Ben Laidlaw

Work History

• 

  Technical Artist

  Ubisoft Toronto

  May 2017 - Present

  Toronto, Canada
• 

  Technical Artist

  343 Industries

  March 2014 - October 2016

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

  

  

• Technical Artist

  Psyop - Mass Market - Blacklist

  April 2013 - January 2014

  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.
• 

  Technical Artist

  Rhythm & Hues Studios

  December 2011 - April 2013

  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

  

  

• Technical Artist

  FloqFX

  January 2011 - November 2011

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

  Technical Artist

  MPC

  November 2010 - December 2010

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

• Technical Artist

  Motion Theory (currently Mirada)

  October 2010 - November 2010

  Lighting and rendering on a commercial called Mott's Garden Cocktail "Vegetable Garden"
• 

  Intern

  Side Effects Software

  August 2010 - November 2010

  Teach, document and develop media for the software Houdini.

• Technical Artist

  Solutions By Design

  July 2010 - November 2010

  Creating assorted 3-D dental advertising media.

• Technical Artist

  Mekanism

  May 2010 - June 2010

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

• A.V. Technician

  Visual Aids Electronics

  October 2008 - June 2010

  Logistics & Support for corporate meetings at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

• Technical Consultant

  Creo Novo

  May 2006 - May 2007

  Lighting, green screen rigging, SFX, match-moving and miniature development.

• Film Engineer

  Fairleigh Dickinson University

  September 2005 - May 2007

  Installing, maintaining and repairing lab and film equipment.

• Volunteer/Freelance Cinematographer

  Adelphia Communications

  February 1998 - August 2006

  Studio work and field shooting.

• A.V. Technician

  Visual Aids Electronics

  May 2004 - July 2006

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