Ben Laidlaw

Work History

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  May 2017 - Present

  Technical Artist

  Ubisoft Toronto
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  March 2014 - October 2016

  Technical Artist

  343 Industries

  Developing the pipeline for creating complex environment assets that get out software and into game.

  
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  April 2013 - January 2014

  Technical Artist

  Psyop - Mass Market - Blacklist

  Freelance commercial work, mostly as a Technical Artist, but bending with the flow of the projects. I did Houdini work primarily, but I was working with other packages like Maya and XSI, too.
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  December 2011 - April 2013

  Technical Artist

  Rhythm & Hues Studios

  At R&H I was in a hybrid position of doing research and development, shader creation, look-development, effects and lighting, and was often between departments solving workflow and pipeline issues. I think the position can best be described by Bruce Lee in his quote on water...
  
  Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the

  
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  January 2011 - November 2011

  Technical Artist

  FloqFX

  Project wide work with a focus in the asset management pipeline. We created the first ever stereoscopic planetarium show in Houdini for National Geographic.
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  November 2010 - December 2010

  Technical Artist

  MPC

  Working with volumetrics, lighting and rendering on a commercial for Tobacco Free CA: Secondhand Sally.
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  October 2010 - November 2010

  Technical Artist

  Motion Theory (currently Mirada)

  Lighting and rendering on a commercial called Mott's Garden Cocktail "Vegetable Garden"
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  August 2010 - November 2010

  Intern

  Side Effects Software

  Teach, document and develop media for the software Houdini.
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  July 2010 - November 2010

  Technical Artist

  Solutions By Design

  Creating assorted 3-D dental advertising media.
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  May 2010 - June 2010

  Technical Artist

  Mekanism

  Match moving for a Bossa Nova commercial, doing some tricky transparent spacial transforms that allowed for some creative problem solving.
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  October 2008 - June 2010

  A.V. Technician

  Visual Aids Electronics

  Logistics & Support for corporate meetings at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
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  May 2006 - May 2007

  Technical Consultant

  Creo Novo

  Lighting, green screen rigging, SFX, match-moving and miniature development.
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  September 2005 - May 2007

  Film Engineer

  Fairleigh Dickinson University

  Installing, maintaining and repairing lab and film equipment.
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  February 1998 - August 2006

  Volunteer/Freelance Cinematographer

  Adelphia Communications

  Studio work and field shooting.
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  May 2004 - July 2006

  A.V. Technician

  Visual Aids Electronics

  Logistics & Support for corporate meetings with clients, such as, Dunkin’ Donuts
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