I am an artist with a love of animation and visual effects. I have a passion for developing new skills, the mentality of a team player, and the capacity to work well within tight production schedules. These skills make me an integral member of a studio's production team. The qualities that set me apart are the ability to thrive in high pressure situations, problem-solving on the fly under very tight time constraints, and my ability to take the initiative to constantly improve the company pipeline, both through individual developments as well as working with other teams and departments.

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I currently am a Crowd Department Lead at LAIKA. Some of my responsibilities include bidding out crowd shots for the film, taking on advanced crowd development tasks, initiating cross department conversations about workflows, methods, concerns and best practices, and acting as liaison for crowds with other departments to help resolve issues for incoming and outgoing asset and animation deliveries. I run crowd dailies meetings, give technical and creative feedback to artists, interview and make hiring decisions about prospective crowd department candidates, assist with assessing and delivering yearly performance reviews, and also serve as a mentor to artists on the show, providing creative and technical assistance when needed.

​Before joining LAIKA, I was a Lead Crowd Artist at DreamWorks Animation, where I assisted the Crowd Supervisor, led sequences, took on advanced crowd development tasks, coordinated with other departments about crowd related concerns, and served as a point person within the department to assist and mentor artists on the show. 

Prior to working in crowds, I was a member of the DreamWorks Advanced Creative Technology team, working on their motion capture stage overseeing shoots, running live previz in MotionBuilder and Unreal Engine, operating a Vicon system, creating VR projects, testing and implementing various facial capture technologies, and retargeting and motion editing performance capture data. I was in charge of all camera capture equipment and operations.

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Before joining DreamWorks, I had the opportunity to run a camera capture stage for Spielberg on the set of the BFG. This consisted of running a motion capture system, live previsualization, and a video capture station simultaneously while working directly with Spielberg as he shot cameras for performance captured scenes.

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I formerly was the live Previsualization Supervisor at Rockstar Games, where I developed a workflow in MotionBuilder that was used on all performance capture and camera capture shoots in my tenure there. 

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skills:
Crowd simulation and agent development in Massive and Houdini; Crowd post-simulation edits; Motion capture shoot management, data tracking, retargeting, and motion editing; QC motion capture data from outsource teams; virtual production including cameras, audio, body and facial capture; motion capture pipeline creation, integration, and management; animation.

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software:
Houdini; Massive; PREMO; Unreal Engine; Autodesk Maya and MotionBuilder; Vicon Blade; Lightstorm/Giant Realtime and Identify; Motion Analysis Software; Linux and Windows operating systems

- Empower Program 2023 - I was nominated by my department leadership and selected to participate in the Empower Leadership program, which gives rising leaders from diverse backgrounds the tools to succeed. Through the Empower Program I learned about DISC communication styles, conflict resolution, leadership skills, and the impact of diverse perspectives and experiences.

- Ingenuity Award 2019 - I was awarded the DreamWorks Ingenuity Award in 2019 for my work building a more efficient stadium crowd system for Trolls: World Tour

I am constantly pushing myself to create groundbreaking work, and these honors and awards are a testament to my dedication and passion for my craft.