General Forum > Member introductions
Welcome Markus. We're glad to see you here. :) The Society's founders are looking forward to stimulating conversation on how to make the Previsualization Society website the central hub of activity on all matters of previs. I'd like to suggest that folks also include what they're hoping to get from this website. We have lots of plans of what we'd like to achieve, but we want to hear from everyone!
Brian Pohl
Ah, I like these kinds of threads as well.
My name is Justin Denton, and I am a previs supervisor at Halon Entertainment. I have supervised on projects including Terminator Salvation, Eagle Eye, Mummy 3, The Wild, and various commercial projects. Outside of previs, I have worked as a character animator, rigger, and layout supervisor for film, commercials, and games.
In addition to my work, I have been an active advocate for previs including speaking on the Siggraph 09 panel titled "From Pitchvis to Postvis: Integrating Visualization Into the Production Pipeline " and The Spark Animation '09 conference panel titled "Perspectives on Previsualization".
I am looking forward to learning from and sharing my knowledge with the current and future members of the Previsualization Society!
Justin Denton
Hello previs peeps! I too wish to congratulate the founders. My name is Tom Bruno.
My introduction to previs was on the original 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' at Sony Imageworks. My interest and aptitude for storytelling and character animation have made the craft of previsualization a perfect place to hang my hat. In the past few years I've relished the privilege of working immediately with various productions' directors ('Men in Black 2', 'Speed Racer', '2012') and have most recently enjoyed the support of working under the flag of 'POV Previs, LLC' on the films 'Battle: Los Angeles' and currently, 'Yogi Bear'.
I am honored to be a charter member of the Previsualization Society and look forward to contributing whatever I can toward helping to build this community (including volunteering my unsolicited opinion on all things previs :) ).
Tom Bruno, Jr
Hello previs society!
My name is Alex Ménard. I have been introduced to previs back in 2006 when I was hired by Halon Entertainment to do on-set previs on the Spiderwick Chronicle here in Montréal... and I have been loving previs since that day.
I started my career as a traditional 2D character animator and moved into 3D back in 1997. I have wore many hats since then: character animator, lighter, rigger, modeler, etc. I always have a profound interest in storytelling and cinematography,. When I was introduced to previs, instantly, I knew this was for me.
Since then, I worked mainly on feature film project: Indiana Jones 4, Last Airbender, and more!
I feel there is a great future for previs as it helps artists to be more creative and save producers time and money.
Looking forward to contribute and share with all of you.
Long live previs!
Alexandre Ménard
I'd like to extend a big welcome to you all and THANK YOU for getting on here and being some of the first to start up what we all hope is some great conversations. Markus, nice to see you and Tom Welcome!
-dan
Daniel Gregoire
I'm honored to be invited as a charter member and wish to extend my grattitude to all the founding members of the previs society. This collaboration will certainly be a great resource of information for both practictioners and members of the other respective societies in the industry. I originally had plans to create a previs blog to fill a prior absence of one, but this is a much better forum and I'd be happy to become a contributor.
As an employee of The Third Floor (big shout out to Chris Edwards for bringing me into the biz), and a cg artist, and software engineer for many years in the video games industry, I am keenly interested in real-time workflows. I'm obsessed with real-time previs, especially using and developing tools to accelerate the workflow and allowing directors, cinematographers and production designers to be more involved in visualizing and communicating ideas. But what I'm most excited about is seeing how our particular disicplne grows and matures while digital filmmaking evolves. The previs society is a great step forward.
- albert
Albert Cheng
it's great to see this coming together and nice to meet fellow previs practictioners.
regards, Raffael Dickreuter, Previs Artist at Pixel Liberation Front and Founder of www.xsibase.com
Raffael Dickreuter
Wow! Seeing this forum start up really just makes it seem absurd that nothing like this exists anywhere else. I'm proud to be a part of it.
My name is Ryan McCoy, and I've been a loyal Halon employee for just about five years now. I've done a fair amount of on-set pre-vis, and am starting to take on more supervisory positions.
What intrigues me most about the role of Pre-vis, is the opportunity to help develop the art of visual storytelling. Not just on a personal level but also for the filmmaker and more notably, the progression of cinema, as we now think of it. Allowing for possibilities that have never before been practiced, and operating as an exploratory creative peer to the other departments in production.
I'm continually redefining my own definition of what makes a shot dynamic, and what steps can be taken to make a sequence more engaging. I can't wait to learn and share with all the other members of this pioneering community.
Ryan McCoy
This is terrific to see in action! How exciting!!
