Resume for Michael Ferraro
|
Roles And Responsibilities |
2005-2009 Disney Interactive Studios
Propaganda Games Studio Level
- Animation Department Head: First employee in the animation department of a gaming start-up that was acquired by Disney 6 months later. In charge of the animation department; staffed and managed a team of 8 animators over a three-year development cycle. Groomed animators to take leadership roles themselves. Contributed to technical direction of some animation pipelines and workflow.
Turok (XBox360/PS3, 2008)
- Animation Lead: Oversaw animation across the entire game. Interfaced with engineering, modeling, design, writing, sound.
- Cinematics Director: Directed, edited, and scripted in-game 20 minutes of cinematic content. Animation staff working on cinema averaged 4 animators. Directed a portion of voice record sessions.
(Unannounced game)
- Story Lead: Moved into a design role; in charge of game's overall story content, including all characters and dialogue. Liaison between game design, level design, animation, and other departments.
- Game Design: Rapidly prototyped level sequences, including map layout and scripted scenarios.
2001-2004 Electronic Arts Canada
DefJam Fight For NY (PS2/XBox, 2004)
- Animation Lead: In charge of the game's animation content. Directed Japanese studio on new interactive content, and personally hired, managed, and directed the local animation team of 5 animators for non-interactive content.
- Cinematics Director: Directed 20 minutes of cinematic content. Directed a team of 4 animators.
- Technical Director: Created facial animation and hand animation toolset for both Japanese and Canadian studios. Helped design real-time cinematic pipeline.
DefJam Vendetta (PS2, 2003)
- Cinematics Director: In charge of the game's non-interactive animation content. Hired and directed an in-house team of 3 animators, and an outsourcing team of 3 animators. Supplied game content to the Japanese development team for implementation. Directed, edited, and rendered cinematic content locally.
- Technical Director: Designed and rigged facial animation system for all cinematic characters.
1995-2001 Mainframe Entertainment
Barbie In The Nutcracker (Direct-To-DVD, 2001)
- Animation Director: one of two sequence directors working under the show director. Directed a staff of 8 animators, as well as a supervising animator and editor.
- Technical Director: created Facial Animation system for Barbie.
Gulliver's Travels (IMAX feature film development)
- Stereographer: created camera system for straightforward stereographic pre-vis for animating, with direct control over stereographic effect. Played with various 3D shot layouts on the big screen with polarized lenses. Involved with development of real-time stereographic output from the animation package while working. Researched stereography thoroughly.
Various R&D projects, pitches
- Director: directing a small team of 1-3 animators.
- TD: modeling and rigging characters.
Weird-Ohs (TV, 1999)
- Series Technical Director: designed "squash-and-stretch" character skeleton system that allowed animators to work with any approach they liked, including re-constructing the hierarchy completely, all on one common rig. Created the facial animation system and rigs, as well as interface design on the standalone facial animation package.
- Modeling Supervisor: paired with the traditionally-trained art director to oversee technical and scheduling considerations for the modeling process.
- Director: Episode director for 2 11-minute episodes. Directed a team of 8 animators, plus a supervising animator and editor.
- Animator: delivered 25 seconds per week of animation for pilot episode.
Grin 3 (software)
- Interface design on the major upgrade to Mainframe's in house facial animation software. Also led beta testing and training for the staff, as much from a creative level as a technical one.
Reboot Season 3 (TV, 1997)
- Director: Episode director of one 22-minute episode. Directed a team of 8 animators, plus a supervising animator and editor.
- Modeler: modeled, textured, and rigged various main characters, alternate costumes, and secondary characters.
Beast Wars (TV, 1996)
- Senior Animator: delivered 30 seconds of animation per week.
- Modeler: modeled, textured, and rigged two main characters.
Reboot Season 2 (TV, 1995)
- Animator: delivered 30 seconds of animation per week.
- Modeler: modeled, textured, and rigged various secondary characters and vehicles.
|
|
Education |
1995 Graduated high school
Courses taken:
- Computer Science 11 (Programming)
- Design Communications 9-12 (Computer Animation)
- Media Productions 11, 12 (Video editing and other media)
|
|
Awards, Press |
- Electronic Arts Canada "Rookie Of The Year" 2002
- Named one of "BC's Top 25 Most Influential: Next Wave" by The Vancouver Sun, Jan 5, 1998
- Directed first television episode before turning 20.
- Produced a 3 minute animated short completely solo in grade 12, which placed first at the BC Student Film Festival in the Animation and People's Choice categories
- Winner, Governor General's Award For High School Academic Achievement
- One of 150 students in Canada invited to participate in the 1993 Grade 10 Invitational Mathematics Challenge
|
|
Other Notables |
- Began programming in BASIC at age 9
- Began animating on the computer at age 12
|
|
Hobbies |
|
|
