Chad Lichty Email & Phone Number

San Diego, California, Us

San Mateo, California, Us

I joined the Visual Arts Service Group, Sony's internal outsourcing facility, to support the Uncharted 4 team. My first priority was to learn their proprietary facial motion capture software and associated pipeline to address issues that had been on the team's wish list for over two years. Within a few months of receiving source code I tackled most of these issues. Next I moved on to advanced features like detecting optimal frames to pose the rig in order to generate better animation results. After addressing the outstanding issues and features requested with the current facial software it became clear that a complete rewrite was required to achieve further optimization and quality improvements. This latest version is being created as a Maya plugin utilizing Maya’s C++ API. This will allow us to store all data native within the Maya scene. I first developed a Python API for interacting with the plugin, and developed unit tests to verify expected functionality. Once the basic API was approved I started to create the PYQT user interface. In addition to developing tools for the animation department I have been working with the art department to refine their facial rig. I created tools to analyze how the blend shapes are utilized in shipped animations. This is helping art prioritize blend shapes and evaluate what shapes are required. Since joining VASG I have helped ship Uncharted 4, MLB:The Show 16 and MLB:The Show 17. I am currently supporting Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, The Last of Us Part 2, Days Gone, Knack 2, and Death Stranding.

San Mateo, California, Us

Joined the Everquest Next and Landmark core technology team. The core tech team developed tools for Everquest and the rest of the company. Develop a visual Texture Atlas Layout Editor. Developed a maya python module reloader that would reload selected branches or the our entire python framework. This sped up development by reduce the need to restart maya. Started development on a company wide asset browser.

San Diego, Ca, Us

Joined the Everquest Next and Landmark core technology team. The core tech team developed tools for Everquest and the rest of the company. Develop a visual Texture Atlas Layout Editor. Developed a maya python module reloader that would reload selected branches or the our entire python framework. This sped up development by reduce the need to restart maya. Started development on a company wide asset browser.

San Diego, Ca, Us

Planetside 2

San Diego, Ca, Us

The Agency

Golden Era creates 8 hours+ of 3D full motion video each year. Footage is create in 3D Studio Max, compositing in Nuke. Generated 3D environment props. Animated camera moves and props for videos.

Irvine, Ca, Us

Upon joining the team in 2007, my immediate responsibility is to manage the crew and projects at Crazy Pixel. My diverse experience as an artist has given me a unique understanding of the requirements of each project, allowing me to create a precise schedule. Using this schedule I create an accurate estimate for the client. My expertise in animation has helped in creating our devastatingly fast animation pipeline. In order to meet the needs of our artists and our pipeline I have created tight relationships with several software development teams. These relationships allow us to acquire nightly updates to our tools keeping us ahead of our competitors. Software is only one half of the technology pipeline. As producer it is my responsible to select and order the equipment our artists work on everyday. As artists we are always honing our skills and learning new techniques. As Producer one of my highest priorities is creating and implementing training for our artists.

Us

-Back at the BarnyardJoined Omation as part of the “C.O.R.E. Operations” group; CORE’s mission is to focus on the future and prepare Omation for new intellectual property (IP) development. CORE is also available to provide best practices input and guidance to line producers and production. One of the six productions I contributed to was the Emmy Award winning show Back at the Barnyard. I helped to integrate motion capture back into the Omation pipeline and contribute expertise as a computer graphics generalist. I developed our proprietary motion capture based pre-viz camera similar to the one used by James Cameron on Avatar. Using my sales experience I took the initiative to begin advertising Omation’s services as aservice bureau. I created and implemented a new marketing push for Omation, complete with a new website, brochures, 3D Logo, Demo Reel, viral marketing and magazine articles.2009 Emmy Award Winner (Outstanding Special Class Animated Program) for "Back at the Barnyard."

Vancouver, Bc, Ca

Responsible for intergration of motion capture data for pre-viz. Required to do final intergration of the motion capture based on the pre-viz.Other tasks include verifing marker placement on the talent, skinning characters for pre-viz, creating special effects in MotionBuilder for pre-viz, supporting the directors MotionBuilder needs for pre-viz.

Us

Omation is Steve Oedekerk’s animation studio. Previous Oedekerk productions include: Ace Ventura 2, Bruce Almighty, and many more. Our team is currently working on Oedekerk’s latest creation, a movie titled, The Barnyard. My specific responsibility is to participate in the animation of all the background characters in the movie. The animation is completed utilizing both traditional key frame animation and motion capture, depending on the requirements of the specific scene. Our team is performing at an extremely productive rate despite early set-backs due to technical difficulties, both hardware and software. Personally participate in trouble shooting the software and the rig set-up to assure timely completion by the entire team. Demands on our team are significant since the premiere cannot take place until all background characters are complete. Many days will find our team in the studio early and staying late to maintain an aggressive approach to our animation.

Red Eye Studio is an organization owned by High Voltage Software. Joined Red Eye Studio at the company’s inception. Participated in the design and set-up of the studio and office space. Designed and created custom motion capture rigs for a wide variety of special needs using up to 24 Vicon cameras. These include capturing hockey action on ice; simultanious facial, finger and full body all captured optically. Planned and developed demonstration tools to highlight the abilities of Red Eye Studio. Required to track data for use by animators at High Voltage Software and other studios on a contract basis with Red Eye Studio. Over the three years at Red Eye Studio, was frequently required to stand in as the manager of the studio for several months. This required that all of my artist tasks be completed on a timely basis while, as acting manager, creating project estimates, establishing project budgets, finding talent, and completing schedules for numerous client projects.

Hoffman Estates, Il, Us

Video game developer for all next generation platforms. Started as an object modelerand was quickly promoted to a selection screen designer/modeler. The last positionheld within High Voltage Software was a level designer/modeler.

Certificate In C/C++, Computer Science

Bfa, Time Arts

Education record