I am Jericca Cleland, CEO/CCO of Twenty One Inc, a film development & preproduction studio in Vancouver, BC that offers previs and pitch reel services. I got my start in film at Pixar Animation Studios, where I started as a layout artist and grew into a cinematographer, designing the camera and staging for Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo. I moved into live action as a writer-director and then returned to feature animation on the independent front, again as a cinematographer. My focus is on visual storytelling and the dramatic impact previs can have on both the creative and practical aspects of filmmaking, particularly when fully integrated with story, editorial, and production design. And, of course, it's on-going role as a virtual testing ground for the rest of production.
These days, I seem to be spending a lot of time trying to get the word out about previs-- how great it is, and how applicable it can be to nearly any image-making endeavour. I look forward to seeing this community grow and participate in the making of stronger screen stories!
Jericca Cleland
Welcome Jerrica!
Brian Pohl
Hello All,
A big congratulations to the founders. It's truly an honor to be a charter member of the Previs Society.
Earlier this year, I was privileged to be invited in the sub-committee to present my experiences with "Lighting and Video Previs in the Rock and Roll Touring Industry".
I became a Previs Practitioner in 1996 on Metallica's "LOAD" Tour and never looked back!
I'm currently consulting with the makers of a Previs software to develop key features and tools that will make it easier for Cinematographers, Gaffers and Rigging Gaffers to Previs complex lighting and video setups.
Long live the Previs Society!
Ben Richard
Ben Richard
Hello Everyone,
I am also honored to be invited as a charter member for the previs society.....and I am also excited there will be a standardized name for previs!!! :)
My name is Ryan Heuett and I am the Lead 3D Story Artist on the Clone Wars Cartoon here at Lucasfilm Animation. My first two previs projects were Star Wars Episode III and War of the Worlds. Previous projects/colleagues include previs for JAK Films, Halon, The Third Floor, Iceblink Studios, Image Movers Digtial and Lucasfilm Animation. I currently live in the SF Bay area and love everything about the previs/film making/story/design process.
I have been hoping for a new medium such as this in hopes of building a community of strong previs artists.
Many more questions to come!
Thanks!
Ryan
Ryan Heuett
Hi there folks, Kevin Tureski here. Thanks DanG for the charter membership! While I haven't done any hands-on previs myself, I served the previs community during my 22-year tenure at Alias, Alias|Wavefront, Alias Systems and Autodesk as director of engineering for PowerAnimator and then Maya. I've had the pleasure over the past several years of working closely with David Morin, co-chair of the ASC-ADG-VES Joint Technology Subcommittee on Previsualization. I am based in Toronto and am consulting now, currently advising Lucasfilm's CTO.
Previs was and still is one of my favourite areas of CGI and I look forward to continuing to follow its evolution and hope to be able to contribute from my perspective of software development (as confidentiality permits).
Kevin Tureski
Kevin, Ryan, Ben, Jerrica, Ryan, Raffael and Albert. Thanks a ton for signing up and saying hello to everyone. Welcome aboard!
-dan
Daniel Gregoire
Greetings Everyone from New Zealand! My name is Michael Cosner and I've been doing Previs for nearly as long as I have been in the video games industry (13 years and counting). I started out as a co-founder of Red Storm Entertainment back in '96 as a modeler/animator and grew into Previsualisation through my interests as a filmmaker. Through the years I've developed previs designs and final executions for many of Red Storm's game cinematics, most notably the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series. I've since become an ex-pat living in Wellington, continuing to do what I do best and enjoying every second of it, whether it's at 24fps, 29.97fps, or 60fps.
We seem to have an extremely talented pool of individuals gathered here. I look forward to talking with you more as we move forward.
So, if you can imagine me, a complete stranger whom you've never met before, raising a glass of the cheapest house bubbly; here's a virtual toast to the success of the Previsualization Society and to each of you.
All the Best,
Michael
Michael Cosner
Hello everyone!
I hope everyone is as excited as I am about the society as I am!
My name is Myong Choi and I'm currently a junior at Otis College of Art and Design. I was introduced to previs through Raul Moreno when I took my first class with him fall semester of sophomore year. I would love to know more about the industry through everyone's assistance here.
Thanks and I look forward to talking to all of you!
-Myong
Myong Choi
Hi Everybody
I am honored to be invited to be a charter member of the previs society.
My name is Gary Giambalvo and I am the Executive Producer at The STUDIO in NYC. We started doing previs for commercial productions and film shoots about 20 years ago. First in 2d and now in 3d. Being a visual communication company we are deeply committed to previs and its importance to the creative process.
I look forward to all that the society will bring to the previs world......
Cheers!
-Gary
Gary Giambalvo
Hey All:
My name is Ken Schafer and the president and lead software architect at Innoventive Software, LLC I've been doing Previs for over seven years now (this is beginning to sound like an AA introduction...) with the development of our Desktop Previsualization Software, FrameForge Previz Studio. We recently introduced real-time stereographic previsualization to the program and I've been fortunate to work with some great stereographers to really expand on the program's capabilities and make it an affordable and practical, optically accurate previs solution for both 2D and 3D productions.
