June - 2022

My Research Interests

As an artist who uses the computer, my animations and artwork represent large parts of my research. But my work as an artist/animator who also teaches leads me into compelling avenues of inquiry that may not be aesthetically stimulating, but which are relevant either in producing my artwork or teaching my students. MEL scripting, for example, is not beautiful to look at (unless you are a technical director perhaps); but it may facilitate some aspect of animation that is not readily apparent. This section of the site is dedicated to providing some explanation of these types of projects.

Marauder and Demonitus

I teach animation as a separate discipline at the intro level; we have an intro modeling (MART 261 3D Modeling and Design) and an intro animation (MART 262 Basic Computer Animation) class. In the latter class, I give my students the rigs needed (bouncing ball, ball with legs, desklamp and biped) to complete their assignments. I also keep a rotation of bipedal rigs to which I add different characters. Some are evident from the Sizzle Reel, but a look at some of the highlight r

CAD Files and Rendering and Engineers! Oh MY!

In the Spring of 2022, I collaborated with Peter Bohn of our Engineering Department. The department had shifted into what they call a "Design-based" curriculum; and as such, they had a group of around 15 freshman mechanical and electrical engineers take a CAD class with Autodesk Fusion. I recognized that these types of CAD models represent distinct challenges when rendering. The parametric surfaces that Fusion uses to be able to adjust the models after the fact are difficult

Motion Capture

What seemed an anathema to animators everywhere not long ago, has, in my opinion, become the inevitable future for animation production. It shouldn't come as a surprise given improvements in Maya as well as decreasing costs for useful motion capture hardware. At first glance, it might seem that motion capture should replace animators, reducing the art and craft of animation to automation; but that is not the case for a number of reasons. First, motion capture is not perfect.