Josh Book

Work History

• 

  Co-Founder / Creative Director

  Mighty Yeti Studios

  June 2013 - Present

• Animation Director

  Anki

  April 2017 - August 2017
• 

  Animator

  Atomic Fiction

  November 2016 - January 2017

  Oakland, CA

  Animation on two VFX films, including layout, for both full CG and matchimation live action shots

  

  
• 

  Animator

  Spiritwalk Games

  August 2016 - December 2016
• 

  CG Creative Director

  Ghostbot, Inc.

  October 2013 - December 2014

  • Consulting on CG pipeline; animation/lighting/look dev for spec feature film project.
• 

  Art Director

  Gazillion Entertainment

  October 2009 - September 2013

  San Mateo, CA

  Marvel Heroes - Art Director
  
  • Established visual style and look of game, from visual development to final in-game graphics.
  • Creative direction of 30 person Art Department, including Concept Art, Character, Environment,
  Animation, Tech Art and VFX teams; Co-Managing with Art Producer. Hired entire art team.
  • Provided animation direction for animation and VFX team during daily reviews.
  • Worked closely with Marvel producers for brand assurance and character representation.
  • Oversaw Marketing art asset creation including key art, online/print ads, trade show booth design,
  giveaways, product packaging, online store assets. Created studio and game logos and icon.

  
• 

  Director, "Marvel Heroes" Cinematics

  Gazillion Entertainment

  January 2010 - August 2013

  • Directed over one hour of animated cinematics for "Marvel Heroes", using CG, 2D hand drawn, in-game, and motion comics animation.
  • The opening "Marvel Origins" cinematic was widely acclaimed, and received over 100,000 views in 24 hours. The cinematics were repeatedly mentioned in reviews as a game highlight.
  • Built in-house pipeline which included story-boarding through animatic, with review points throughout production. All CG was in-house with a small team I directed. Worked with animation production studios and comic book artists for 2D animat
• 

  CG Supervisor

  WildBrain

  May 2008 - March 2011

  San Francisco, CA

  Bubble Guppies (Nickelodeon) - CG Supervisor
  Sheriff Callie's Wild West (Disney Jr) - CG Supervisor
  Lamisil Beach Commercial - CG Supervisor
• 

  Mentor

  Animation Mentor

  January 2008 - December 2010

  Remote

  Taught global animation students through animation critiques and weekly Q&A sessions

• Consulting CG Supervisor

  Special Agent Productions

  August 2009 - November 2010

  CG Supervisor and Technical Director generalist work for commercials.
• 

  Consulting Animation Supervisor

  Mixamo

  July 2009 - October 2009

  Gave notes on ways to plus motion capture / mo-cap animation performances for shots and sequences.
• 

  Animation Director

  Electronic Arts

  June 2008 - October 2008

  Redwood Shores, CA

  Unreleased Project - Animation Director
  Godfather 2 - Animator
• 

  CG Creative Director

  Nickelodeon Animation Studio

  May 2005 - March 2008

  Burbank, CA

  DreamWorks’ Penguins of Madagascar - CG Creative Director, Director (pilot), Animator (pilot)
  Tak and the Power of Juju - CG Animation Director, CG Creative Director, Animator
  Fanboy and ChumChum - CG Creative Director
  Bubble Guppies (pilot) - CG Animation Director
  
  • As Head of CG, I oversaw the CG Department’s contributions to four CG animated series
  • Built CG Department to a multiple series team of 50+ CG artists and production staff
  • Established the CG pipeline / workflow methods and department structure
  • Established series’ CG looks and animation styles, from CG visual development to final frames
  • Maintained quality across episodes; supervised both in-house and overseas teams
  • Worked with Producers and Writers to keep scripts within production parameters
  • Character animation, modeling, and compositing on “Tak” and “Penguins” pilots
  • With studio recruiter formed highly successful CG Apprentice program
  • Taught several classes for Nickelodeon University studio training program
• 

  Animator

  Film Roman

  2005 - May 2005

  North Hollywood, CA

  Tripping the Rift - Animator
• 

  Animator

  Pacific Title & Art Studio

  October 2004 - January 2005

  Character animation, FX animation, and Pre-Visualization for films. Projects include:
  "Fantastic Four": Character Animation, FX Animation, and Pre-Visualization for FX development.
  "Elektra": FX Animation.
  "XXX2: State of the Union": FX Animation; Main Title Pre-Visualization.
  AMC “Clip” spec commercial: Direction, Character Animation, Modeling, and Rigging.
• 

  Animation Director / Animator

  MTV

  2003 - 2004

  "The Andy Milonakis Show". Freelance. Animated all 61 FX shots for "The Andy Milonakis Show" pilot.
  Directed and animated show opening for "MTV’s 1st Annual Super Bowl Tailgate Spectacular".
• 

  Animator

  Brain Zoo Studios

  2003 - 2004

  Animation for "Shark Tale", "Shrek 2", "Pitfall Harry", and "Alone in the Dark" game cinematics (PlayStation 2, XBOX).
  Animation, modeling, and blend shape creation for "Rainbow Valley Fire Department" half-hour direct-to-video production.
  Lighting, FX and compositing for "Psi-Ops" game cinematics (PlayStation 2, XBOX).

• Animator

  Creative Capers

  2003 - 2004

  "AOL Super Buddies". Freelance Character Animation, Blendshape Modeling for web 3D avatar project. Project was particularly fun and challenging because characters could only be animated through Maya's blendshape sliders.

• Animator / Artist

  Visual Story Tools

  1998 - 2004

  Various Projects: CG Visual Development; Animation, modeling, texturing for ”Pet Cassette”.
• 

  Animator / Artist

  Jimmy Kimmel Live

  2002 - 2003

  "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC). Motion graphics, titles, FX work, art department work for daily live TV show on an ongoing freelance basis as needed.
• 

  Animator / Artist

  Super 78 Studios

  July 2002 - September 2002

  "Toyota Tent Event" commercial: Animation, Modeling for :30 spot.
  "PowerPuff Girls: Relish Rampage": Character Animation for game cinematics (PS2).

• Animator / Artist

  Playback Technologies

  March 1999 - February 2000

  "Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps": Animation and modeling on set for playback graphics for a couple of days on the Universal lot. Worked a few feet from Eddie Murphy. Ate lots of craft services. 03/99.
  
  "Galaxy Quest": Screen graphics conceptualization for spaceship displays. 02/00.

• Animator / Artist

  Disney TV / Rutherford Bench Productions

  December 1999 - January 2000

  "Disney One Saturday Morning": Animation, modeling, CG artist work on visual development for re-design proposal of Saturday morning program block interstitials. Worked with Jim and Joel Hodgson.

• Animator / Artist

  New Standard Post

  June 1999 - August 1999

  "Racing Stripes": Animation and modeling for pre-visualization. Previs/pitchvis for feature film.
  "Stripped" (HBO TV Pilot): Animation, modeling, texturing, look development for animated sequences.
• 

  Lead Artist

  Black Ops Entertainment

  October 1997 - August 1998

  "James Bond: Tomorrow Never Dies" (PlayStation): Animation, modeling, texturing. Supervised team of seven artists and animators.
• 

  Lead Artist / Computer Graphic Artist III

  Electronic Arts

  May 1995 - September 1997

  "PGA TOUR Pro"; Production Designer: Visual Development and Art Direction for golf game.
  "PGA TOUR 97"; Lead Artist: Art Direction and Supervisor for three artists.
  "PGA TOUR 96"; Artist: Animation, Modeling, Texturing, Interface Design.