Objective
Freelance or full-time visual effects work, in particular rotoscoping, paint, and clean-up/prep comp, for feature film, television, commercials, and/or music videos using Nuke.
Professional Work & Places Of Hire
A52/Rock Paper Scissors, Santa Monica, CA — Rotoscoping
8/17, 3/18, 1/19, 3/19, 8/19, 3/20 (freelance)
Complex roto on various shapes in numerous planes, including pulling some complex tracks for background objects.. Used Nuke.
Nomad, Santa Monica, CA — Rotoscoping 8/16, 10/18, 12/18-1/19, 4/19, 1/20-2/20 (freelance)
Handling all rotoscoping for a particular spot, for hands and fingers going over a monitor. Used Nuke.
The Mill, West Adams, CA — Rotoscoping 8/18, 9/18-10/18, 1/20 (freelance)
Rotoscoping within a team, for split-screen elements on a project for a very secretive and particular client, as well as SuperBowl commercials with a very quick turn-around. Used Nuke.
Steelhead, Marina Del Rey, CA — Compositing & Rotoscoping 10/19, 12/19 (freelance)
Work on a short spot for Taco Bell, activated by a stolen base in the World Series, necessitating a period of being on-hold waiting for the triggering event, then going in at 4am the next day to do the work in one shift for the quick turn-around. Full body roto for a very active sports player, first pass in rough shapes to place the animation, then tightening or starting over to do tight roto for graphics behind and around the principal player. In Nuke. Also compositing work for a series of commercials for H&R Block. Applied compositing set-ups and procedural paint from one shot to others in the interest of greatest efficiency, then adjusting each shot as needed. Also explored STMaps for added expediency. In Nuke.
4 Max Post, Toluca Lake, CA— In-House Rotoscope Dept.
4/15-10/15, 5/16-7/16, 1/17-6/17, 6/19 (permalance)
A Fall from Grace, Acrimony, Boo! A Madea Halloween (features; Sistas, If Loving You Is Wrong, For Better or Worse, The Haves and Have Nots, Love Thy Neighbor, Suits (television)
Handled rotoscoping not done by compositors, including shots with hundreds of frames and intricate details, at a speed conducive to quick TV turn-around, as well as paint for object removal and beauty touch-ups. One project, on the feature Acrimony, ranged from quick, rough temp roto to tight, screen-ready work, and included a task for articulate, movie-ready roto needed to replace the background behind the full bodies of two moving, talking people on a clip of 2,104 frames. Also helped recruit and manage artists. Used Nuke & Mocha.
Logan, Marina Del Rey, CA — Rotoscoping 12/16-1/7, 6/18-7/18, 8/18, 8/19-10/19 (freelance)
Rotoscoping with a team, first tightening previous roto to within sub-pixels, then later starting from scratch on another project, both for a very secretive and particular client. Used Nuke, and Mocha for some tracking.
Genpop/General Population, Santa Monica, CA — Rotoscoping 7/19 (freelance)
Rotoscoping & keying on graphics for Zombieland: Double Tap.
Angel Valley Media/Practical Magic, Sun Valley, CA — Rotoscoping 11/15-2/16, 7/19 (freelance)
Worked on ambitious, ground-breaking virtual reality project: the footage was over 12,000 frames with no cuts, in stereo, 2880 x 1440, and dozens of elements reaching back to the horizon and distorting as they pass by the camera(s). Rotoed the many elements, from stationary objects to houses to vehicles to people, many with wild hair. Used Nuke chiefly but also the Rotobrush tool in AfterEffects.
Harbor Pictures, Santa Monica, CA — Roto & Paint 3/19 (freelance)
Initially brought in to do rotoscoping but also did boom mic removal, and one shot removing a shirt-mic using frame-to-frame paint over more than 200 frames. Used Nuke but also Mocha for rotoscoping, to pull fast mattes to give to Flame for beauty work.
Greenhaus, Culver City, CA — Rotoscoping 5/18 (freelance)
Quick roto for a title/credits sequence on an upcoming animated feature. Used Nuke.
FuseFX, Van Nuys, CA — In-House Rotoscope Dept. 7/17-12/17, 4/18 (freelance)
Handled rotoscoping for compositors, usually needed urgently to meet an impending deadline. Work was usually full-body roto with a quick turn-around. Some paint work, doing smudge and costume-wrinkle removal. Also annotating and quality-controlling outsourced work. Television work including American Crime Story, American Horror Story, Criminal Minds, Designated Survivor, Empire, The Last Man on Earth, Scorpion, Superior Donuts, The Brave, Unsolved, Wisdom of the Crowd, The Tick, The Good Doctor, Ghosted, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and 911. Used Nuke, and Mocha for tracking.
