mduffor

From my squishy brain to yours.

Résumé

Michael T. Duffy
mduffor@gmail.com
Twitter: @mduffor

EXPERIENCE

Game Circus, LLC (Addision, TX)
Studio Technical Director (April 2021 – Present)
Programming Department Manager (October 2014 – April 2021)
Technical Lead Programmer, Coin Dozer (April 2013 – October 2014)
Senior Programmer (August 2012 – April 2013)

  • Achieve deep understanding of technical systems to be able to guide company direction, improve cross-department communication, and explain systems to both technical and non-technical peers.
  • Handle hiring, training, and HR issues for programming department.
  • Hold 1-on-1s and lead departmental meetings to help programmers in their careers and their understanding of company directives.
  • Headed or guided development of multiple company-wide systems including advertising systems, player account management, remote configuration, metrics, and numerous other core technologies.
  • Develop training materials and teach classes on development techniques and best practices.
  • Headed development of Coin Dozer while Technical Lead Programmer
  • Maintain and configure Jenkins build server and the build toolchain.
  • Work with Unity 3D, C#, JavaScript, Java, and ObjectiveC on Android and iOS devices.

DreamWorks Animation (Redwood City, California)
Animation Technical Director (April 2011 – March 2012)
Lighting Technical Director (February 2009 – April 2011)

  • Support, scene debugging, and automation of processes for the Lighting Department during production of How To Train Your Dragon and Megamind feature films, as well as Megamind: The Button of Doom and Night of the Living Carrots short films.
  • Support, scene debugging, and automation of processes for the Animation Department during production of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.
  • Production lighter for several shots in How To Train Your Dragon and Night of the Living Carrots.
  • Extended and maintained metadata system for tracking which version of assets were used in each final image.
  • Developed pre-visualization system for the animation department to see how lighting would affect animation shots.
  • Developed Nuke compositing scripts for sequences in Madagascar 3 with complex shot-to-shot transitions. Created workflow for Layout, Animation, and Crowd departments to view their work in context with transitions.

Framestore Feature Animation (London, England)
Lead Pipeline Technical Director (June 2008 – November 2008)

  • Tool maintenance and development for the feature film The Tale of Despereaux.
  • Extended and maintained package system for moving assets between departments.
  • Extended Renderman Rif Filter system to support wider range of command replacement options.
  • Supervised cleanup of data as it was pushed through the pipeline.
  • Developed solutions for fixing precision problems with mesh caching.

ReelFx Creative Studios (Dallas, Texas)
Technical Supervisor (November 2006 – April 2008)

  • Rigged the majority of characters for in-game cut scenes in The Transformers video game.
  • Supervised both internal and overseas artists in rigging of props for the film Open Season 2.
  • Supervising TD on a location-based motion ride, Jimmy Neutron Chrysler Town and Country commercial, Tinpo television interstitials, Deep Ellum Gateway Project pitch, and Home Vestors commercials.
  • Supervised rigging for several characters on the ABC Family movie Princess.
  • Trained intern artists on studio pipeline and general rigging approaches.
  • Documented flow of data for existing pipeline.

DNA Productions (Irving, Texas)
Programming Dept. Supervisor (May 2004 – July 2006)

  • Designed and developed pipeline backbone for the Warner Brothers feature film The Ant Bully.
  • Developed systems to transfer data between Maya and Houdini.
  • Managed the six member programming department.
  • Wrote scripts to implement asset versioning.
  • Automated cleaning and updating of data, as well as scanning and detecting of errors in assets and shots.
  • Provided guidance for all department TDs regarding pipeline integration.
  • Fixed shots and assets to make them pipeline compliant.

DNA Productions (Irving, Texas)
IMAX Artist (June 2006 -July 2006)

  • Composited and repaired shots in NUKE for the IMAX 3D version of The Ant Bully.

DNA Productions (Irving, Texas)
Character and Software Technical Director (October 2001 – April 2004)

  • Worked on the TV Series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron for Nickelodeon.
  • Developed pipeline for moving data between Lightwave and Maya.
  • Developed tools, scripts, and plugins to assist in layout, setup, and animation.
  • Assisted in the development and enhancement of character rigs.
  • Various scene troubleshooting and repair.

DNA Productions (Irving, Texas)
Character Technical Director (March 2001 – October 2001)

  • Worked on the film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius for Nickelodeon / Paramount Pictures.
  • Developed pipeline tools for moving data between Lightwave and Messiah more efficiently.
  • Developed tools for working with Messiah files in a quicker and more efficient manner.
  • Developed asset management tools for collecting all assets used in a given Lightwave scene.
  • Rigged props.
  • Various scene troubleshooting and repair.

Studio Blue (Edmond, Oklahoma)
Founder (RPG Computer Game Development : November 1997 – February 2001)

  • Developed a business plan and raised funds for the venture.
  • Handled payroll, taxes, and all company business aspects.
  • Managed the assignments and workload for the two artist employees.
  • Developed all engine and tool code for the game, both 2D isometric engine and 3D portal based engine.
  • Developed pipeline for efficient rendering, management, and encoding of pre-rendered art assets.
  • Modeled, textured, and animated interface graphics, isometric tilesets, inventory objects, and in-game objects.
  • Put together presentation materials for potential publishers.
  • Designed gameplay and interface.
  • Created engine technical design document and multiple storyline and character design documents.

Stardock Systems (Canton, Michigan)
Contract Work (1997 – 2001)

  • Developed game API to handle various graphics, sound, windowing, and low-level systems. Licensed to Stardock Systems for use in the following games: Entrepreneur (Stardock Systems, 1997), Business Tycoon (Stardock/Ubi Soft 2000), Galactic Civilizations 3, Lightweight Ninja, and The Corporate Machine (Stardock Systems, 2000). Performed additional game-specific contract programming for the above titles.
  • Designed, Modeled, and Textured aliens for use in Galactic Civilizations 3, as well as consulting on GUI layout, content, and design. Created alternate GUI designs for Stellar Frontier, in addition to design consulting.

Vice President of Consumer Products (October 1995 – April 1997)

  • Created in-game and interface graphics for Galactic Civilizations 2, Entrepreneur, and Masters of the Empire.
  • Lead Programmer on Entrepreneur.
  • Designed and implemented main game framework and network code for online multiplayer strategy game.
  • Managed external game development teams. Tracked schedules and progress. Provided quality assurance and design suggestions.
  • Provided input on product packaging and advertising.

COMPUTER SKILLS
Languages – C/C++, C#, Python, Bash, MEL Script (Maya), Java, Perl,  Hscript (Houdini), Lscript (Lightwave), MAX Script, Intel x86 assembly, yacc/lex, JavaScript, HTML/CSS.
Software – Unity3D, Maya, Perforce, Jenkins, Gradle, XCode, JIRA, Houdini, Renderman, NUKE, Lightwave, Messiah, 3DStudio MAX, Adobe Photoshop, cvs, svn, gcc, make.
Platforms – Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, OS/2.

EDUCATION
University of Southern California (1994) (Los Angeles, California)
BA Cinema Production
BA East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Study abroad program (`93-`94) at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.

Comments are closed.