Philip Luk

Work History

• 

  Pipeline Supervisor

  Toonbox Entertainment

  July 2016 - Present
• 

  Technical Director

  Toonbox Entertainment

  August 2012 - January 2017

  Toronto, Ontario

  * Working in R&D team, on long-term development efforts, to develop and integrate renderer and 3D DCC application agnostic architecture into the studio's production pipeline, utilizing various open source libraries (Cortex, Alembic, etc.).
  * Developed proprietary DCC Application (Maya/Houdini/Nuke/Gaffer) and Renderer Agnostic Geometry Instancer, capable of nested Asset layouts (including support for Alembic asset pipeline with custom material binding) and procedural particle instancing effects.
  * Managing most C++ code development, repositories, automated build processes and toolset release process.
  * Helped develop a working production pipeline for a new startup studio, utilizing 3Delight, Maya, Nuke, Pixar's Tractor and Southpaw Tactic asset tracking system, to produce the studio's first feature animation film, "The Nut Job".
  * Maintained in-house developed Renderman shaders, RI filters, and render farm submission tool.
  * Implemented scene description format and integrated it into the studio's early pipeline.
  * Implemented Animation/Pose import and export library and Pose Management tool and provided support to the animation department.
  * Supported layout, lighting and compositing departments.
  * Provided colour management workflow guidance and recommendations; helping refine the process for deliveries to Digital Intermediate (Technicolor).
• 

  Technical Director

  Toonbox Entertainment

  August 2012 - December 2015

  * Working in R&D team, on long-term development efforts, to develop and integrate renderer and 3D DCC application agnostic architecture into the studio's production pipeline, utilizing various open source libraries (Cortex, Alembic, etc.).
  * Developed proprietary DCC Application (Maya/Houdini/Nuke/Gaffer) and Renderer Agnostic Geometry Instancer, capable of nested Asset layouts (including support for Alembic asset pipeline with custom material binding) and procedural particle instancing effects.
  * Managing most C++ code development, repositories, automated build processes and toolset release process.
  * Helped develop a working production pipeline for a new startup studio, utilizing 3Delight, Maya, Nuke, Pixar's Tractor and Southpaw Tactic asset tracking system, to produce the studio's first feature animation film, "The Nut Job".
  * Maintained in-house developed Renderman shaders, RI filters, and render farm submission tool.
  * Implemented scene description format and integrated it into the studio's early pipeline.
  * Implemented Animation/Pose import and export library and Pose Management tool and provided support to the animation department.
  * Supported layout, lighting and compositing departments.
  * Provided colour management workflow guidance and recommendations; helping refine the process for deliveries to Digital Intermediate (Technicolor).

  
• 

  Technical Director (Lighting, Animation)

  Arc Productions

  April 2011 - August 2012

  Toronto, Ontario

  * Worked with CG Supervisors and pipeline supervisor to solve technical production issues and create software solutions and scripts; including character crowd instancing, environment geometry instancing, motion path, rig mirroring, batch playblast, and animation constraint detection tools (Maya).
  * These were applied in several films, TV series, webisodes, a stereo animation short, unreleased pitch footage, and feature films; including "Dolphin Tale", "Cody the Robosapien", and "Barbie - Life in the Dreamhouse".
  * Wrote batch scripts to help transfer animation and layout data from another studio into Arc's pipeline, for the TV series, "Matt Hatter Chronicles".
  * Helped integrate E-on Vue into production pipeline for "Thomas the Tank Engine" and integrated proprietary Media Manager compositing tool into playblast tool for "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn".
  * Developed prototype motion capture system, with Microsoft Kinect, allowing real-time retargeting of actors' movements to rigs in Maya.
  * Debugged render farm problems, Mental Ray issues, live-action stereo CG integration, supporting Lighting and Final Layout teams.

  

• Partner, Design Director

  Ownage Studios Inc.

  2009 - August 2011

  Toronto, Ontario

  * Responsible for creative direction and art production including concept art, modeling, texturing, rigging, animation and environment layouts (for an unreleased Unity developed top-down shooter game).
  * Published multiple independently developed iPhone/iPad games including DragNDrop and Mr. Cloud.
• 

  Animation Technical Director

  Starz Animation

  2009 - 2011

  Toronto, Ontario

  
  * Developed animation/pose management tool, dope sheet tool, character rig GUIs, asset version tracking utilities, batch character finaling tools, final layout render submission tools, and parallel workflow pipeline tool (Python, wxPython, MEL and Maya API).
  * Wrote batch scripts to transfer motion capture data to humanoid and quadruped rigs.
  * Collaborated with Animation Department Head to design tools and support a large animation team (45+ Animators) to animate feature film "Gnomeo & Juliet", a Christmas TV special "Yes, Virginia", and an award winning short "Ormie".
  * Shot based work as needed in different departments (Animation, Layout, Character Finaling, and Final Layout) and reliably resolved daily production issues.
  * Advised and mentored assistant and junior TDs.
  

  

  

• Software Developer

  Research In Motion Ltd.

  2001 - 2007

  Waterloo, Ontario

  
  Java Device Applications – BlackBerry Protocol Stack Group
  
  * Developed application protocol stack for the latest BlackBerry devices (including Curve, Pearl, BlackBerry 8830 World Edition Phones).
  * Helped design and rapidly develop a new e-mail system which would not infringe upon NTP patents; this was a mission critical project for RIM when the NTP lawsuit threatened to shut down RIM’s business.
  * With a small team of 3 developers, developed a new Wi-Fi protocol stack and applications according to an aggressive release schedule. Features included VoIP, corporate VPN security, and diagnostic tools.
  
  C++ Device Applications Group
  
  * Designed and implemented a wireless handheld activation solution.
  * Developed core application suite including e-mail, calendar, and memo applications.
  * Designed and implemented a cost saving feature which enables a handheld to communicate with an enterprise server through its Desktop connection instead of wirelessly.
  * Acted as a C++ SDK correspondent to remote development teams.
  * Conducted regular code reviews; analyzed and optimized application performance issues.
  

• Software Engineer (Co-op)

  Longview Solutions

  1998 - 2000

  Markham, Ontario

  
  Software Engineering
  
  * Redesigned and rewrote client and server RPC data marshalling routines for a 32 to 64-bit porting project.
  * Developed database SQL script generation software for multi-platform performance management system.
  * Programmed custom Windows client GUIs in C++.
  * Debugged and maintained client and server code, working closely with database administrators.
  
  Quality Assurance
  
  * Automated test scripts - Implemented black box test suites and harnesses to test client/server system.
  * Wrote SQL scripts to test server software running on different databases (MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase).