Richard Thompson Email & Phone Number

Los Gatos, Ca, Us

(Disney shut down DisneyToons in late August 2018)Lead Technical Director for the untitled DisneyToon Studios film project• Interfaced with the Previs/Layout, Look Development and Production Management Teams. Was instrumental in developing the DTS Linux pipeline from its infancy to its production ready state. Early stage collaboration with Disney Feature Animation Technical Directors to port several Feature Animation tools into the DTS pipeline. Tools development was via Python, PyQt5, PySide and MEL.• Helped define and implement the directory structure, develop the Previstools shelf in Maya as well as the custom DTS shelves in Clarisse, Houdini, Mari and Nuke Studio. Extended the publishing infrastructure and the DTS Shotgun API calls so that, for example, the proprietary media viewer's submissions, via publishing, track the source files of those submissions. This data binding would, for example, allow the Maya file that generated a playblast to be launched directly from the proprietary media catalog itself.• Initiated the upgrading of the third party vendor ingestion process to be much more user friendly. Ingestion is the key production management process in an outsourcing model. It was manual via Linux commands prior to this upgrade. The project included making a user interface and reading all task templates, shot and asset data from Shotgun.• Project lead on the auto breakout process. Created tools for submitting shots to editorial from within Nuke Studio and breaking out from the sequence to shot level based on the editorial round trip xml.• Initiated a project to provide an alternative to Shotgun Toolkit. This resulted in a user friendly interface for the artists that removed the need for remembering many of the underlying Linux commands in the pipeline. This increased efficiency and allowed much faster on-boarding of new artists.• Collaborated with Previs/Layout and Look Development artists troubleshooting any scene issues they encountered.

Santa Monica, Ca, Us

Have worked both in software as a Pipeline Technical Director and production as an Effects Technical Director Software Group/Pipeline Technical Director • Tools development using Python, PyQt and Pyside within an Agile team structure using stash and git for version control. • Senior developer in the pipeline unification initiative between the LA and Vancouver facilities. This Python/Pyside project has allowed artists in the 2 facilities to create assets in a unified directory structure, work seamlessly on the same assets whilst working in different countries and allowed Method Studios to work on shows of much greater complexity. • Improved and reimplemented the Texture Publishing and MariTools (with Python) allowing vastly expanded file format handling and ease of ingesting data from other companies. Redesigned Track Comp allowing simultaneous tracking of all scene cameras, as opposed to sequentially, improving efficiency. Development of Maya asset browsing and publishing. • Solving emergency issues raised and managed through Jira. Quick issue resolution allows shot delivery on time and budget. Effects and Show Pipeline Technical Director Worked on the films Beautiful Creatures, White House Down, Cloud Atlas and Wrath of The Titans. • Developed a Houdini based shot building system using Python/PyQt. This became the backbone of the Wrath pipeline. • As the Cloth Simulation lead, developed Python and MEL procedures to control clothing simulations with nCloth. • Designed node networks in Houdini to calculate effects animation for natural phenomena such as pyroclastic dust.

Glendale, Ca, Us

FX Animator and Technical Director for the Dreamworks projects:Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and MegaMindFX development in Maya, MEL, Houdini, Python and Dreamworks proprietary tools• Developed Python and MEL procedures to create reusable effects simulation modules in Maya. • Created nCloth solutions in Maya to produce deforming objects simulations.

Los Angeles, Ca, Us

Technical Director at DD for the following DD projects:TransformersThe Mummy 3Transformers 2Tron: LegacyFX animation and development, Look development, Software development and pipeline development• As Pipeline Lead on Transformers 2, led and mentored a team developing Python classes and MEL procedures to set up the animation pipeline. Trained artists in the pipeline usage which improved cross departmental data flow and efficiency. • Built Look Development networks using VEX in Houdini. Used Maya and Houdini to perform Effects Animation. • Designed and implemented a PyQt Maya interface to control Rigid Body Dynamics sims for robot destruction scenes. Developed a Python based interface to control hair simulations via Maya and Shave and Haircut.

Burbank, Ca, Us

Look development on the Disney projects:Meet The RobinsonsAmerican Dog (released as Bolt)• Developed procedures in Disney’s proprietary expression language to simulate grass and foliage. • Wrote Perl scripts to propagate surface descriptions through to multiple building assets. • Developed surface shaders using the Renderman Shading Language, particularly in relation to the look of water droplets. • Painted texture maps in Photoshop.

Glendale, Ca, Us

Look development and FX animation for the following Dreamworks project:Shark Tale• Developed Python and MEL procedures to create reusable effects simulation modules in Maya. • Wrote surface shaders in Renderman and Slim widgets using Tcl. The team used the widgets to surface large numbers of under water assets. Painted texture maps with Dreamworks’ paint tool and Photoshop. Developed processes for Mental Ray exposure passes.

Emeryville, California, Us

Global Technology and Effects Technical Director for the following Pixar projects:Monsters, IncFinding Nemo• Intergrated Shake, into Pixar’s pipeline. Developed new Shake nodes to replace Pixar’s existing comp macros, allowing interactive control of compositing for lighting artists. Performed effects animation and fur simulations. • Wrote surface shaders using Renderman. Wrote a Perl based system to port Maya set dressing into Pixar’s proprietary language (called Mdl). Performed Effects and Fur simulations using Maya.

New York, New York, Us

Analyst in Financial Technology

Dublin 2, Ie

Analyst in the Process Competency

Master Of Science (Msc), Computer Animation

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Structural Engineering

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Engineering Science