Jon Finch

Work History

• 

  Lead CG Environment Designer

  Skybound Entertainment

  June 2022 - Present

  Long Beach, California, United States

  CG Environment designer - Amazon Prime Original 2D animated series - Invincible
  - Translating color scripts, storyboards, animatics and vocal descriptions into functional environment designs.
  - Delivering 2D and 3D concept art packages for art director, BG paint department and partner studios.
  - Pre-Vis/Layout - Performing staging and blocking of camera and geometry.
  - Mentoring new hires

  

  

• IATSE Local 800 Art Directors Guild - MEMBER

  .

  November 2020 - Present
• 

  Adjunct PROFESSOR @ California State University - Long Beach

  California State University, Long Beach

  January 2011 - Present

  Teaching Computer Animation to BFA students in the animation program at California State University - Long Beach
  
  - Maya, Zbrush and Substance Painter
  - Modeling
  - Character rigging
  - UVing
  - Texturing
  - Lighting
  - Shaders
  - Animation / keyframe techniques
  - Rendering of final animation project for portfolio in Arnold and compositing in Adobe Premiere Pro
  - General real-world studio optimization and workflow
  
  ______________________________________________________________
  
  Teaching Digital Fabrication Lab - 3D printing / laser cutting / CNC milling
  
  Digital Fabrication Lab -
  Laser Cutters
  - Universal VLS4.60
  - Creality Falcon 2 40w diode laser
  CNC
  - Carbide Nomad 883
  3D printers
  - MakerGear M3
  - Prusa i3 MK3S+
  - Creality Ender 3 Pro
  - Creality CR 10S
  - Creality Ender 3 Max Neo

• IATSE Local 839 Animation Guild- MEMBER

  .

  November 2002 - Present
• 

  senior CG artist

  Soul Machines

  June 2022 - August 2022

  Modeling exploration of real-time stylized phenotype
  Wardrobe Team - clothing development process - Marvelous Designer

• Lead CG Designer

  Disney Televison Animation

  August 2021 - July 2022

  Monsters at Work - season 2
  Overseeing modeling of all characters, environments and props to ensure all modeling deliverables are completed and in line with the production
  - Guiding modeling edgeflow /topology designs to advocate for the best deformation.
  - Working with partner studio and Pixar to define the creative and technical approach for the show.
  - Give feedback/critiques and troubleshoot workflow and design improvements
  - Contributing to technical aspects of the production - exploration of hair groom, look dev, cloth sim, character deformation and prototyping new monsters.
  - Assisted Previs/ shot Scouting department
• 

  Senior Unreal Environment World Builder

  RYOT

  March 2021 - April 2022

  Yahoo! - RYOT Lab -
  - Rapid prototype 3D environments of proposed shoot
  -Assemble environments in Unreal Engine using Unreal Marketplace, Kitbash, Megascan and custom modeled assets made in Maya.
  -Toolsets include - Unreal, xNormal, Photoshop, Maya, Substance Painter, ZBrush.
  -Lighting of exterior and interior environments in Unreal.
  -PBR material /shader creation in Unreal.
  -Use of of Unreal foliage and landscape tools for instances where custom terrain is needed for an environment.
  -Modeling, UVing, and texturing custom assets in Maya and Substance Painter then exported to Unreal.
  -Worked with lead Unreal engineer.
  -Use of Unreal Sequencer and AVO output.
• 

  Senior CG Generalist

  Bento Box Entertainment

  March 2021 - August 2021

  The Bob's Burgers Movie - feature film
  Doing a little bit of EVERYTHING.
  - Maya troubleshooting
  - Camera projections and creating custom 3D sets/camera moves to give 2D scenes 3D parallax
  - Using Mental Ray - Maya 2015
  - Animation/fixes
  - Creating/editing AOV passes to support the Harmony/NUKE team
  - Substance Painter texturing
  - 3D modeling
• 

  CG supervisor

  Marvel Entertainment

  June 2019 - September 2020

  Burbank, CA

  CG visual Development lead
  Doing a little bit of everything to help launch a NEW Marvel CG show
  - CG Lead to outsourcing studios
  - Character /Environment/vehicle CG look development
  - Toy development working with Disney Consumer Products
  - Maya Character rigging
  - Maya Modeling/Zbrush sculpting
  - Substance Painter Texturing
  - Maya XGen hair designs
  - Unreal Engine/HTC Vive - shot scouting in VR setup
  - ...and much more
• 

  senior 3D modeler

  Warner Bros.

