Rob Nitsch

Work History

• Principal & Art Director

  The Nitsch Group, LLC

  2010 - Present
• 

  Senior Character Effects Developer

  DreamWorks Animation

  June 2007 - June 2011

  Senior Character Effects Artist
  Puss in Boots
  -Shot level work
  Senior Character Effects Developer
  Kung Fu Panda 2
  -Developed library clothing set ups for primary and
  secondary characters.
  Senior Character Effects Developer
  Shrek Goes Forth
  -Developed over 60 library clothing set ups for primary and
  secondary characters.
  -Developed workflow and toolset for the animation / simulation
  of dynamically grown chains.
  -Developed the “sticky run-up” tool which assists in blending
  from library position to initial shot position of clothing.
  Senior Character Effects Artist
  Kung Fu Panda
  -Shot work for Clothing and Hair/Fur Simulations
  -Shot work for finaling and High resolution Animation
  -Developed work flow and executed one off technical animation
  for props

  

  
• 

  Effects Lead

  Electronic Arts

  April 2006 - June 2007

  FX Lead, Metal of Honor Vanguard game
  -Developed for the PS2 and Wii platform.
  -Created and managed the effects for in game play
  -Advised on pipeline modification to streamline effects workflow
• 

  Look Dev/Pipeline/FX Lead

  Zoic Studios

  September 2004 - March 2006

  Effects Animation Supervisor, Studio wide position
  -Designs the look and production methodology of dynamic simulations.
  -Provides technical supervision and communicates project vision,
  goals and milestones to a team of fx animators.
  -Creation and deployment of fx tools.
  -Integral member of Feature Pipeline Team.
  -Forcasts/Bid effects budgets on future projects
  Serenity Feature Film
  -Developed look for particle work to be rendered through Mental Ray.
  -Developed work flow tools for particles and fluid simulation.
  -Developed velocity mapping techniques and tools for constant look of simulations through out film
  -Creating the particle and fluid elements for shots using Mental ray

  
• 

  Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  March 2004 - September 2004

  Cloth Department, on The Polar Express
  -create and clean up cloth simulations for over 30 characters

  
• 

  Fluid/Particle Technical Director

  The Orphanage

  October 2003 - March 2004

  Hellboy Feature film
  -Created fire to engulf character's hand/body using Maya's Fluid simulator
  -Wrote sprite tool which optimized render times, using the Air renderer
  Particle Technical Director on SSX 3 commercial
  -Created snow effects: falling snow, spraying snow, avalanche

  
• 

  FX Technical Director

  ESC Entertainment

  February 2003 - September 2003

  Matrix Revolutions - Feature Film
  -Ran simulations and rendered falling rain
  -Rain splashes off hard surfaces and characters.
  -Volumetric fog, created with proprietary tools and
  mental ray volumes
  -Created the ground splash system that was used
  by other FX TD's .
  -FX lighting (rain lighting, lightning connections, and fog volume lighting
• 

  Special Effects Artist

  LucasArts

  2001 - 2003

  Effects creation - rigid body, soft body, fluid, particle, and cloth technical animation - non-character animation
• 

  Internship

  Industrial Light & Magic

  June 2000 - September 2000

  Summer Internship in the Rebel Mac and Digital Matte Departments.
  Assisted artist in production tasks, such as creating and manipulating
  elements for use in their shots.