Dilated Pixels, Hollywood, CA — Rotoscoping 7/17 (freelance)
Support roto, for isolating character elements for use in background, for upcoming feature. Work was fast and rough, which was necessary for the low-res and minimal-detail nature of the composite. Used Nuke as well as AfterEffects, on a basic level.
Electric Collective Theater, Santa Monica, CA — Rotoscoping 9/16, 11/16 (freelance)
Rotoscoping on a high-profile commercial for a very particular client. Work completed in less than 24 hours from air. Used Nuke.
CBS Digital, Los Angeles, CA — Rotoscoping 10/16 (freelance)
Rotoscoping on a variety of television shows, under a quick deadline for air. Also fixed another artist’s comps, following notes from the supervisor. Used Nuke.
Brand New School, Hollywood, CA — Rotoscoping 8/16 (freelance)
Rotoscoping of exteriors and interiors of cars. Used Nuke.
MPC, Santa Monica, CA — Rotoscoping 4/16-5/16 (freelance)
Rotoscoping for virtual reality project, following people and objects moving over hundreds of frames. A very quick turnaround, working with numerous other artists with various pieces of a puzzle being put together. (Had worked at MPC previous, rotoing for a commercial.) Used Nuke.
Prologue Films, Venice, CA — Rotoscoping 3/16 (freelance)
Short gig working on top-secret titles project. Rotoed numerous quick and longer clips and worked with compositor to fit roto into project. Used Nuke.
Colourmovie, Hollywood, CA — Rotoscoping 1/15
Full roto for man moving throughout frame, for most of the entire spot, for a National Geographic commercial. Used Nuke.
Digital Domain, Venice & Playa del Rey, CA 9/04-4/15 (intermittently, freelance)
Incredibly intricate rotoscoping for moving character.
Extensive and challenging paint removing parachutes, buckles, and straps from falling, flailing, skydiving actors, up to DD's exacting standards. Wire removals over clips with flying debris and lighting changes on each frame. Also roto on many of those same shots, with some that included numerous background shapes over a lengthy clip.
Rotoscoping intricate foreground shapes and sometimes blurry background shapes on native stereo plates.
Roto for multiple background shapes and people, including hair.
Tupac hologram that appeared at Coachella festival 2012
Rotoscoping in the service of marker removal. Up to 35 markers on a dancing body on each frame. Multiple clips, each being thousands of frames long.
Part of a pool of artists switched between projects, doing extensive rotoscoping work often in the stereo format, applying work to both eyes for the 3D effect. Work in Nuke 6.1.
Rotoscoping on complex effects shots of lengths often well above 100 frames. Also leading on some shots with teams of up to six other artists.
Selected work with paint, removing markers on reflective surfaces and very close to faces, and rotoscoping.
Extensive rotoscoping and rig- and wire-removal, including work using the warping tool, as part of a small cadre of roto artists, using Combustion and Nuke.
Work on commercials with clients including Cingular, CVS, Buick, Adidas, Disney, Best Buy, Burger King/NFL, Acura, Listerine, Chrysler, and Heiniken (a spot starring Brad Pitt, directed by David Fincher, which appeared during the 2005 SuperBowl), as well as the opening of the UFC television program. Crafting mattes using Combustion 3.3, using various rotoscoping tools such painting, tracking, and extensive g-masks as well as marker removal using many of the same techniques. Also supervised a group of rotoscope-artists on select projects.
Digital Sandbox, Marina del Rey, CA — Rotoscoping 10/14-11/14 (freelance)
Muhammad (feature film) 2014
Senior rotoscoping work. Duties included extensive roto work, as well as reviewing and fixing roto done from an outsource vendor and working with various compmositors. Also navigated other artists' Nuke scripts and some light comp involving tracking and paint.
Mirada, Marina del Rey, CA — Rotoscoping 08/14-10/14 (freelance)
Rotoscoping work on a very high-profile commercial commercial and music video for a very popular client. Work involved very fast turnaround on roto tasks as well as keying green-screen footage using compositing techniques. Personal responsibilities also included helping organizing team of artists and teaching work tactics. Workday often went well into the night, including one shift that lasted 29 hours.
Reliance Mediaworks, Burbank, CA -- Roto & Paint Supervisor 04/13-08/14 (staff)
Supervising an outsourcing team in India of over 100 artists in paint and roto tasks, directing and managing work, and QCing shots. Work on native stereo plates.
Roto/paint supervisor leading a team in India doing outsourced work. Handled roto and paint work and fixes by hand. Also recruited and managed a domestic team of artists to do further work.
