David Menkes

Work History

• 

  Owner/Chocolate Maker

  LetterPress Chocolate

  March 2014 - Present

  Los Angeles, California

  Microbatch bean to bar chocolate sourced direct from our partner farms.
• 

  Look Development Lead

  Digital Domain

  September 2022 - August 2024

  Lookdev Lead on Secret Invasion - developed blending technique in Solaris using primvars provided from FX, animated displacement, along with three separate material sets each with their own complete set of textures.

  

  

  
• 

  Senior Look Development Artist

  Digital Domain

  January 2022 - August 2022

  Los Angeles, California, United States
• 

  Senior Lighting Artist

  Digital Domain

  August 2021 - November 2021

  Los Angeles, California, United States

  Maya/Vray for characters and Houdini/Solaris/Redshift for environments on Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• 

  Lighter/Compositor

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  August 2018 - November 2018

  Culver City, CA

  Keylighting and compositing on Into the Spider-verse, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Film in 2019.
• 

  Senior Color & Lighting Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  April 2018 - August 2018

  Culver City, CA

  Key lighting and compositing on Smallfoot
• 

  Lighter/Compositor

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  April 2018 - July 2018

  Keylighting and compositing on Smallfoot
• 

  Senior Color & Lighting Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  April 2017 - June 2017

  Culver City, California

  Key lighting and compositing on Puppy!
• 

  Senior Lighting Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  May 2016 - August 2016

  Culver City, California

  Senior Lighting Artist on Storks
• 

  Senior Lighting Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  November 2014 - August 2015

  culver city, ca

  Look development and sequence key lighting
• 

  lighter/compositor

  DreamWorks Animation

  August 2012 - November 2014
• 

  Senior Color&Lighting; Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  January 2011 - August 2012

  Culver City, CA

  Lighting Lead on Hotel Transylvania
  Look Development and Lighting Lead on Men in Black 3
  Lighting and Compositing on Arthur Christmas
  Lighting and Compositing on The Smurfs
  
  Using Katana with Arnold renderer, and Nuke for compositing

  

  

  

• Look Development TD

  I

  October 2008 - December 2010

  Novato, CA

  Look development and Lighting on Mars Needs Moms
  Look development and Stereo Compositing on A Christmas Carol using Maya, proprietary RenderMan interface, and in-house look development software for material library creation, Nuke for compositing

  
• 

  Senior Lighting Technical Director

  MPC

  December 2007 - April 2008

  London, United Kingdom

  Lighting TD on The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian using Maya with proprietary RenderMan interface.
• 

  Senior Lighting Technical Director

  Framestore

  May 2007 - December 2007

  London, United Kingdom

  Sequence Lead on The Golden Compass using Maya and proprietary RenderMan interface.

  

  

  
• 

  Technical Director

  The Orphanage

  February 2007 - April 2007

  San Francisco, CA

  Look Development and Lighting Technical Director on Die Hard 4.0 using Maya, MentalRay, Photoshop, and After Effects.

  

  
• 

  Lighter/Compositor

  Walt Disney Animation Studios

  April 2006 - January 2007

  Burbank, CA

  Lighting and Compositing on Meet the Robinsons using Lumiere, Maya, RenderMan, and Shake.

  

  
• 

  Color&Lighting; Technical Director

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  March 2004 - March 2006

  Culver City, CA

  Look development/shaders/textures for Open Season (2006) - used proprietary software ShaderMachine, Maya, Photoshop, and BIRPS (RenderMan).
  
  Look development, lighting, compositing for The Polar Express (2004) using BIRPS, Maya, Bonzai.

  
• 

  Lighting Technical Director

  The Orphanage

  December 2003 - March 2004

  San Francisco, CA

  Lighting, shader development, and textures on The Day After Tomorrow (2004). 3dsmax with Brazil R/S, Maya with RenderMan Air, and Photoshop.
• 

  CG Artist

  Blur Studio

  February 2003 - December 2003

  Venice, CA

  Modeling, shaders, textures, and lighting on Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (released 2004). Shaders, lighting, and live-action compositing for Kids WB! ad campaign (2003). Using 3dsmax and Photoshop.

• Freelance Artist

  Four Square Productions

  February 2001 - February 2003

  San Diego, CA

  3d Artist on St. Vincent De Paul's "Promiseland Ranch" television campaign, creating 20 minutes of animation revealing the topography and layout of the Ranch from USGS topology maps, and models from various archetectural design firms using 3dsmax, ElectricImage, and Photoshop.
• 

  Cinematics Artist

  Midway Games

  December 1999 - December 2002

  San Diego, CA

  Modeling, lighting, shaders, textures, compositing, motion graphics design for Midway Cinematics Division using Maya, Photoshop and After Effects. Publicity artwork using Maya and Photoshop for the Creative Services Division.
• 

  3d Artist

  Kronos Incorporated

  June 1998 - November 1999

  Pasadena, CA

  Models, shaders, textures, lighting, and compositing for the Playstation cinematic game Fear Effect using PowerAnimator, Photoshop, and Composer

• Production Assistant

  Caliban Filmworks

  April 1998 - June 1998

  Production assistant for Caliban Filmworks. Trained on Flint, Flame, and Inferno, and assisted with garbage mattes and rotoscoping for The X-Files Movie. 3d modeling, texturing, and compositing for Teaching Mrs. Tingle using PowerAnimator, Photoshop, and Flint.

• Owner

  MultiMedia Productions

  June 1996 - April 1998

  Wrightwood, CA

  Web designer and graphic design for local news websites and real estate agents. Registered domain names through the National Science Foundation/NSI for over 300 clients. Graphic design for local telecommunications using Photoshop. Web design with CoffeeCup HTML, Adobe PageMill, Microsoft FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Java, and CSS.
• 

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  ? - Present

  
• 

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  ? - Present