Ignacio Thomas 12-11-1976, Spain Architect, Polytechnic university of Madrid nacho@vray.es Languages: Spanish (native), English (Fluent), French (Fluent)

It’s been 12 years already profesionally working with computer graphics. I started while my architecture studies (1996-2002) working with 3dsmax. When I was 20 years old, I wrote my first guide book, “3d studio max 2.5” (650 pages) and one year later, “3D Studio max 3” (800 pages). Since then, I’ve been teaching and professionally working with 3d tools.

I started mainly doing CG architecture visualizations, with many freelance jobs with architecture studios in Spain.  At the age of 22 I moved to Brussels to work in the CG department in “Art&Build”, with Pierre L’allmand, where I worked for 2 years, supervising architecture visualizations.
At the age of 24 I moved back to Spain. We started our own school, “AR3” teaching CG for five years. Meanwhile I studied animation and begun to specialize in lightning techniques. With 28 years, I decided to change to the ATC where I’ve been working ever since, CICE, developing many other skills in CG. I started working with Maya, Vue, Zbrush, Mudbox, Combustion, Nuke and many other applications.

My actual CG software skills include:

3dsmax- . Authorized Certified Instructor. 16 years using the software, 13 professionally working. Expert User. Own commercial license. Maya- 4 years using the software. Modelling, texturing and Lightning Instructor in ATC. Advanced User.   Z-Brush- 3 Years using the software. Instructor in ATC. Character and architecture high polygon modelling. Prototyping, retopology, texturing. Expert User. Mudbox. Modelling and bitmap based texturing. 2 years using the software. Advanced User. Mental Ray- 5 Years using the software, both with Maya and 3dsmax. Expert User. Vray. 6 Years using the software. Expert User. Own commercial license.   Renderman- Actually my main focus of studies. Novice user. own commercial license. Vue X-Stream, 6 years using e-on products. Standalone and Maya-Max integrated. Published video-tutorials with e-on software to become Authorized Instructor for CICE (June 2010). (Only ATC in Europe).own commercial license. Other Lightning Software- Maxwell, Final Render, Brazil... Several years working with these products. Nuke- 1 year devoted to this software. Speciallized in CG postproduction and effects. Advanced User. Authorized Instructor in ATC-CICE. Combustion – 4 Years using the software. Compositing, Rotoscopy, Color grading, particles, Keying. Expert User. Texturing- Photoshop (14 years using this software). Painter, Deep Paint, Mudbox (bitmap) and zbrush (vertex paint). Expert User. Actually learning the foundry´s "Mari". Other stuff- AutoCAD  (12 years user) and some Revit. Web development- As you can see in this web page, my knowledge is pretty short. Basic HTML, basic flash and quite a lot of copy+paste. Boujou and MatchMover- 2 years using these softwares. Adavanced user. Effects- Realflow, fumeFX, glue3d and chaos-group Phoenix.

General 3D Resume:

MODELLING
I’ve been modelling for many years, and i feel pretty confortable using 3dsmax polygons and patches, and maya polygons, nurbs and subdivision surfaces. For detailled models, I use Z-Brush and Mudbox.
Characters: Prototyping, Animation-friendly characters. Good retopology. I normally use max, zbrush and mudbox. (Though I can work pretty well with maya´s polygons, I prefer max for polygon modelling).
Sets and environments: I work with max, maya, vue, zbrush and mudbox basically. My speciality is managing and supervising pipeline for huge scenes, and outdoor natural scenes.
Architecture, industrial  and props: High detailled models, low polys for videogames... Adapting to any resolution required. Many years modelling arch and props, I work fast and always with the minimum polygons required. I usually model with max-zbrush for arch and props, and maya for industrial and nurbs based objects.

Uvs and TEXTURING
I’ve been many years texturing too. I normally use photoshop or painter for flat texturing, Z-Brush for vertex painting, and Mudbox or Deep Paint for 3d bitmap painting. I can unwrap effectively and quickly, I mainly use maya-max unwraps for arch and props, UV Layout or Uvmaster for characters.

LIGHTNING
If there is one thing I love to do, is lightning scenes. I’ve been speciallized in lightning for the last years. I started many years ago learning lightscape, and since then I’ven been working with final render, brazil, vray, vue, mental ray, and recently I started with renderman. But what I really love to do, is to light! Just as a painter would, but in 3d. Using no matter which tools, but making decisions on how to lighten a setup to achive the ambient desired. Interiors, exteriors, landscapes, characters... With a good knowledge of compositing and color grading to fine tune atmospheres.
The last two years I’ve been working deeply with HDRI, both cg and photographic. I have all the  equipment necessary to do a 360 wide range exposure HDR in a couple of hours with an 12Megapixel resolution. And of course to light any scene with the image. I will soon upload an example library of HDRI I’ve been doing latelly.
I’ve been developping many tricks over the last years to improve Gi calculations, avoid flickering, light baking, and some postproduction Gi realtime techniques I feel proud of.

Rigging and animations
I did an animation master with 3dsmax some years ago, and ever since I’ve been animating some characters and scenes but it’s never been something I really developped. I can do a full character setup and fine movements in 3dsmax, but not in maya, CAT or motion builder. I had some experience doing routines for NWN. I can animate hair&cloth and rigid bodies with max or maya (I would never use max anyway, but as I have to teach them, I know a few good tricks).

Rendering
I feel quite comfortable with many render engines. Antialiasing, Layer rendering for matte paintings, dealing with both real and CG cameras, render passes, compositing, minimizing render times...

Compositing
I started some years ago learning combustion, and since then I’ve always been trying to improve my compositing skills focused on CG images and animations. I mainly work with Nuke or combustion. Good color grading, some rotoscopying, some keying, good matchmoving with nuke, match mover or boujou, effects and used to work with node-based softwares. Basic knowledge of flame.

Effects
I’ve been using 3dsmax Pflow for many years, I’ve done a few attempts with Real Flow and I am able to integrate them in my scenes, but haven’t really gone any further. Some compositing effects, no maya effects. My next goal is Houdini, definatelly, but these short 24 hours day don’t seem enough...

PROGRAMMING
I've been using python lately focused on simple node programming for nuke.