Steven Zaharakis

Work History

• 

  Pipeline Technical Director

  Warner Bros. Animation

  September 2018 - Present

  Burbank, CA
• 

  Virtual Production Technical Director

  Digital Domain

  February 2016 - September 2018

  Playa Vista, CA

  Ready Player One
  Archangel VR
  Shadows of the Tombraider
  Ghosts of Tsushima
• 

  Technical Director

  Duncan Studio

  October 2015 - January 2016

  Pasadena, CA

  The Nutjob2
  Blossom
  
• 

  Character Rigger

  Psyop

  July 2015 - August 2015

  Los Angeles, CA

  Cricket Wireless (Commercial)
  Rise of the Tyrants (Video Game)
• 

  Character TD

  The Third Floor

  May 2015 - June 2015

  Los Angeles, CA

  Freelance Character TD for various Previs Feature Film work

  
• 

  Character Rigger

  BLT Communications, LLC

  February 2015 - March 2015

  Biped character rigging for Paramount Pictures project
• 

  Technical Director

  Walt Disney Animation Studios

  November 2012 - December 2014

  Planes: Fire & Rescue
  Pirate Fairy
  Legend of the Neverbeast
  Planes
  
  -Assisted Leads with a focus on Character Rigging, Rendering, and any other 3D responsibilities.
  -Rigged and modeled temp Previs/Layout character, set, and prop rigs when needed.
  -Researched and developed new tools in both MEL/Python for production pipeline as well as optimized existing ones (see website for example tools).
  -Provided first line of support for all Leads and Previs/Layout Artists.
  -Tasked with having comprehensive knowledge of all major studio tools being used in Previs/La

  

  
• 

  Assistant Technical Director

  Walt Disney Animation Studios

  December 2010 - November 2012

  Planes
  Secret of the Wings
  Pixie Hollow Games
  How I Train Fawn (Short)
  How I Train Silvermist (Short)
  How I Train Vidia (Short)
• 

  Rigging Technical Director & Animation Cleanup Lead

  The Jim Henson Company

  April 2008 - December 2010

  Rigging TD, Scene Assembler, Animation Cleanup Lead for over 50 TV episodes of "Sid the Science Kid"
  
  Rigging TD and Animation Cleanup artist for "Havoc" test pilot by FOX
• 

  Previs Artist & Lead Character Rigger

  Halon Entertainment

  September 2007 - August 2009

  Previs Artist & Lead Previs Character Rigger for feature films:
  
  GIJOE: Rise of the Cobra (Paramount)
  Knight and Day (20th Century Fox)

  

• 3D Content Developer

  Viewpoint

  March 2005 - March 2007

  -3D Generalist, with main responsibilities in creation of 3D/2D content for use in video, web and standalone applications for clients such as GE, Ford, AOL, and more.
  -Provide technical support for Viewpoint rich media asset authoring and performance on the web, including Flash, 3D, video, and audio, among others.
  -Help establish best practices for authoring rich media assets and support training documentation efforts to promote these practices.
  -Build demos for Flash and 3D Viewpoint rich media projects.
  -Contributed to Engineering efforts to advance on
• 

  3D Animation Teaching Assistant

  New York University

  September 2004 - May 2005

  -Teaching assistant responsible for teaching graduate level students advanced character animation principles and answering technical questions related to rigging.
  -Teaching assistant responsible for teaching graduate level students a variety of programming languages for use in 3D applications. Course entails a foundation in C, OpenGL, Renderman shading language, Perl, Mell, Cshell, and UNIX shell.
• 

  Internship/Production Assistant

  Mechanism Digital

  November 2004 - January 2005

  Assisting production team with wide range of various duties, ranging from modeling, animation, motion tracking, rotoscoping, converting files, rendering shots, etc. on clients such as Ford, iJoy, and Getty Images.

• Freelance Rigger and Animator

  "Steamed" Independant Short Film

  September 2004 - January 2005

  Responsible for rigging/skinning of Lenny character and 4 animated shots on independant short film "Steamed".

• 3D Generalist

  Croog Studios

  September 2004 - October 2004

  Worked as a generalist on Jim Breuer's Jefferson Avenue , a 2D/3D cartoon. Responsible for modeling, texturing, and other 3D aspects.

• 3D Animator

  Furnace Media Group

  July 2004 - July 2004

  Responsible for animation of Jack character on one shot for Volvo's new ad campaign for the Volvo V50, to be used in a game scene within the full film.

• Software Engineer

  Computer Associates

  June 2000 - August 2002

  Maintain source code, investigate/debug/create code level fixes for the eTrust Access Control security product on Unix and NT platforms. Assist and answer any client's problems or questions regarding the product.