Jon Finch
Home: 562-429-6594
Cell: 562-216-3685
email: Jon@BirdBrainStudio.com
Website: www.BirdBrainStudio.com
Online Letters of Recommendations: www.linkedin.com/in/joncfinch
Summary
- Specialize in CG asset creation/management for commercials,TV and Feature Films
- Experienced in translating 2D concepts to CG Elements
- College level teaching, Jr artist mentoring and maintaining overseas studios relations
/communications
EXPERIENCE
Fuhu Inc
El Segundo, CA
Duties include....
- Creating CG department
- Finding/interviewing/hiring artists
- Directing hardware/software needs for team
- Leading the modeling of characters and environments
- Guiding the technical aspects of the CG department
- Hair R&D - Polygonal and Maya nHair grooming, Mental Ray rendering and using p_HairTK
shaders
- Character rigging
- Mentoring jr. artists
- Working with over seas studios
- General Maya troubleshooting
Fuhu, Inc., creator of the nabi tablet, is a leading designer, seller and innovator of thoughtful
consumer products and services for children.
www.nabitablet.com, www.nabishop.com , www.fuhu.com
11/2013 – 4/2014
look-dev character modeler
Xing Xing studios
'Smart" feature animated film
9/2013 – 11/2013
Blind Squirrel Games
3176 Pullman Street Suite 107
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Character artist/character technical artist on next gen console development project “The Evil
Within”
working with Bethesda Studios
- Developing character modeling pipeline
- Retopologizing/upresing/adding detail to silhouettes of low res character models and textures.
- Re UVing to match existing UVs
- Re rigging/adding to rig for secondary animation control and working with the animation team
http://www.blindsquirrelgames.com/
4/2013 – 8/2013
The Walt Disney Television Animation
500 S. Buena Vista Blvd.
Burbank, CA
Worked on Season 1 of "TRON: Uprising" TV series for the Disney XD channel as a CG artist
doing a little bit of everything - modeling, shading, particles, rigging, texturing, lighting, heavy use
of render layers and referencing in Maya, Maya, NUKE and Mental Ray troubleshooting, working
with over seas studio, compositing in NUKE and After Effects and lip sync and character
animating.
Working heavily in NUKE with .EXR files, shuffle node, animating rotos/masking, Sapphire plugins (warps, heat effects and water effects) and tracking.
After Effects was used for animated textures (HUD displays, billboards, special effects on
surfaces in Maya) to be brought back into Maya and rendered as a separate pass to be
composited in NUKE
Also worked on the NEW show "Gravity Falls" on the Disney channel....character modeling and
intergrating CG into 2D scenes.
http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/gravityfalls/
40th Annie Awards winner.............................
Production Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production Alberto Mielgo ‘Tron:
Uprising: The Stranger’ – Disney TV Animation
Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production Robert Valley ‘Disney Tron:
Uprising: The Renegade, Part I’ – Disney TV Animation
4/2012 - 4/2013
King and Country
1808 Stanford St.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
- Senior character modeler
http://kingandcountry.tv
3/2012 – 4/2013
Trailer Park
6922 Hollywood Blvd., 11th Floor
Hollywood, CA, 90028
- Using primarily Maya, but also 3D Studio MAX
- Rigged, fixed, posed, lit and rendered game assets for print campaigns.
http://www.trailerpark.com/
Disney Interactive Studios
5161 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
3/2012 - 3/2012
- Modeling high resolution environments in Maya and ZBrush
- Creating textures for environments including height maps, color maps, normal maps, spec maps
and transparency maps in Photoshop and ZBrush
- UV map textures to polygonal surfaces using ZBrush and Maya
- Rendering/troubleshooting with Mental Ray
- Using/consulting on Disney proprietary software
- Working closely with software engineers and avatar teams
9/2011 – 03/2012
DreamWorks Animation Television
(W!LDBRAIN Entertainment LLC)
15000 Ventura Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Maya character modeler/CG consultant on the development team for the Dreamworks property
“How To
Train Your Dragon” TV series due to aire on Cartoon Network. Modeling vikings and dragons and
creating,
normal and occlusion maps in ZBrush. Working with overseas studios.
www.wildbrain.com
4/2011 - 9/2011
California State University - Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, California 90840
I'm teaching beginning Maya 3D to students in the illustration/animation track at CSU-Long Beach
2 nights a week. The class is Macintosh based with 17 BFA students.
