Adam Burr

Work History

• 

  Principal Software Engineer

  ROBLOX

  November 2020 - Present

  New York, United States · Remote

  Working on the Engine team in the Avatar Bodies & Clothing pod.
• 

  Senior Research Associate

  Blue Sky Studios

  May 2004 - November 2020

  Greater New York City Area

  Working in the R&D department, I've written graphics and animation software for all 13 of Blue Sky's feature films, from Ice Age to Spies in Disguise. My focus has been real-time face, hair and body deformation and visualization software for animators, using C++XX, OpenGL, OpenCL, Embree, TBB, OpenSubdiv, Qt, Python, Maya API etc. I've also written software for hair grooming, procedural modeling, special effects and more.
• 

  Sr Research Associate

  Blue Sky Studios

  July 2016 - July 2019
• 

  Senior Research Associate

  Blue Sky Studios

  May 2002 - July 2016

  I have worked on all of Blue Sky's 9 feature animations including the four "Ice Age" films, "Robots", "Horton Hears a Who", "Rio" and "Epic". My recent focus has been developing hair animation and visualization software in C++. I've also developed artist oriented software for character rigging, animation, special effects, procedural modeling and many other studio needs. I still occasionally work in production as an effects or rigging artist when schedules are tight. In this capacity I set up the dynamics and animation controls for Linda's hair in "Rio", Vlad's wings in "Horton Hears a Who" and produced various other dynamic character elements and effects for several films.
• 

  Adjunct Professor

  School of Visual Arts

  June 2010 - December 2012

  Greater New York City Area · On-site

  Taught "Advanced Modeling and Rigging" and was a thesis advisor to BFA and MFA students.
• 

  Adjunct Professor

  New York University

  September 2007 - May 2010

  Greater New York City Area · On-site

  Taught "Particles & Dynamics" and "Character Rigging" and advised thesis students at CADA.
• 

  Character Technical Director Supervisor

  Blue Sky Studios

  January 2008 - January 2010

  I supervised the character rigging department during the production of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Rio.
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Blue Sky Studios

  October 1999 - May 2004

  New York City Metropolitan Area

  I began at Blue Sky as a TD, creating effects for the first Ice Age movie. I wrote a real-time LTI dynamics simulation used by animators for most secondary character animation on that film and for fur and skeletal animation on all of Blue Sky’s films. The success of that project inspired me to pursue software engineering.

• Character Technical Director

  GLC Productions

  June 1998 - June 1999

  Greater New York City Area · On-site

  Rigged fifteen characters in Maya for two animated TV series pilots. Wrote scripts for procedural rigging, animation and lighting. Animated and textured various elements and effects for the series.

• Senior Technical Director

  R/GA Digital Studios

  July 1997 - October 1998

  Greater New York City Area · On-site

  Helped develop R/GA's proprietary fur rendering software for a "Snuggles" R&D project. Worked on several Dodge Intrepid and Neon television spots. Wrote Mental Ray shaders including ray marching volumetric materials. Wrote procedural animation and texturing scripts in R/GA's proprietary RPN scanline rendering language. Rendered particle effects using Maya. Helped process and prepare Dodge's proprietary CAD geometry database for rendering.

• Technical Director

  Spontaneous Combustion

  January 1998 - April 1998

  Greater New York City Area · On-site

  Animated and rendered Sprint's CGI "bouncing pin" for TV commercial end tags and created various other commercial elements using Softimage and Mental Ray.

• Technical Director

  Blink FX (aka Image Design)

  June 1995 - July 1997

  Greater New York City Area · On-site

  Worked on 10 different computer animated television projects including commercials for Kool-Aid and G.I.Joe as well as movies for Steven King and United Artists. Wrote a cantilevered beam simulation that processed Alias SDL files. Built and rendered several characters including modeling, rigging, procedural animation, texturing and lighting. Created composite elements using Alias, Elastic Reality, Eddie and other software on SGI IRIX workstations.