  March 2019 - July 2019

  Burbank, CA
• 

  Senior VR artist

  WEVR

  May 2017 - March 2019

  Venice, CA

  https://www.gnomesandgoblins.com/
  WeVR - https://wevr.com/ - Where I've worked as a senior artist
  on the full VR experience "Gnomes & Goblins" working with Jon Favreau ( director of Ironman, Jungle Book, Lion King, Elf, Zathura and actor in many films ) . We've been using tools such as Maya, Adobe suite, Zbrush, Unreal Engine 4, Handplane, xNormal, Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag, Perforce and Jira for the Vive VR platform

• Senior Artist - Linkin Park VR Destination project ( credited )

  Prologue Immersive / Spatialand VR /....now Insperience

  June 2017 - July 2017

  Venice, CA

  At Prologue Immersive (https://prologueimmersive.com/) I was asked to work on a number of diverse projects...one very exciting project involves the musical group Linkin Park. Here's the trailer we released at E3 - https://vimeo.com/221335196
  Duties include:
  - Hard and organic surface modeling in Maya
  - Character modeling
  - Character rigging
  - UVing of assets
  - Texturing
  - 3D assets and elements creation
  - FACS based blendshape creation
  - Character animation - lip syncing
  - 3D look-dev - process documentation
  - Working closely with Unity engineers
  - UI concept look-dev - UI elements animation - export to Unity
  
• 

  Senior CG Artist

  WEVR

  February 2017 - April 2017

  Venice, CA

  Working on unannounced VR project......it's a secret
  https://wevr.com/
• 

  CG Generalist/Digital Sculptor - Advanced Concepts Team

  Daqri

  May 2014 - February 2017

  DAQRI is the world's leading enterprise augmented reality company powering the future of work through innovative hardware/software products.
  
  I worked at DAQRI on the advanced concepts team of Unity/augmented reality virtual human (ARToolKit) developers. Some of my duties include managing all internal 3D modeling/UVing production needs, supervising and hiring of onsite freelance 3D artists, managing/reviewing all 3D modeling/UVing from outsourced China studios and assisting in rigging, animation and texturing. While working closely with client and partner companies, including but not limited to Activision, Crayola, Disney, Mattel and Illumination Entertainment, I was also intimately involved in the creation of branded content for DAQRI’s marketing and product pursuits for the Smart Helmet, Smart Glasses and Holographic HUD. I was the lead character modeler creating the base 3D sculpture and over 60 FACS based facial shapes of an AR version of Ashton Kutcher for our Lenovo client and another project with Usher. Having worked very closely with our photogrammetry team, I helped develop a productive technique for using scan data to accurately recreate / retopologize digital doubles and align facial poses for blendshape creation.
• 

  CG supervisor

  Fuhu, Inc

  November 2013 - April 2014

  El Segundo, CA

  ___________Charms 18__________
  Duties include....
  - Creating CG department
  - Finding/interviewing/hiring artists
  - Directing hardware/software needs for team
  - Leading the modeling of characters and environments
  - Guiding the technical aspects of the CG department
  - Hair R&D - Polygonal, Maya nHair grooming, Mental Ray rendering using p_HairTK shaders and Shave and a Haircut
  - Character rigging
  - Mentoring jr. artists
  - General Maya troubleshooting
  - Collaborated with product engineers on delivery of finalized 3D CAD files and the conversion to polygon based geometry of toy prototypes.
  