www.CSULB.edu
1/2011 - PRESENT
Sony Pictures Imageworks
9050 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA
Character, environmental and prop modeler on the CG animated feature “Hotel Transylvania”
- Organic Modeling - characters, creatures, clothing, props
- Hard Surface Sub-D Modeling - vehicles, interiors/exteriors, props
- Worked closely with hair/cloth/texturing/look-dev teams
- Proactive communication
- Deadline oriented
www.imageworks.com
4/2010 – 11/2010
The Walt Disney Studio
DisneyToon Studios
500 S. Buena Vista Blvd.
Burbank, CA
Front End CG Look Development modeler - “Tinkerbell and the Mysterious Winter Woods”
- Responsible for modeling clothing, corrective / facial blendshapes and digital maquettes
of main fairy characters, animals, environments and props for director approval.
- Promoted positive working relationship with over-seas studio - Prana
- Consulting on production issues dealing with rigging and modeling
10/2009 – 1/2010
Nickelodeon Animation Studios
231 West Olive
Burbank, CA 91502
Lead Character Technical Artist working on a show based around the DreamWorks feature
“Kung Fu Panda”.
- Directed internal junior TDs with character rigging
- Managed over-seas studios with prop rigging
- Mediated internal generalist team with prop rigging
- General Maya problem solving
- Working closely with CG supervisor and animation supervisors
www.nick.com
10/2008 – 10/2009
Warner Bros Studios
Main Street Pictures
Burbank, CA
Modeling corrective and facial blendshapes and CG Characters and Environments for Warner
Bros. produced
CG shorts on the Warner Bros. lot.
- Making character models riggable while maintaining efficient use of subDs and polygon
geometry, and stylizing environments in line with Art Direction.
- Worked closely with the Director to achieve the look while being considerate of creating
and supporting a healthy asset/deliverable for others in the pipeline.
- Hard and organic modeling in Maya and XSI.
- Modeling properly for cloth.
http://hivfreegeneration.warnerbros.com - "Click" on "LEARN" to view CG shorts 8/2008 - 10/2008
iMAGi Animation Studios
15301 Ventura Blvd., Bldg. D, Suite 210
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, USA
As a CG designer/Generalist, I work with the art director/director and as part of the look
development team to
define all the technical and artistic aspects needed to create the appearance of an element to be
used in Astro Boy.
Developed CG characters/sets/props models, rigging R&D, hair grooming, cloth
simulation, lighting and acting as a liaison between the IT and art department.
www.imagi.com.hk
10/2007 – 8/2008
Nickelodeon Animation Studios
231 West Olive
Burbank, CA 91502
Maya Character Technical Artist developing 2 new CG shows at Nick. The first is “Tak and the
Power of Juju” based around the video game and the other show is based around the penguins
from the
DreamWorks feature “Madagascar”. I fabricated CG models, lighting and layout ...all in
conjunction with
overseas studios. www.nick.com
01/2007 – 10/2007
nVIDIA
2701 San Tomas Expressway
Santa Clara, CA 95050
Senior Maya artist working off-site on the marketing demo team. Experience included general
Maya production
for real-time game art assets, but primarily rigging issues.
http://www.nvidia.com
10/2005 – 01/2007
SPC Skyline
The Old School Church Lane
Stonham Parva
Suffolk IP14 5JL
Contracted Maya technical supervisor for an all 3D preflight video inspired by the Pixar movie
“The
Incredibles” . In addition to supervising, duties included rigging all characters and most
of the props, some lighting, UV set-up and texturing.
http://www.skyline-ife.co.uk
5/2005 – 10/2005
e2amp, Inc.
3151 Cahuenga Blvd. West
Suite 225
Los Angeles, CA 90068
DVD cover. I moderated the design and CG assets for the final product.
http://www.e2amp.com
3/2005 – 5/2005
310 Studios
419 South Flower Street
Burbank, CA 91502
Contracted Maya/MAX artist working on various projects.
http://www.310studios.com
5/2002 – 04/2012
M33, Inc
219 Dufferin Street Suite 307C
Toronto, Ontario M6K 1Y9
Contracted Maya artist contributing to the design and lighting of promotional graphics of Ruby,
the 3D PR
character for ATI technologies Inc. http://www.ati.com/ruby/
http://www.m33inc.com
3/2005 – 6/2005
Bardel Entertainment Inc.
