Ashraf Ghoniem

Work History

• 

  Effects Supervisor

  Wētā FX

  October 2015 - April 2019

  FX Supervisor on Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
• 

  Senior FX Technical Director

  Wētā FX

  October 2015 - June 2016

  Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand

  Independence Day: Resurgence
  Developed and Lead queen ground interaction rig. This rig included proceduraly generated fractured ground geometry, rigid-body simulation, and fluid simulation. This was all run in line procedurally with very limited artist interaction over most of the sequence Weta did.

  

  

  

  

  
• 

  CG Lead

  The Mill

  March 2013 - October 2015

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Leading Jobs and FX teams on larger Jobs.
  Responsible for Pipeline development in the following areas.
  General Houdini Pipeline
  Destruction Pipeline
  Fur Pipeline
  Cloth Pipeline
  Notable projects:
  Google Help!
  Position Fx Lead
  This was a larger and exciting project. I was supervising the 7 artist FX team for it. The job was 5 mins long and rendered in 360. There were hardly any cuts so all the simulations had to end naturally. I was also personally responsible for the bridge destruction at the end of the piece.
  OHSU OneDown.org
  Position: CG Lead
  This was a fun spot I was really happy with doing a lot of lookdev, layout, and animation on this one. We had a small talented team and where able to create some very compelling imagery.
  Duralast "walk the walk"​
  Position: CG Lead
  This spot was very challenging because of the sheer volume of FX we had to push through for such a relatively short spot. I was also personally responsible for all the airplane explosion but most notably the final plane crashing explosion at the end.
  Infiniti "frozen moment"​
  Position: CG Lead
  This was an interesting spot because usually when doing FX it is about the motion but this spot was about creating a static frozen set of elements. So it was fun having to look at it as a diorama instead of a moving simulation.
  Call of Duty "Epic Night Out"
  Position: FX Lead
  I liked this one just because we got to work on a call of duty spot and because I really enjoyed pushing the pipeline and the fx team at the mill to produce some very high quality FX. It paid off as well since it won the VES for best composting that year. I was also personally responsible for the helicopter explosion towards the end of the spot.
• 

  Mentor

  Side Effects Software

  November 2012 - March 2013

  Helped mentor side effects interns on the in and outs of Houdini specifically on the usage of Houdini for character effects tasks in the completion of a project.
• 

  Houdini Instructor

  Gnomon School of Visual Effects

  September 2012 - March 2013

  I currently teach a Houdini FX class at Gnomon. This is the final Houdini class in the cycle. I sought to try to create a curriculum that helps the students get the hands on knowledge of the dynamics aspect of Houdini. This class covers pyro,flip,pops,dops,hda creation, rbd solves,and advanced sops/vops.
• 

  Character FX Lead

  DreamWorks Animation

  May 2012 - March 2013

  Glendale, CA

  Currently one of two Show leads on the movie Turbo.
  Developed
  Grass simulation within Houdini.
  Hair simulation within Houdini.
  Feather pipeline/grooming and simulation within Houdini. This work was considered for 2014 Academy award in Science and Technology.
  A few utilitarian HDA's for CFX within Houdini.

  

  
• 

  CFX Animator/Developer

  DreamWorks Animation

  July 2009 - March 2013

  Puss in Boots
  Lead the development of a new feather system in CFX at DreamWorks. Also created a Houdini grooming solution to quickly create look of birds to be handled in shots. This tool set allowed quick painting of geometry to create a feather groom and allows quick iteration time with art to get look of bird. The system is currently being used on Puss in Boots and Croods.
  Ushered the implementation of Houdini into the fur simulation pipeline for Puss in Boots. Also Developed the simulation setup for the baby goose character in the film.
  How to train your Dragon
  Developed the cloth simulation of the ship sails for the movie. This included individual rigs for one off shots and a system of placing canned simulations in large shots so that the artists would not need to sim each ship individually.
• 

  Feather Rep/Lead

  DreamWorks Animation

  March 2011 - December 2012

  The current architecture of the feather simulation and grooming pipeline was designed by myself. So I am In charge of interfacing with R&D and the studio at large for future and current development needs of the feather pipeline at DreamWorks Animation specifically for Character FX. This includes supporting the tool set amongst artist not only on my current show but across all shows currently in production.
• 

  Houdini Rep/Lead

  DreamWorks Animation

  March 2011 - December 2012

  Lead the integration of Houdini in the Character Effects Department. This included interfacing with the department heads and the studio leadership from a myriad of issues including integration into the pipeline, training, and technology needs from our internal pipeline group and SideFX.
• 

  FX Animator

  DreamWorks Animation

  October 2008 - July 2009

  
  Fx Animator on Monsters Vs. Aliens and Shrek 4
  
  On Monsters Vs. Aliens I developed a scatter simulator for set dressing debris using DOPs within Houdini. This allowed me to quickly create a natural scattering of debris automatically and procedurally.
  
  On Shrek 4 I ran a smattering of FX shots including some development on a technique for allowing the witch characters to dissolve when hit with water.
  
• 

  Crowd Artist

  DreamWorks Animation

  July 2006 - June 2008

  Kung Fu Panda
  I was one of two people who worked in crowds. My responsibilities included crowd
  simulation for shot work. And pipeline development in mel and python for the cycle cloth pipeline.

  
• 

  FX Technical Director

  Framestore

  March 2006 - May 2006

  ran a variety of Houdini fx shots specifically the transition from human to wolf on the show Blood and Chocolate.
• 

  CFX Animator

  DreamWorks Animation

  July 2005 - March 2006

  
  Worked on the film "Over the Hedge" my responsibilities include cloth simulation and pipeline development for that task. I have developed a handful of PERL scripts for the pipeline. And run many shots for the show. I have also developed cloth garments for two characters on the show.
  

  

• FX Technical Director

  R!ot Pictures

  March 2005 - June 2005

  Hired short term to develop and apply two fx shots in the feature "The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl" my responsibilities included the development of a volumetric jet trail effect for one shot and a smoke for another shot. I developed these within Maya using Maya's fluid system and particles.

• Technical Director

  Elements Studios

  January 2005 - January 2005

  Elements was hired to consult for Method Studios on a Toyota commercial. I was involved with development and application of two effects shots in the spot. Within Houdini using particle systems, houdini vex builder, and rendering within mantra.
• 

  Technical Director

  CIS Hollywood

  December 2004 - January 2005

  I was Hired Short term to create a system for the feature Constantine to create the effect of a character transitioning from the filmed black hair to the replaced cg white hair. I used maya fur, Shave and a Haircut, mayaman, and PRMAN to accomplish this task. I also helped with some misc. particle effects on the show.
• 

  Cloth Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  March 2004 - November 2004

  I was working on the feature The Polar Express. I was responsible for cloth simulations of many shots in the movie. This includes simulation and clean-up of cloth, as well as following art direction using SPI's proprietary cloth pipeline.

  
• 

  3dfx Artist

  Digital Domain

  August 2003 - November 2003

  I worked on the feature The Day After Tomorrow. I was assigned to the twister team to recreate the natural phenomena of debris being picked up by tornadoes. Within Houdini.