  Fuhu, Inc., creator of the nabi tablet, is a leading designer, seller and innovator of thoughtful consumer products and services for children.
  www.nabitablet.com, www.nabishop.com , www.fuhu.com

• look-dev character modeler - CG feature film "SMART"

  Xing Xing studios

  September 2013 - October 2013

  Pasadena

  https://www.xing-xing.com/en/en/
  "Smart" feature animated film
  
  Smart is an original animated film produced by Xing-Xing. It is made by crew from China and US. The cast includes John Davis, a director in Oscar level, and famous writers Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow. There are also many other talented artists in the crew. The well-made film is a story about a cute robot and is suitable for family audiences.
• 

  Senior Artist ( no credit )

  Blind Squirrel Games

  April 2013 - July 2013

  Costa Mesa, CA

  Character artist/character technical artist on next gen console development project The Evil Within
  working with Bethesda Studios and EVOLVE with Turtle Rock Studios
  - Developing character modeling pipeline
  - Retopologizing/upresing/adding detail to silhouettes of low res character models and textures.
  - Re UVing to match existing UVs
  - Re rigging/adding to rig for secondary animation control and working with the animation team
  https://www.blindsquirrelgames.com/
• 

  CG Artist - TRON: Uprising ( credited )

  Walt Disney Television Animation

  April 2012 - May 2013

  Glendale,CA

  Working directly with the amazing Alberto Mielgo on Season 1 of "TRON: Uprising"​ TV series for the Disney XD channel (now on Disney+) as a CG artist/ technical director doing a little bit of everything - from simple shot retakes/changes to creating new scenes - modeling, shading, particles, rigging, texturing, lighting, heavy use of render layers and referencing in Maya, Mental Ray troubleshooting, working with over seas studio, compositing in NUKE - After Effects, lip sync and character animating.
  Working heavily in NUKE with .EXR files, shuffle node, animating rotos/masking, Sapphire plug-ins (warps, heat effects and water effects) and tracking.
  After Effects was used for animated textures (HUD displays, billboards, special effects on surfaces in Maya) to be brought back into Maya and rendered as a separate pass to be composited in NUKE
  
  Also worked on the NEW show "Gravity Falls"​ on the Disney channel....character modeling and intergrating CG into 2D scenes.
  https://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/gravityfalls/
  
  
  40th Annie Awards winner.............................
  Production Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production Alberto Mielgo ‘Tron: Uprising: The Stranger’ – Disney TV Animation
  
  Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production Robert Valley ‘Disney Tron: Uprising: The Renegade, Part I’ – Disney TV Animation
• 

  CG Artist/NUKE compositor - TRON: Uprising

  The Walt Disney Company

  January 2012 - January 2013

  Burbank, CA

  Worked on Season 1 of "TRON: Uprising"​ TV series for the Disney XD channel (now on Disney+) as a CG artist doing a little bit of everything - modeling, shading, particles, rigging, texturing, lighting, heavy use of render layers and referencing in Maya, Mental Ray troubleshooting, working with over seas studio, compositing in NUKE - After Effects, lip sync and character animating.
  Working heavily in NUKE with .EXR files, shuffle node, animating rotos/masking, Sapphire plug-ins (warps, heat effects and water effects) and tracking.
  After Effects was used for animated textures (HUD displays, billboards, special effects on surfaces in Maya) to be brought back into Maya and rendered as a separate pass to be composited in NUKE
  
  Also worked on the NEW show "Gravity Falls"​ on the Disney channel....character modeling and intergrating CG into 2D scenes.
  https://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/gravityfalls/
  
  
  40th Annie Awards winner.............................
  Production Design in an Animated T
• 

  CG concept Generalist - "New virtual Disney - world"

  Disney Interactive Studios

  September 2011 - September 2012

  North Hollywood

  - Modeling high resolution environments in Maya and ZBrush
  - Creating textures for environments including height maps, color maps, normal maps, spec maps and transparency maps in Photoshop and ZBrush
  - UV map textures to polygonal surfaces using ZBrush and Maya
  - Rendering/troubleshooting with Mental Ray
  - Using/consulting on Disney proprietary software
  - Working closely with software engineers and avatar teams
  - Working under Agile/Scrum production
  Projects/IPs included - Unannounced New Disney virtual world - Club Penguin, Mad Hatter, 100 Acre Wood, Pixie Hollow, Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room
• 

  Senior Character Modeler - Purina Fancy Feast commercial

  King and Country

  2012 - 2012

  Santa Monica

  Purina Fancy Feast commercial
• 

  CG Character Modeler - "Dragons: Riders of Berk" (credited)