Rotoscoping of people and elements against background. Credited as Rotoscope & Paint Supervisor.
Stereo D, Burbank, CA -- Stereo Conversion 12/11-1/12 (freelance)
Stereo conversion using extensive compositing and paint techniques in Nuke to remove artifacts and stretching from footage after stereo process. Coordinated with team of over 80 artists for peak efficiency.
Legend Films, San Diego & Burbank, CA -- Stereo Conversion 1/10, 5-6/11 (freelance)
Work in the newest version of Nuke. Complex artifact removal with paint and compositing on numerous layers to pixel-perfect quality to preserve depth. Worked closely with rotoscoping and clean-plate artists. Also used Mocha for tracking.
Method, Santa Monica, CA -- Roto & Paint 8/08-7/10 (intermittently, freelance)
Extensive paint and rotoscoping work on commercials for clients such as the Discovery Channel, Guitar Hero, Sprint, Dentyne, and Yahoo!, as well as the “Battle for Milkquarius” web-movie (for Milk), using Nuke and Combustion on a PC and Linux platform. Also work on W. (feature film, credited) doing rotoscoping.
Brand New School, Santa Monica, CA -- Rotoscoping 10/08-3/10 (intermittently, freelance)
Rotoscoping work on Coca-Cola/L.A. Live and Campari commercials, using Combustion to mask and paint mattes, from rendered hicons.
Moving Pictures, Santa Monica, CA -- Rotoscoping 11/09 (freelance)
Work on a Gillette commercial, rotoscoping in Nuke, for a clip totaling hundreds of frames.
Aurora Rising, Hollywood, CA-- Rotoscoping 9/09-10/09 (freelance)
Rotoscoping work on a Dolby web-commercial, using Nuke on a PC.
Motion Theory, Venice, CA -- Rotoscoping 6/08-7/08 (freelance)
Work on a nationally-seen Sony commercial, doing detailed rotoscoping work in Combustion, on PC and Mac platforms.
Sealevel, Venice, CA -- Roto & Paint 10/05-11/05 (freelance)
Best Buy commercial featuring the Pussycat Dolls. Various work assisting a lead compositor, producing mattes using rotoscoping and painting, using Combustion on a Mac.
Modern VideoFilm, Burbank, CA 6/95-08/04 (staff)
Work in feature film:
Extensive rotoscoping and matting, done on Inferno and Combustion 3.0. (Credited as "Roto Artist".)
Rotoscoping for mattes on numerous effects shots, on Combustion 3.0.
Compositing, masking, keying, and rotoscoping mattes for 10-minute long effect, shot from 6 different camera angles.
High-definition morph and compositing television screens.
Removing dirt and scratches by rotoscoping.
Boom-mike removal.
Work in television:
Functioned as head morph artist, producing at least one morph for each episode (for well over 120 episodes) using Elastic Reality, extensive compositing, split-screening, clean-plate creation, and rotoscoping. Also design work. Also the same work on Sabrina Goes To Rome & Sabrina Down Under movie-of-the-weeks.
Lengthy split-screen compositing, often several seconds long, as well as an extensive morph of wrestling boys turning into wrestling girls.
Maintained weekly, often twice-weekly, delivery of effects incorporating tracking, keying, color correcting, and extensive rotoscoping. Worked as a part of a team with a number of supervisors and supervising producers. Also similar shows VR Troopers, Big, Bad Beetleborgs, and Masked Rider.
Extensive wire removals, including work done against murky backgrounds and through chain-link fence, and morphing, including close-up shots.
Compositing talking adult mouth on moving baby, requiring compositing, tracking, warping, and rotoscoping.
Work on season opener which included removing camera flares from faces and fauna.
Scene transitions incorporating morphing and compositing;
Split-screens and monitor compositing.
Rotoscoping including wire, logo, and blood removal. Also compositing muzzle-flashes on guns and monitor composites.
Letters-in-background removal utilizing tracking, masking, and extensive rotoscoping for three scenes nearly 10 seconds long each. In high-defintion.
Scratch removal.
Stabilizing background plates and removing camera weave.
All work listed at Modern, except where noted, done on Flint, Flame, or Inferno, with morphing done exclusively with Avid's Elastic Reality. Footage acquired from DigBeta.
Radium, Santa Monica, CA -- Morphing 1/01-2/01 (freelance)
Morph work only, performed with Elastic Reality on a Windows NT platform.
Encore, Hollywood, CA -- Morphing, Compositing 4/97-10/99 (freelance)
Frequent freelance work with an emphasis on morphing.
References
Available upon request.
Demo reel is available. This shows significant work from the recent past, in particular work on feature films. A detailed breakdown of work done on reel is here.