I am continually astonished by how many working directors and cinematographers don't understand that previsualization is a LOT more than animated storyboards or effects previsualization, and I am hoping the society can help evangelize the process as having relevance with basic preproduction rather than just big-budget FX previs.
- Ken
Ken Schafer
Hi, Congrats to the Previsulization Society. I am looking forward to contributing to it. I am a VFX Production Coordinator as well as a filmmaker. I am very interested in what ZVis software developed by ILM has to offer to the filmmaking community if ever it gets commercialized. The prospect of a simple easy to use tool for filmmakers to learn to use is certainly exciting. sort of like an iMovie but iPrevis. It could encourage a whole new realm of possibilities for the future in how we think of filmmaking. I certainly would like to get involved with the development of something like that.
Cheers to the future!
Michael
Michael Lim
Hello Everyone -
Glad to be a part of this community. This is a fantastic resource, thanks to the founders for putting it together. Its terrific to have a place where all involved in previs can gather to exchange ideas and techniques, and great to see such enthusiasm expressed by so many participants.
Ira Shain
Ira Shain
Hi All,
My name is Joshua Wassung, and I'm one of the founders of the previs studio The Third Floor. In 2002 I was introduced to previs by the gang up at JAK films on Episode 3. My first show as supervisor was animating dragons for a PS3 game called Lair (every kids dream!). Since then I've had the opportunity to lead teams on all types of films. Some of my favorites were: Rivergod in Narnia 2, creating the universe in the biblical epic Kingdom Come, and farmers fighting giants in Jack the Giant killer. Recently I've mostly been working on Pitchvis projects which are great fun and offer a lot of variety.
I love creating a great shot. There's nothing like it. When the timing is just right, the camera feels alive, the depth and scale make your heart sink.. I become mesmerized. I can easily watch it 50 times over. It's like falling in love!
I'm currently obsessed with creating previs sequences that not only tell the logistics of a scene, but also create an emotional reaction from the audience. Weather drama, suspense, awe, or thrill, I want people to feel the story as much as possible. My belief is if you can achieve that goal early in the production, the final work produced will be even better after the baton is passed.
Thanks to all the founders of the Previs Society, I know it's been a lot of hard work to pull this together. I'm thrilled to be a charter member, and I look forward to many great discussions to come!
-Josh
Joshua Wassung
Hi Previzites,
My name is Lorin Wood and I'm currently the senior conceptual designer at Gearbox Software in Dallas for Aliens: Colonial Marines, replacing Syd Mead and force-feeding these game people doses of previz animatics whether they want it or not. Thanks to David Dozoretz for ushering me into the industry many moons ago and Brian Pohl for being a swell guy/supervisor. A big thanks to the founders for the inclusion into the society.
I'm looking forward to expanding my visual prowess and know-how of the process in the coming years beyond their current capabilities. Hopefully my experience can also in turn be of benefit to the rest of the community.
Lorin
Lorin Wood
Hi Everyone,
My name is John Courte, and I'm the Senior Houdini Artist at Side Effects Software | Los Angeles. I have been bouncing back and forth between previsualization and FX for 12 years or so, on both features and commercials, and for me, FX work was a solid grounding in the 'computer' part of CGI, but pre-vis is where the language of filmmaking is actually spoken via the technological medium. While I understand (hopefully correctly) that the Society is largely software-agnostic, I hope to gain knowledge and insight that will allow me to push Houdini in the direction of being a viable, complete, and user-friendly previsualization tool, but over and above that, to increase my own strengths and knowledge of the previsualization arts in general, and to contribute to the benefit of the community as best I can.
John Courte
Hello all! Glad to be here. I'm currently in NZ doing previz at Weta Digital. I was a previz artist with Halon from 2005-2009. During that time I've gotten to work with some great artists from Halon, The Third Floor and PLF, and had the opportunity to serve as a virtual production supervisor on Avatar. Looking forward to learning and participating on the discussions here.
Jerry Kung
Hi everyone... awesome seeing this come together. Congratulations to the founders.
I always like seeing who is on the forums, as that usually sparks some interesting questions and conversations. For that to be possible we need an "introductions thread", where we can all say hi and give a small presentation of who we are and what we are up to. So to kick that off... here goes.
Hi, Markus Manninen here. Visual Effects Supervisor at Dreamworks Animation. I participated in the sub-committee where I presented some of the work we did on "Kung Fu Panda". Currently I am working on "The Croods" where we are developing a new previs process. My main interest is enhancing cinematography, especially for animated stereoscopic films, through an iterative collaborative work flow.
Cheers, Markus