548 Beatty Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 2L3
Contracted Digital Prop and Character modeler for the feature animated film “Happily N’Ever
After” with
Berliner Film Company. Duties include modeling and UVing characters and props.
Please contact Steve Melchiorre for reference.
www.bardelentertainment.com
1/2005 - 4/2005
Digital Domain Inc.
300 Rose Avenue
Venice, CA
Contracted Digital Prop and Character modeler and UVing artist for the Disney 50th Anniversary
commercials.
www.d2.com
9/2004 - 11/2004
Creative Capers Entertainment
520 E Broadway
Glendale, CA 91205
Freelance Maya and 3D Studio MAX modeler, texture artist, animator on pre-production video for
Electronic
Arts' “Command and Conquer” franchise and other various projects.
www.creativecapers.com/
1/2004 - 2/2004
The Walt Disney Studio
Television Animation
500 S. Buena Vista Blvd.
Burbank, CA
Digital Prop and Character Technical Director - Maya polys/NURBS modeling, rigging of props
and
characters, 3D layout, R&D of camera texture projection techniques, Disney toon-shader TD,
muscle
systems and "stretchy" character rigging. Working with IRIX, LINUX, Windows and Mac
platforms.
I worked on:
Kronk’s New Groove
Bambi II
Tarzan II
Mulan II
Lilo and Stitch: The Movie
Lilo and Stitch: The series (Disney Channel Series)
Jungle Book II
Pooh’s Heffalump Movie
American Dragon (Disney Channel Series)
Fox and the Hound II
and other future releases I’m unable to mention at this time.
9/2002 - 9/2004
The Art Institute Los Angeles
2900 31st Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405-3035
Maya instructor - Beginning Maya and character setup instructor. Special Projects class “Producing a
Demo Reel”. 3D Studio MAX instructor - 3D animation, modeling
and 3D MAX to Maya transitional workshops.
www.aila.artinstitutes.edu
1/2002 - 7/2002
The Art Institute OC
3601 West Sunflower Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92704-9888
Maya instructor - Beginning Maya.
www.aila.artinstitutes.edu
1/2002 - 7/2002
The Krislin Company
30147 Canwood Street #200
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Character Technical Director: Developing studio properties and working on the Sitting Ducks
Production
team. Duties include: Research and development, conceptualizing, modeling, texturing and
animating
3D characters and props, rigging, morph targets and Lip-syncing.
www.krislincompany.com
www.elliottanimation.com
3/2001 - 9/2002
Launch Media
2700 Pennsylvania Avenue
Santa Monica, CA
Contracted 3D Studio MAX modeler/animator. Duties include 3D modeling, texturing, After Effects
compositing, animation and production of all vehicles (trains, cars and buses) in the city, RealTime set
design and production on TV pilot for F/X Network.
http://www.LAUNCH.com
4/2000 – 1/2001
Styleclick.com (ModaCAD)
3861 Sepulveda Boulevard.
Culver City, CA 90230
3D digital project manager working on a software engineering team. I coordinated a small team of
artists
for creation of low-poly game art assets for software, low poly-modeling, texturing, 3D web
imaging
(using Cult3D and MetaStream products), 3D scanning and animation in Lightwave and 3D
Studio MAX.
www.Styleclick.com
6/1995 – 4/2000
EDUCATION
Santa Monica College Academy of Entertainment
& Technology
2D / 3D Animation
Santa Monica, CA
UCLA Extension
Storyboarding/Marker Techniques
University Of California Los Angeles
1995
California State University Long Beach, CA
Illustration Department
1987 – 1992
Ventura J.C.
AA Degree - General Education
Ventura, CA
1984-1987
Skills
• 2D sketch artist
• Low and High Polygon Characters/Sets/Prop Modeling – ZBrush, Maya & dRaster NEX
• Cavity maps - Ambient Occlusion – Normal - ZBrush
• UV Mapping – Maya & Headus UVLayout
• Texturing – ZBrush & Photoshop
• Rigging of Characters/Sets/Props – Maya
• Teaching
• Hair Grooming – Maya & Shave and a Haircut
Groups and Associations:
ASIFA - international animated film society member
Local 839 IATSE - Animation Union
EAA - Experimental Aircraft Association
References available upon request