Summary

In 1985 I attended Sheridan College, Oakville Ontario Canada, Classical Animation program. I studied basic principles of classical animation, hand-drawn animation on paper and acetate cells. I also learned to film my animation under an Oxberry animation stand, a traditional 16 mm film camera for shooting animation cells.
A few years later I attended Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Film and Photography program, a Bachelor of Arts degree program in Photographic Arts. Where I studied and worked hands-on with 35mm film, 35mm photography, including still camera equipment, studio equipment, lights, stands and backdrops, as well as darkroom development equipment.
I also studied broadcast television production, which included how to operate ENG video and live studio floor cameras as well as their associated gear and equipment. Working in the field and in the TV studio. I studied how to operate the equipment in the TV control room as well as the video editing suite. This took place in the 1990s so the equipment was all analog at that time. The video cameras were analog ¾ in and Super VHS, the studio floor cameras were vacuum tube operated.
The third part of my program at Ryerson was film production, where I studied how to use and edit 16mm analog film. Working with Bolex and Arriflex camera gear for filming 16mm projects and working with 16mm Steenbeck flatbed editing tables for editing film projects. Both imagery and magnetic film for audio.

During my time at Ryerson, I worked part-time as the Canadian rep for MacroSystems Digital Video GmbH and Macro Systems US.
MacroSystems Digital Video GmbH based in Germany, designed, manufactured, and distributed advanced computer hardware for desktop computers that made it possible to ingest analog video to a desktop's hard drive, and then edit that digital video in a non-linear fashion. Then be able to play that digital video back out to any analog or digital video recorder.
This was the late 1990s, digital video was in its infancy at that time. It was the beginning of the Desktop digital nonlinear video revolution.
I traveled across the US in support of both MacroSystems Digital Video GmbH and Macro Systems US. Providing education and technical support to those who had purchased this Digital equipment.
At the time I was one of a small handful of people with access to this type of advanced hardware, and I soon integrated it into my own workflow.
At this time it was very difficult for anyone creating digital video, including animation, to get their frames off of their hard drives and on to video or film. Because I had this hardware in my own personal Desktop computer I was able to easily export my creative work to video. Allowing me to more easily experiment and explore 3D animation.
In 2000 I was hired full time at GVFX Studios, a large VFX and SFX studio based out of Toronto and Vancouver. I worked there for several years as a visual effects artist and animator on many feature film and broadcast TV projects. There I learn to use Maya 3D on an SGI workstation running the UNIX operating system. At that time Maya was not ported to Windows, Linux, or the Mac operating systems as of yet.
After GVFX, I worked at several other VFX studios in Toronto. All involved in producing digital VFX for film and TV. I worked as a senior Generalist using Autodesk Maya 3D.

Over the years I have picked up numerous other software packages related to my work in visual effects. Such as camera tracking software like Syntheyes and Boujou. Autodesk Mudbox for 3D sculpting. Adobe Substance 3D Painter, and Epic Games Quixel Mixer for creating hand-painted and procedurally created PBR shaders.
I have been using the full line of the Adobe Creative Cloud ( Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, etc)
since the 1990s

I moved away from Toronto in 2010 to a small town on the St-Lawrence River. There I have worked as a freelance artist remotely ever since.

Skills

Software proficiency

After Effects

Maya

Mudbox

Photoshop

Substance 3D Painter

Quixel Suite

Premiere

SynthEyes

Adobe Charater Animator

Reel