Matthew Rampias

Work History

• 

  Lighting Lead

  DreamWorks Animation

  September 2022 - Present
• 

  Lighter

  DreamWorks Animation

  August 2020 - September 2022

  Glendale, California, United States
• 

  Lighting Lead

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  May 2018 - August 2020

  Greater Los Angeles Area
• 

  CG Supervisor

  MPC

  December 2018 - January 2019

  Greater Los Angeles Area
• 

  CG Supervisor

  Duncan Studio

  March 2018 - May 2018

  Pasadena, CA
• 

  CG Supervisor

  Framestore

  March 2017 - March 2018

  Los Angeles, California

  Supervised:
  Guardians: Mission Breakout
  Capital One: Quicksilver
  NRJ Mobile
  Olympic Closing Ceremonies: Panda Commercial
• 

  Senior Look Development/Lead Lighting

  Method Studios

  September 2016 - March 2017

  Santa Monica, California

  Lookdev and Lighting on the “Evony World” Superbowl Ad and several other spots.
  Lookdev on various Toys such as Superman, Captain America, Pinkie Pie, and more.
  Lead Lighting on the Gingerbread Deal Spots and the Target 2016 Holiday Mini Musical (Rat King Song)
• 

  CG Supervisor

  Psyop

  August 2016 - September 2016

  Venice, California
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor

  RGH Themed Entertainment

  May 2015 - July 2016

  Woodland Hills, California
• 

  Senior Lighter/Compositor

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  January 2015 - May 2015

  Culver City, California
• 

  CG Supervisor

  RGH Themed Entertainment

  January 2014 - January 2015

  greater los angeles area

  Worked closely with the Directors, Creative Directors, VFX Supervisor, and Department Leads to define and implement the creative and technical approach to the shows.
  Worked with Pipeline leads to create, test and implement new tools and better pipeline workflows based on my years of studio experience. Managed, gave guidance and delegated work to artists throughout the production pipeline and worked with Production to make sure shows stayed on time and budget.
  Worked directly with VFX Producers and Coordinators to forecast, monitor and define cost in cpu and man hours associated with all departments while being highly aware of the budget and schedule impact of technical and creative solutions.
  Created and gave demonstrations of our technology, workflow and media to high profile clients and explained techniques and approaches to senior corporate staff.
• 

  Senior Compositor

  Psyop

  December 2013 - January 2014

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Compositing on an Intel spot.
• 

  Lighting and Compositing Lead

  Walt Disney Animation Studios

  December 2012 - November 2013

  Glendale

  Worked closely with the Art Director, CG Supervisor, and Digital Department Leads to establish the artistic look of the film through lighting and compositing
  Created and communicated well thought out lighting direction and shot retakes
  Identified particularly challenging aspects of the movie and proposed options, made recommendations and helped manage film complexity
  Worked with the Digital Department Leads and the CG Supervisors to implement techniques and solve production problems
  Identified opportunities for efficiencies and proposed implementations
  Worked with Associate Producers to forecast, monitor, and define cost associated with lighting/comp/render while being highly aware of the budget and schedule impact of technical and creative solutions
  Explained complex CG lighting techniques and approaches to Producers and Directors
  Lit production keys, key art, and production shots when necessary
  Provided lighting and comp set-ups and technical solutions to our vendor studios
  Worked with Marketing and Consumer Products divisions providing techniques, models, and rendered artwork to facilitate worldwide marketing campaigns and toy development
• 

  Senior Lighting TD

  Wētā FX

  October 2012 - December 2012

  New Zealand

  Lighting on “The Hobbit” for the flashback sequence involving Azog and Thorin Oakshield
  Visual development on “The Hobbit” of the 3D smoke and fire for the flashback

  
• 

  Senior Lighting TD

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  April 2005 - August 2012

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Lighting, Compositing, Look Development and Stereo with Katana, Arnold, Nuke, PRMan,and other proprietary and off the shelf tools.
  I worked on Men in Black 3, Hotel Transylvania, Alice in Wonderland, Open Season, Eagle Eye, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Speed Racer, Arthur Christmas, I Am Legend, The Smurfs, The Zookeeper, Surf's Up, Heist, Open Season 3D and Monster House 3D.
  
  Lighting duties included:
  Key Lighting Set-ups from production artwork
  Artist support for disseminated set-ups with solutions both technical and creative
  Visual Development work to achieve solutions to visual problems
  Wedges, tests and breakdowns of various techniques cataloged and compared for greatest efficiencies
  Lighting on hundreds of fully CG animated and live action visual effects shots
  Worked with the Director, Art Directors and CG sups to achieve the look and feel
  
  Compositing duties included:
  Comp templates for key-lit sequences based on production artwork and direction
  Rotoscoping, Tracking, blue and green screen keys, projections and paint
  Creation of comp tools within the package (such as gizmos) for repetitive tasks
  Compositing on hundreds of shots with a variety of complexities from simple A over B to monstrous shots with dozens of effects and hundreds of assets
  
  Look Development duties included:
  Material asset creation and modifications to achieve the look from production artwork
  Assembly of shaders and textures on modeled assets
  Texture painting and material and texture variations per asset when necessary
  Look development on many materials such as cloth, goo, metals and more

• Project Manager and Lighting Supervisor

  Rolling Razor, Inc.

  October 2008 - July 2009

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Created and maintained a working digital pipeline for the assembly of animation, effects, lighting, compositing and editing
  Created a production tracking pipeline to track assets, shots, time and budget
  Created and negotiated bids, budget and timeline for the promotion
  Hired and managed a team of artists to animate, light, composite, create effects and edit the promotional short
  Lit and composited animated and effects assets from remote artists
• 

  Lighting TD

  DreamWorks Animation

  April 2003 - March 2005

  Redwood City,CA

  Lighting and Compositing on “Madagascar” and Academy Award nominated “Shrek 2” using PDI's proprietary render and tools.
• 

  Lighting & FX TD

  Nickelodeon Animation Studio

  2002 - 2003

  Read through the script and broke out the necessary effects shots as well as the story to story transitions shots which I pitched to the Director for approval. After the approval process I then disseminated these tasks to the various effects artists we had on the team.
  Fx bidding, creating, transition creation, lookdev, fluid simulation, lighting and compositing for the Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoons Blast simulator at Universal Studios Florida.
• 

  Lighting and Fluid Dynamics Sim artist

  Base 2 Studios

  2002 - 2002

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Lighting and fluid dynamics using Real Flow and Lightwave on a commercial for Look Chocolate

• Logo Design

  Freelance 3D Artist/Animator

  2002 - 2002

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Design, modeling, animation, lighting and final output of XK Entertainment’s company logo and end credit bumper

• Lighter/Compositor/Generalist

  Threshold

  2001 - 2002

  Lighting/FX, and Compositing on Armageddon at Eurodisney
  Lookdev, Lighting and Compositing for Food Fight
• 

  Lighting/FX TD

  DNA Productions

  May 2000 - October 2001

  Lighting, FX and Compositing on Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
• 

  Logo Design

  ABC News

  2000 - 2000

  Phoenix, Arizona Area

  Designed and animated station identification logos for ABC News Channel 5.

• Lighting/FX TD

  Foundation Imaging

  1999 - 2000

  Lighting, FX, Compositing (with a bit of modeling, and animation) on Roughnecks: Starship Troopers, Max Steel