-author, “Holding the Shape in Hair Simulation.” ACM, DOI 10.1145/3306307.3328166
VES Award Nomination, 2023
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature — Turning Red, “Panda Mei.” 21st Annual VES Awards
Groom Lead, Pixar Animation Studios
Role created for this work — the first at the studio