Aaron McComas

Associate chair, animation; Associate chair, visual effects

Associate chair of visual effects, February 2021–present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA

Effects technical director, 2018–20, Rhythm & Hues, Culver City, CA
Ride film, Storm: Developed and executed water and explosion effects for titan-sized oceanic character: drool, mist breath, splashes, splash interaction, cannonball explosions, and debris.

Senior effects technical director, 2017–18, Culver City, CA
Feature films: Smallfoot, Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse: Character snow and ice interaction, and large snow bursts/snow explosions. Worked on look of glitch effect and glitching destruction on several buildings and multiple characters throughout the film.

Effects animator, 2016–17, Digital Domain 3.0, Playa Vista, CA
Feature films: Power Rangers, Spider-Man Homecoming: Developed and executed look of fire and smoke from in-house tools and added improvements. Used Houdini 16 upgrades for Staten Island Ferry sequence in Spider-Man Homecoming. Performed putty villain character destruction for Power Rangers. This included RBD collisions and destruction, particle and volume effects, and lighting for integration.

Effects animator, 2014–16, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Burbank, CA
Feature films: Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and Moana: Worked on development of Moana toddler test sequence building flip fluid methodology for look and motion of water character including character interaction, internal sand churn and disturbance, splashes, and bubbles. Sequence was intended as a proof of concept and ended up in final film. Executed boat wake, splash, and foam effects. TeKa lava and lightning effects, character splashes and bubbles, and more. Developed falling debris, lightning, and splash effects library assets used throughout Moana. Developed snow cannon volumetric and particle blast effects for Tundra Town in Zootopia. Worked on water and fluid effects for rain, wet fur, and interaction splash effects for Zootopia. Took in-house fire effect tool and brought settings up to matching RenderMan look and feel using Houdini and Hyperion. Executed various fire effects shots and helped other artists achieve similar results with their shots in BH6. Worked on BH6 portal destruction shots including destruction, smoke, fire, and explosion effects.

Effects animator, 2009–14, DreamWorks Animation, Glendale, CA
Feature films: Shrek Forever After, Megamind, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods: Developed final look of large dream sand characters for Sandman effects in Rise of the Guardians. Used in-house Houdini fluid solver to develop small- and large-scale dust and debris impact effect in The Croods. Developed wiki-based database of archived visual effect techniques, encompassing tutorials, artist info, flicker-like photo album and example Maya and Houdini files, documentation, etc. which allowed new and veteran artists the ability to look up similar development and effects tasks across shows. Also used to increase bidding efficiency and accuracy. Used Maya fluids, Houdini fluids, and Houdini rigid bodies to develop shattering debris effects in Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2. Set up final Nuke integration passes of effects for Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods, and Dragons 2 in Nuke.

Senior effects technical director, 2003–09, Sony Imageworks, Culver City, CA
Feature films: Matrix Revolutions, Spider-Man 2, The Polar Express, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Spider-Man 3, I Am Legend, Hancock, Eagle Eye, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Led fluid solver team on Spider-Man 2 when visual results were not delivered after three months. Developed a new fluid simulation methodology that achieved desired results in under a week. Executed the methodology and delivered all shots requiring this effect in two weeks. Optimized web effects rendering pipeline using one third of the layers while maintaining consistent look. Decreased compositing times and deliverables resulting in less disk space consumption. Managed two web effects development teams responsible for delivering all Spider-Man and Venom web effects across Houdini and Maya software packages for Spider-Man 3" Rewrote web effects GUI, optimized layout, and removed extraneous steps. Achieved quicker shot turnaround, a 60% decrease in training instruction time, and improved shot-to-shot consistency. Authored new web ball effects pipeline reducing shot turnaround from four hours to less than 30 minutes.

Effect technical director, 2000, 2002–03, Rhythm & Hues, Los Angeles, CA
Feature films: Bedazzled, X-Men 2: Developed all jet effects tools for F-16s and X-Jet including afterburners, missile trails, heat exhaust, and ejection seat effects. Responsible for leading a team of artists in the execution of these effects across the production.

Effects technical director, 1999, 2001–02, Digital Domain, Venice, CA
Feature films: Red Planet, The Time Machine, Star Trek Nemesis; Commercials: Buick Rendezvous, American Express: Took over Star Trek Nemesis ship animation leadership, responsible for all computer generated and live action ship sequences. Worked with director to assess and resolve ship and camera animation conflicts during editing phase of final battle. Developed visualization tools for animation of a computer-generated tornado allowing the director to define animation behavior and make changes in real time. Expanded project from three to 16 tornado shots within budget and deadline due to visualization tools' efficiency.

Art director, 1998–99, Interactive Corporate Communications, White Plains, NY
Developed graphical interface of web-based self-service benefits plan software, tailoring customized look and feel to each client. Content in use until company acquisition by PeopleSoft.