BACKGROUND
Allow me to introduce myself and give a brief overview of my current skillset and day-to-day responsibilities. If you're interested in finding out more about my background and joining me on a trip down memory lane, please fill out my contact form to get in touch and arrange a meeting.
David J. Blumenfeld
As the Global Head of CG for Crafty Apes, I oversee all 3D artists, supervisors, and related department heads while providing general management, facilitating and coordinating communication, and administering technical oversight of the CG department across eight global locations of the studio (Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Baton Rouge, Albuquerque, Vancouver, Montreal, and London). I am also responsible for cross-departmental research and development, including implementation of innovative processes and procedures, deployment and procurement of related hardware and software systems, expansion of technical capabilities and workflows, and the overall company 3D strategy and execution.
Prior to that, I was the Global Head of CG for FuseFX, where I oversaw the daily operations and strategic vision of the 3D computer graphics pre- and post-production for all four North American FuseFX studio locations (Los Angeles, Vancouver BC, New York, and Atlanta) while also providing integration and shared pipeline implementation oversight for our four international subsidiaries (FolksFX in Montreal Quebec, Toronto Ontario, and Bogota Columbia, along with Rising Sun Pictures in Adelaide Australia). My responsibilities spanned managerial, technical, artistic, and organizational planning and execution, including hiring and recruitment, internal training and development, company-wide verbal and written communication, disciplinary action, strategic vision and partnerships, vendor and client outreach, and research and development. During my tenure, I helped pioneer new motion capture-driven crowd system technology, architected and oversaw the development of a cutting-edge application agnostic database-driven pipeline, refactored the computer graphics division into a fully departmentalized specialist driven environment, and championed a team oriented multi-disciplinary workforce built around a foundation of diversity and inclusion.
I was responsible for researching, recommending, and approving capital expenditures for new hardware and software, along with drawing on my considerable experience to help guide the future needs and strategic direction of the department and company as we grew and partnered with others through mergers and acquisitions. During my time there, I was nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy Award for my artistic and supervisory contributions to Deadwood - The Movie, and I was instrumental in the overall success of FuseFX's global industry leading role in episodic and streaming visual effects content creation.
Prior to joining FuseFX, I was the Head of CG for bi-coastal visual effects studio Brickyard VFX, as well as one of their VFX Supervisors, Creative Directors, and Commercial Directors. After over a decade in that role, I developed a lean, powerful, extremely nimble department capable of producing all manner of visual effects, graphics, and animation for a wide variety of production styles and formats. As an on-set supervisor and creative director, I was able to combine my wide knowledge of still and motion photography and set production experience to plan, prep, execute, and shoot all manner of footage and data acquisition, obtaining everything necessary to properly complete post production through final delivery. