About
first about meyemind.com,meyemind, ('my mind') started as a creative outlet for my artwork, hobbies, and any current events I found of interest, and has since evolved, as I have of the years into a hybrid of a professional and personal content. In part a documentary of mostly work related media, but remaining an outlet for more personal creative ventures, and these will begin to emerge more as time goes on. (meyemind.com was created June 14th, 2000 05:39:44)
secondly, what I do,
Digital Compositor - So, what is it you do exactly?
next up, what's with the banner images at the top of the blog?
For the most part, they are sill frames from visual effects shots that I composited and completed. Once the DVD/Blu-ray is released, I go in and save out still frames to showcase atop the blog via the banner. They change 'randomly' each time you refresh or go to another section of the blog. There are a couple drawings and some other random material in there, but mainly shots I've completed.
ok now about me,
Hi, this is David Schnee, I'm currently a digital compositor working on feature films for Tippett Studio in Berkeley, CA, I was born in San Jose, CA, grew up in the east bay, went to school in San Luis Obispo for a time, and back up to the bay area to attend the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. I have a deep love for art and artistry in all areas of life, its what really sparked my interest of getting into the CG/3D industry. It stems from one moment of inspiration. Almost 10 years ago, when I was in high school, I spent way too much time playing the popular first person shooter "Quake", so much in fact, I was in a clan(team) of around 7 others who played online together against other clans relentlessly into the wee hours of the night, every night, all summer, you get the idea...
It's quite addicting and damn fun, let me just tell you... So why am I telling you this? well one of our clansmen, "Mazinga" I'd come to find out worked in this industry at 3DO Games in Redwood City, CA. We got to chatting about his job, and while 3D at the time was still pretty crappy, especially in games, he sent me a still from an cinematic he was working on for a game at the time, which I'll never forget...
A very dark, fire light, mood filled image cloaked in atmosphere. Gazing up a flight of stairs, 2 large lion statues mark the sides, illuminated by fire from torches, your at the gates of an enourmous mysterious archway with ancient markings on the trim made of rock and wood. I couldn't believe how real and amazing that image felt to me, (at the time) but back then it shot realization through my veins, synaps sparked, and I knew that I wanted to do that! Having been facinated by artists such as Carvagio, Jan Van Eyck, and Albinus, who are able to bleed so much life, deminsion, and detail from a 2d canvas is amazing.
This image is what sent me on my path venturing into this industry, it lead me to the Academy of Art College in Fall of 1998, where I spent the first 2 years studying and creating in the traditonal artforms inclcuding, sculputure, figure drawing, color and design. Moving to the computer side for the next 2 years, I gathered experience in all the areas of CG, modeling, lighting, animation, fx animation and compositing. I was first intrigued with 3D animation, but found that I enjoyed live action movies and seamless visual effects much more, so I geared my studies in Houdini with effects animation, and compositing with a number of applications. I graduated with a BFA from the Academy of Art College in December of 2002, with emphasis in Computer Arts, majoring in Visual Effects for Film at Tv 'Compositing' and minoring in Visual Effects for Film and TV 'Effects Animation'.
I spent a good 4 months looking for work, and as luck would have it, I had a rare opportunity to work at Tippett Studio in Berkeley, CA working on Starship Troopers 2:Hero of the Federation as a Digital Compositor! This was Phil Tippett's directorial debut, the low budget but fantastic sequel, that gave around 20 of us fresh out of school and other artists that hadn't worked in this industry yet a chance to do something pretty cool.
I then moved on to work on The Stepford Wives, Son of the Mask, and Contantine, Disney's The Shaggy Dog for Tippett Studio. Late in 2005 I returned from work on Peter Jackson's King Kong for Weta Digital in Wellington, New Zealand. Though only over there for a few short months, the experience of working with hundreds of other artists, at such a great company, on a great big'ol Peter Jackson monkey movie, getting to travel, meeting new people, seeing new things, in New Zealand!, this was by far a high point in my career.
After returning to reality back to the states, I made my way back to Tippett Studio and began work on Charlotte's Web in early 2006. I felt fortunate to work on and contribute such a wonderful children's story. I then moved onto Disney's Enchanted, a great project that lasted damn near a year... again, to work on a project that turned out so well, one that people love and enjoy is a great feeling. Next I began working on The Spiderwick Chronicles, a movie based on Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi's bestselling children's book series. This was a fun project, another one for the kids, a bit scary but I think it turned out to be a fun ride. My latest project took me back to when I started at Tippett, back to the Starship Troopers 2 days, a very cool project, a small team, low budget, fast paced, and fun as hell. I'm talking about that viral marketing mega monster movie hit Cloverfield!
VIEW MY CURRENT FILMOGRAPHY
