Hey guys.
For those of you who have been reading my blog on a consistent basis you may remember one of my very first posts I made about Think Tank: Here. If you never read it, no worries. I just listed a few of my instructors here at school and what they do currently in the industry. I thought it would be a good idea to do that again for my second semester.
As a reminder and for you new readers, the faculty here at Think Tank is special. Special in the way that we do not learn from some guy who got a doctorate in computer art or some guy who learned from a book. We are taught by industry professionals who are all current and working here in the industry in Vancouver.
Unfortunately the teachers this year all have one thing in common. They have been short on introductions and I was unable to gather tons of information on them like I did last semester. After doing some Google searching, I have found some pretty good stuff nevertheless. Seems like they just want to jump in and cut to the chase. I will do my best to fill you in with some of the notes I do have, and maybe if I get more info I can write another post with some links. (I know many of you are interested in TTTC as a school, and if you want that valuable info please leave a comment and I will hunt that down for you.)
Until then, please press continue reading and I will give you all the info I can on my second semester teaching staff.
The very first person on my list is Michael Amasio.
Michael Amasio has been the harder to gather info on. To be honest, we have only had one class with him and it was quite a whirlwind. He gave no introduction and just jumped right into sculpting. Michael is our digital sculpting teacher. His teaching style seems to be “follow or get left behind.” I like that style, and I hope in the future he can give me some good feedback as I start sculpting more. I found his IMDB and Linked In profile online. Michael is also the founder of Protodemon. A company also ran with one of the owners of my school Joseph Bullock. Protodemon does 3D printouts of models and other prototypes.
Nick Boughen is next on the list. Nick works at CIS Vancouver. He is a VFX Supervisor there specializing in lighting. Nick personally lit many of the shots in Angels and Demons, I Robot, Invictus, Blades of Glory to name a few. His IMDB profile is quite impressive. Nick seems like an excellent teacher, and I already know he is an amazing lighter. I look forward to more of his classes.
Gideon Hay is a sculptor for the TV, film, and gaming industry. Not a digital sculptor mind you, a real life 3D sculptor. He also teaches us in our sculpting class. This is a class that lasts all term where we will build a character from start to finish. Gideon is a really relaxed guy, and his class is super fun. I can’t wait to have more of his classes because I really think my anatomy modeling skills will go up because of him. Here is his personal site. He has worked on projects like: Alien vs. Predator, Snakes on a Plane, and X-Men.
Darren Rudy is our Maya teacher. Darren is a Maya rigging specialist who currently works at EA Games here in Vancouver. He is a really nice guy, and he knows his stuff. Check out his web page and resume here.
Talon Toth. We have not had a class with Talon yet. But he is our game engine instructor. He will be showing us the ropes in Unreal, CryEngine3, Marmoset, and Unity.
Again like last semester Joesph Bullock and Scott Thompson are teaching us. They both have been in the industry forever and are super nice guys and amazing teachers. Joe teachers modeling and Scott helps with production and animation. Both have been leads in various departments for various projects. Scott was a director on shows like Reboot and Beast Wars at Mainframe.
For our VFX class we currently have Mike Douglas. Mike is a graphic designer who owns his own studio. He used to work at Rain Maker. He currently teachers us After Effects. After several classes with Mike, we will also be taught by Jayme Vandusen. I have no idea what Jayme is like, but I hear great things. Here is his IMDB profile.
For 3D animation we have a new teacher this semester. Morgan Ratsoy. Morgan animated on Hellboy, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and a few others. He worked for Tippett Studio (the guy who did stop motion stuff in Star Wars). He is an amazing animator and we are very lucky to have him. I will not be in his class for much longer because I am a modeler, but I know the animation students are super excited.
And lastly we have Calvin Leduc for acting class. Calvin is a classical animator by trade, and an older gentleman. He is obviously amazing because he worked for Disney. You can see his IMDB resume here. He worked on movies such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Tom and Jerry, The Swan Princess, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia, Treasure Planet just to name a few. I don’t care for acting or animation to be honest, but I plan to soak up his industry knowledge. I look forward to a few more classes with him.
I hope this information was helpful. If you have questions or comments, please leave them below. Thanks.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Think Tank, Bret McNee. Bret McNee said: If you want to know a little more about my school, check out my latest blog post. I have some info up on my teachers. http://bit.ly/9fRO2V [...]
Nice info.
I’m looking forward to hearing more about your Game Engine classes.