MATT ESTELA'S RESUME
matt@tokeru.com
SKILLS
Skills: VFX/CG Supervisor, Lighting Lead, Suits Tailored
3D: Maya/Houdini, Lighting and Lookdev, Mel/Python, Character Setup, Dynamics
2D: Nuke, Shake, After Effects, Photoshop

You can view my online showreel here. (11Mb mp4)

WORK EXPERIENCE

Jan 2012 - Present
Lighting Lead, The Great Gatsby		 Animal Logic
www.animallogic.com
 
  • •   Manage a team of 18 lighters
  • •   Document, feature request new physically based lighting/shading pipeline
  • •   Help assess future lighting pipeline
  • •   Bid and schedule for lighting

Oct 2010 - Oct 2011
Lighting Lead, Happy Feet 2		 Dr.D Studios
www.drdstudios.com
 
  • •   Manage a team of 12 lighters
  • •   Houdini python scripting
  • •   Development of lighting pipe tools
  • •   Lookdev, lightrig development

Nov 2009 - Oct 2010
Lighting Senior TD, Guardians of Ga'Hoole		 Animal Logic
www.animallogic.com
 
  • •   TD supporting pipeline and lighting tools
  • •   Artist support and scene debugging
  • •   Upkeep of stereo lighting pipeline
  • •   Development of lighting tools, Nuke Gizmos

Jan 2007 - Oct 2009
Company Director, CGI Supervisor		 The House of Curves
www.thehouseofcurves.com
 
  • •   CGI Supervisor for in-house projects
  • •   Freelancer for external studios
  • •   Teaching 3D
  • •   Check the website for more info!

Feb 2006 - Nov 2006
VFX Supervisor		 BBC Childrens
www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/
 
  • •   Supervised 2x45 minute specials for 'Jackanory'; 'Muddle Earth' and 'The Magician of Samarkand'
  • •   Build CG studio from scratch
  • •   Spec and source equpment, software
  • •   Create 2D and 3D departments, interview staff
  • •   Develop pipeline, RnD animation systems
  • •   Also functioned as Animation Supervisor, CG Producer, IT manager

December 2005 - February 2006
Technical Director		 Finish
www.finish.tv
 
  • •   TD on Electrolux 'Odyssey'
  • •   Setup mentalray shaders, passes, post-process motion blur, procedural displacement maps
  • •   Wrote melscripts to bake animated camera projections, other pipeline tools
  • •   Installed and setup render farm
  • •   Working with Andrew Daffy of The House of Curves

November 2005 - December 2005
Technical Director		 The Mill
www.the-mill.com
 
  • •   Animate, texture, render, comp for crisps advert
  • •   Particle dynamics for Dyson vacuum cleaners (again)
  • •   3d Camera tracking for various jobs

June 2003 - November 2005
Studio sculpting Assistant		 Ron Mueck
Sample Images
 
  • •  Learnt traditional sculpting techniques in clay, plaster, silicon, fibreglass with Ron Mueck
  • •  Some sample images of my first project available here

January 2005 - February 2005
Technical Director		 The Mill
www.the-mill.com
 
  • •   Particle dynamics for Dyson vacuum cleaners
  • •   Fluid dynamics based fire simulation for Heineken superhero commercial
  • •   Look development of ice shader using mentalray fast-sss materials and displacement
  • •   Advice on paintFx based thread stitching effect
  • •   Advice on render pass system in Maya
  • •   Python scripts for image sequence manipulation

June 2004 - December 2004
Freelance
 
  • •   Broadcast design of unbroken, complex 4 minute 3d camera move using tight integration of Maya and After Effects
  • •   Cad data cleanup of car, remodel and resurfacing, texturing, camera re-projection of photoreal car for Mitsubishi
  • •   Maya consultation and training
  • •   Pipeline dev of existing max scene into maya and PRman
  • •   Photo modelling and texturing of furniture to match to live action footage

July 2003 - May 2004
Technical Animator, Technical Director		 Framestore-CFC
www.framestore-cfc.com
 
  • •  Thunderbirds, Technical Animator
    • •  Rigging and weighting of digital doubles
    • •  Character animation of digital doubles
    • •  Rope, cable, other effects animation
    • •  Animation of Thunderbirds ships
  • •  Commercials, Technical Director
    • •  Complex cloth sims, render pass setup
    • •  Model/texture/comp of photoreal props into live action plates
    • •  Particle sims of snow
    • •  General TD advice and assistance on several jobs

May 2003 - June 2003
Freelance for several studios doing broadcast design based 3D/2D, digital fusion tutoring

May 2001 - April 2003
Head of 3D		 zspace
www.zspace.com.au

  • •  Broadcast design/commercials post-house in Sydney Australia
  • •  Setup 3d department
  • •  Character modelling, setup, blendshapes and animation
  • •  Abstract animation of logos, design concepts
  • •  Fx animation of particles, paintFx, fluidFx, Rigid body dynamics etc
  • •  Pre-vis and 3d pitch boards
  • •  Final Composites in After Effects and combustion, pre-comps for Flint/Henry Infinity
  • •  Tech lead on most projects, creating mel scripts where necessary, defining workflow elsewhere
  • •  Created distributed render manager for maya, using python, postgresql and zope
  • •  Trained and mentored staff in many aspects of post production
  • •  Implemented web-based information system for company including shot list breakdowns, knowledge base/FAQ, contact list, and other areas

Febrary 2001 - May 2001
Freelance for several studios doing flash animation, game modelling, and after effects compositing
January 2000 - February 2001
Senior 3d animator		 Short Fuse Animation
www.shortfuseanimation.com

  • •  3d character animation house in Sydney Australia
  • •  Worked on 'Xerts', a space-themed restaraunt: www.xerts.com
  • •  Character modelling, setup, blendshapes and animation
  • •  Show reel intro from storyboards to completion
  • •  After Effects composites
  • •  Storyboards and 3d pitches
  • •  3d for xerts and short fuse websites

March 1998 - January 2000
Worked in several IT companies before getting into animation, doing programming, tech support, pc repair, systems analysis and database management
HOBBIES
Sculpting, classical guitar, figure drawing