Ethan Summers

Ethan Summers

Emmy Awarded CG sup and Environment Artist

Supervisor Emmy Awarded CG Environment Artist / 24 yrs

Santa Cruz Ca. United States

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Visual Effects

The River (2012)

Lead Terrain artist (contract)

Terra Nova (2011)

Supervising Terrain Artist {Contract}

Gettysburg (2011)

Digital Effect Artist

Sucker Punch (2011)

Digital Environments

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

CG Instructor

One (2005)

Modeling Team

DJ Acucrack: So to Speak (2002)

Ethan is an Emmy awarded digital environment specialist and VFX artist with 30 years of experience in fine art, visual effects, scientific & educational visualization, and project conceptualization. He has created and directed projects ranging from the future of energy, 3d software design, interactive education, public art display, and museum exhibition on various themes. Through his years of experience, Ethan has become passionate that modern techniques in film, visual effects, CG animation and time-lapse imagery can be used as an effective way to communicate difficult to understand scientific and environmental topics.

He has worked in lead and consultation roles for many clients including Autodesk, Pixomondo, Stargate Studios, Prime Focus Films, Sony, NASA, Sundance Institute, Shilo, Mattel, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Hewlett Packard, Disney, Viacom Interactive, Hasbro, Coca Cola and IBM.


Work History

  • CEO

    Almost Human Media

    January 2020 - Present
    Santa Cruz

    https://almosthumanmedia.com/

  • CEO

    Almost Human Media

    January 2020 - Present
    Santa Cruz

  • Emmy awarded environments for film and television

    The Underground VFX

    2011 - November 2019

    The Underground provides high-end, price competitive solutions for large scale CG environments, dynamic cloud-scapes and pryoclastic explosions. We also provide services in look development and scientific visualization.
    Ethan is an Emmy award winning artist with over twenty years experience in Visual Effects and with an equal amount of time working in the fine arts. With expertise in many facets of production, he has worked in feature film, television and scientific visualization with specialties in Digital Environment Creation, Art Direction, and Workfl

  • CG Landscape vender

    Bridgstone Tires / The Mission Studio

    February 2013 - March 2013

    Bridgstone Tires, The Mission Studio. Created large CG landscapes in Terragen that change through the seasons as the shot cam follows a car.

  • Fluids / Cloudscape vender for Lionsgate Intro

    Lionsgate / Deva studios

    February 2012 - February 2013

    Lionsgate Studios / Deva Studios. The Underground VFX Created all fluid effects and CG cloud-scapes for the new Lionsgate theatrical Logo. Project included much in-house development of our cloud system for creating highly detailed and vast evolving cloud-scapes.

  • CG Environment vendor

    Stargate Studios

    March 2012 - May 2012

    Stargate studios. Supervising terrain artist for Beauty and the Beast - an ambitious ABC pilot that never made it to the air. Work included creating large scale city environments, surrounding countryside plus CG cloudscapes in a demanding 8 week schedule.

  • Landscape vender

    Encore VFX

    January 2012 - March 2012

    Encore Studios. Created jungles and CG cloudscapes for season closing shots of ABC’s “The River”. Work included designing a dynamics system in Maya that allowed foliage and trees objects to move and transform over a changing landform.

  • Cofounder , Principal Creative

    Blackbox Effects

    June 2006 - 2012

    Blackbox is a visual effects company aimed at communicating scientific and environmental issues through cinemagraphic visual effects.

  • Lead CG generalist (Contract)

    Paramount / Deva Studios

    May 2011 - September 2011

    Paramount studios 100th year anniversary intro. Lead CG Generalist. Ongoing collaboration for look and feel and shot methodology with the Art Director and the Terragen Lead ( Matt Fairclough - the creator of Terragen ). Created landscape design and layout for the shot and invented refined a fluids workflow in Maya for cloud work. Deva Studios.

  • Lead Terrain artist (contract)

    Pixomondo

    April 2011 - July 2011

    Pixomondo Burbank. 3 terrain shots for Speilburg’s Terra Nova. Shots were completed in Terragen 2 under a tight schedule and then used as templates for many remaining shots over the course of the series.

  • Supervising Terrain Artist {Contract}

    Stargate Studios

    January 2011 - March 2011

    Stargate Studios. Supervising Terrain Artist. I lead the recreation of Gettysburg and the surrounding countryside depicted during the Civil War in 1863. Project included over 4000 frames of highly detailed landscape flyover in 7 weeks of production time and went on to win the Emmy award for best Visual Effects for a special or miniseries. Primary landscape software used was Terragen 2, Maya and extensive use of satellite elevation maps for geographic accuracy.

  • Lead environment R&D and Workflow Design (Contract)

    Prime Focus World

    October 2010 - December 2010

    Prime Focus Films - Lead environment R&D and Workflow Designer on Zack Snyders’s Sucker Punch. Responsible for developing usable workflows and essential look and feel in the context of Maya and Terragen for the opening shot of the movie as well as an extended alien planet sequence.

  • Lead Environment Artist

    Prime Focus World

    2009 - 2009

    Lead Environment artist on GI Joe - aerial chase sequence. Developed look and feel and methodology for creating photorealistic 3d sky and cloudscapes using Terragen and Maya fluids. Hands on work included large portion of the final shots.

  • CG Instructor

    Gnomon Workshop

    2004 - 2009

    Authored 3 vfx instructional DVDs - One on E-on software's Vue and 2 exploring the Paint Effects module in Maya

  • Freelance Artist

    FatBox

    2004 - 2007

    Commercial, Medical and Microbiological vfx production

  • Senior Environment artist EA Games / Palma Productions

    EA Games

    2003 - 2003

    My job at the time was to create digital game environments to match film footage from the Lord of the RIngs trilogy.

  • Lead Artist

    Illumina Productions

    1993 - 1996

    Illumina Productions - Concept development and lead 3-D Artist for for various projects over 3 years

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