About this blog

I’m the CTO of an integrated media studio that does everything from visual effects and motion design to editing, sound design, production and web design. I’m responsible for the technical vision–involving how we approach and handle projects (sometimes called pipeline & workflow) as well as keeping an eye on future methods, technology, potential business and the like. I’ve been everything from a cameraman to an editor to a visual effects artist for commercials and feature films over the years so chances are I’ve done it at one time or another.

I have a tendency towards creative side projects. Over the years these have involved small startup companies, software and hardware projects, model 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 creation of it, both in software and hardware. Sometimes these are for others but mainly for myself when what I wanted didn’t exist yet. A machinist friend of mine said that makes me a toolmaker.

The uncanny valley referred to in the title of the this blog is that 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–if a robot became too realistic but not 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.