For the last several years I’ve been the CTO of an integrated media studio and post house that did everything including visual effects and motion design, editing, sound design, production and web design. I was responsible for the technical supervision–involving how we approach and handle projects (sometimes called pipeline & workflow) as well as keeping an eye on future methods, technology, designing edit suites, potential business and the like. I’ve been everything from a cameraman and editor to a CGI/visual effects artist for commercials and feature films over the years. If it involves any type of visual or audio media I’ve probably done it.
In 2025 I decided to quit my current job and move back into a role as a visual effects supervisor & artist by starting my own company for a few interesting projects. I do the work myself as well as supervising others as needed. My projects are very client-specific using some techniques I’ve developed to capitalize on legacy media content. Hands-on work doing visual effects was the reason I went into this business and it’s always been near and dear to me.
I have a tendency towards creative side projects. Over the years I’ve owned a couple of small startup companies, sold software and hardware projects and done model/prop building and toolmaking. It only has to be interesting to get me started–especially if it involves techniques I’ve never tried before. This blog documents some of my side projects and learning experiences. In addition to creating on-screen art, I’ve always found myself making tools for the creation of it, both with software and hardware. Sometimes these are for others but mainly for myself when I found that what I wanted didn’t exist yet. A machinist friend of mine said that made me a toolmaker.
The uncanny valley referred in the title of this blog was described in 1978 by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. He noticed that the more humanlike his robots became the more people were attracted to them but only up to a certain point–as a robot became more realistic but not quite perfect, people were repelled and disgusted. This principle is also applied to computer graphics with regards to photorealistic humans. For some of my tongue-in-cheek opinions on this check out my Uncanny Valley pages section on the right.
Remember, just because no one understands you doesn’t make you an artist.