  DreamWorks Animation

  May 2011 - September 2011

  Sherman Oaks

  "Dragons: Riders of Berk" - the TV series starting on Cartoon Network August 7th (this Tuesday)
  - I modeled the characters Meatlug, Fishlegs, and Stoick in Maya and ZBrush
  - Normal map creation
  - UV layout
  - Proxy modeling
  
  40th Annie Awards winner.............................
  Animated Television Production For Children "Dragons: Riders of Berk" -- "How to Pick Your Dragon" – DreamWorks Animation
  Storyboarding in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production Doug Lovelace "Dragons: Riders of Berk: Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Man" – DreamWorks Animation
• 

  Character /Environment/ Prop Modeler - "Hotel Transylvania" ( no credi

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  April 2010 - November 2010

  https://youtu.be/q4RK3jY7AVk
  
  Character, environmental and prop modeler on the CG animated feature “Hotel Transylvania”
  - Organic Modeling - humans, creatures, clothing, props
  - Hard Surface Sub-D Modeling - vehicles, environments interior/exterior, props
  - UVing to production requirements
  - Using SONY proprietary software/database system
  - Worked closely with rigging/hair/cloth/texturing/look-dev teams
  - Proactive communication
• 

  CG Character Modeler - "Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings" ( credited

  The Walt Disney Company/Disney Toon Studios

  October 2009 - January 2010

  Glendale, CA

  Previously known as "Tinkerbell and the Mysterious Winter Woods"
  Front End CG Look Development modeler - "Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings"
  - Modeling CG maquettes - working directly with director.
  - Responsible for modeling corrective and facial blendshapes and digital maquettes of main fairie characters, animals, environments and props for director approval.
  - Promoted working relationship with over-seas studio - Prana
  - Consulting on production issues dealing with rigging, hair grooms and modeling
  ************************* TRAILER **************************************************************
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQeJ0iyxgCQ
• 

  Lead Character Technical Artist - "Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesome

  Nickelodeon Animation Studio

  October 2008 - October 2009

  Lead Character Technical Artist working on "The Penguins of Madagascar", "Fanboy and Chum Chum" and "Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness"
  - Managing 3 other Technical artists
  - Working with overseas studios
  - Rigging characters and props
  - Worked closely with modeling department to get consistent rigable models
• 

  CG Character Modeler - PEPFAR project (President's Emergency Plan for

  Warner Bros. Pictures

  August 2008 - October 2008

  Modeling CG Characters and Environments for Warner Bros. produced CG shorts on the Warner Bros. lot for the Presidents Emergency Program for Aids Relief.
  - Making character models riggable while maintaining low polygon geometry and stylizing environments in line with Art Direction.
  - Worked closely with the Director, Chris Bailey, to achieve the look while being considerate of creating and supporting a healthy asset/deliverable for others in the pipeline.
  - Hard and organic modeling in Maya and XSI.
  - Modeling properly for cloth.
  "Click" on "LEARN" to view CG shorts
  https://hivfreegeneration.warnerbros.com/
  https://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/112568.pdf
• 

  CG Designer - Astro Boy Movie ( credited )

  Imagi Animation Studios

  October 2007 - August 2008

  www.iMAGi.com.hk
  As a CG designer/Generalist, I worked with the art director/director and as part of the Look Development team to define all the technical and artistic aspects needed to create the appearance of an element to be used in Astro Boy.
  Duties include:
  - 2D look development of environments/sets/props
  - CG designs of characters/environments/sets/props
  - Rigging R&D
  - Maya hair grooming - look-development
  - nCloth simulation
  - Lighting/rendering
  - Liaison between the IT and art department.
  https://www.astroboy-themovie.com/
• 

  Character Technical Artist - "Tak and the Power of Juju" and "Pe

  Nickelodeon Animation Studio

  February 2007 - October 2007

  www.nick.com/tak/
  I was the Maya character set-up artist on "Tak and the Power of Juju" and the proof of concept test for "The Penguins of Madagascar" a future show based around the penguins from the movie "Madagascar" for Nickelodeon Animation Studios.
  Duties include:
  - Character-Prop Rigging/trouble shooting, Lighting and Modeling
  - CG Apprentice Mentoring
  - General Maya Problem Solving
  - Working with over-seas studios in India and Taiwan
• 

