Duncan Brinsmead

Duncan Brinsmead ( born January 26, 1960 in Edmonton, Alberta ) is a musician and software developer. Brinsmead became famous through his patents for the simulation of natural objects and landscapes in 3D computer graphics.

Technical services

At Duncan Brinsmeads patents include the built- in animation software Maya Paint Effects, which can be interactively paint spatial structures of meadows, flowers and trees on the computer and animate, even under the influence of natural phenomena such as wind and gravity. Another patent represented a technological breakthrough in the simulation of hair in the animated computer graphics is ( Nhair ). In 2008 he received along with his colleagues Jos Stam, Julia Pakalns and Martin Werner a technical Oscar for the Fluid Effects system in Maya, bringing generate with based on fluid mechanics equations in real time fumes and gases, but also clotting and be mixed structures in 3D leave.

Life

Duncan Brinsmead is the son of Alan and Aveleigh Brinsmead. He grew up in the Canadian province of Alberta in Edmonton. From 1977 to 1980 he studied music and French horn at the University of Toronto. He received his degrees (Bachelor and Master) at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and in 1984 at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.

In the early 1980s, Duncan Brinsmead was by chance have access to a Silicon Graphics computer graphics and began to program routines for self-taught. It originated animated fractals and abstract short film " Fractal Fantasy" shown at the Siggraph conference.

With this expertise made ​​him the Toronto animation software company Alias ​​Research (later "Alias ​​Inc. ", " Alias ​​Wavefront ", now Autodesk ) a. Brinsmead worked on the particle system and the user interface in the computer graphics packages Power Animator, Terra Forma and Maya. As one of the senior host scientist in the development department for Maya, he invented the Mayan Paint Effects, Maya Hair and Maya Toon. Later, Maya Nhair followed, nCloth ( for the simulation of fabrics and clothing) as well as the nucleus dynamics solver.

Brinsmeads tools find wide applications in the film industry, especially in the special effects houses Weta, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks. Its effects simulated natural phenomena in countless films such as Spiderman, Toy Story, Shrek, Alice in Wonderland.

Duncan Brinsmead lives in Toronto and is married to Anne -Marie. The son of the couple, Alan Brinsmead, is a musician and lives in Spain.