About

Consulting

Since 2003 I have been working primarily as a rendering consultant. I develop code and extensions for all parts of the rendering pipeline - exporters, shaders, RIB plugins, DSO shadeops, and post-processing as well as general advice. I have contributed to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Troy, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.

I also develop non-rendering applications and libraries for clients, and a number of personal projects such as the Interaction Tools.

Computer Graphics

In 1993 I set up the CG department at Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London. The aim was to transfer the animatronic performance skills of puppeteers to the CG medium. This required a large amount of research and development as we were starting well before the tools needed were commercially available. We worked on a wide range of feature, TV, commercial and location-based projects. As well as acting as CG Supervisor for the majority of projects, I was also the designer and developer for all of our key tools.

In 2003 I left the Creature Shop to work independently. Although the Creature Shop in London was closed in 2005, the systems I developed are the basis for continuing development at the Jim Henson Company in Los Angeles.

Animatronics

In 1987 I worked with Peter Miller to implement Dave Housman's design for the Creature Shop's first computerised animatronic control system. It was used on several feature and TV projects, and won an Academy Scientific and Engineering Award in 1991.

Five years later, I developed the animatronic edit suite for the Creature Shop. Initially developed for Babe, the system was used for many feature films.