  Senior CG Artist/Consultant

  NVIDIA

  October 2005 - February 2007

  www.nvidia.com
  Senior Maya artist working in a hybrid capacity on the nVIDIA marketing /demo team that is responsible for creating demos that showcase the power of nVIDIA's chipsets using the latest technology.
  Projects included:
  GeForce-8 - Adrianne
  GeForce-8 - Froggy
  Dinosaur Museum Destruction
  
  Duties included:
  - Demo development team - brainstorning ideas for new demos
  - General Maya production for real-time game art assets
  - Maya hair grooming - Adrianne Curry
  - Character rigging - Adrianne Curry/Frog
  - Modeling - Dinosaur bones/blendshapes/rocks/props and such
  - UV layout
  - Mo-cap integration with "House of Moves" data - Adrianne Curry
• 

  CG Character Modeler/UV artist - "Happily N'Ever After" ( no credit )

  Bardel Entertainment

  December 2004 - March 2005

  Contracted 3D Prop and Character modeler and UV artist for the feature animated film “Happily N’Ever After” with Berliner Film Company.
• 

  CG Character Modeler/UV artist - Disney 50th Anniversary commercials

  Digital Domain

  August 2004 - November 2004

  www.D2.com
  Contracted modeler working on the series of Disney 50th Anniversary commercials at Digital Domain
  Duties included:
  - Modeling of characters Dumbo, Goofy, Rutt and Tuke, Alligator and misc props
  - Modeling of facial and corrective blendshape
  - UV layout
  - working closely with fur and rigging team
  - Maya to lightwave exports with DD proprietary tool
  - - - - - - Here's a couple of the commercials - - - - - -
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAe_qDGFBlg&NR=1
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8kqevKMBeU
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK9qGk7Dm0o
• 

  CG Artist ( some credited - some non credited)

  The Walt Disney Studios

  August 2002 - August 2004

  Digital Prop and Character modeler/rigger
  Duties include:
  - Maya modeling in polys and NURBS
  - Rigging of props and characters
  - Use of Disney proprietary tools
  - 3D layout
  - R&D of camera texture projection techniques
  - Muscle systems and "stretchy" character rigging
  - Use of Renderman and AIR in a production environment
  - Woking on IRIX, LINUX, Windows and Mac platforms.
  
  Worked on:
  Mickey's twice upon a Christmas - end credits Pop-Up book style sequence
  Kronk's New Groove
  Three Musketeers
  Mulan 2
  Bambi 2
  Tarzan 2
  Pooh's Heffalump Movie
  Stitch! The Movie
  Lilo and Stitch the series
  American Dragon: Jake Long series
  Fox and the Hound 2
  ...and other misc. Disney IPs

• Instructor

  The Art Institute Los Angeles and Orange County

  January 2002 - August 2002

  www.aila.artinstitutes.edu
  Maya instructor - Beginning Maya and character setup instructor. Special Projects class in which the students create a short animation for their demo reel.
  3D Studio MAX instructor - 3D animation, modeling and MAX to Maya transitional workshops.
• 

  CG Generalist/Digital Sculptor - Advanced Concepts Team

  Daqri

  May 2014 - February 2017

  Los Angeles, CA

  DAQRI is the world's leading enterprise augmented reality company powering the future of work through innovative hardware/software products.
  
  I worked at DAQRI on the advanced concepts team of Unity/augmented reality virtual human (ARToolKit) developers. Some of my duties include managing all internal 3D modeling/UVing production needs, supervising and hiring of onsite freelance 3D artists, managing/reviewing all 3D modeling/UVing from outsourced China studios and assisting in rigging, animation and texturing. While working closely with client and partner companies, including but not limited to Activision, Crayola, Disney, Mattel and Illumination Entertainment, I was also intimately involved in the creation of branded content for DAQRI’s marketing and product pursuits for the Smart Helmet, Smart Glasses and Holographic HUD. I was the lead character modeler creating the base 3D sculpture and over 60 FACS based facial shapes of an AR version of Ashton Kutcher for our Lenovo client and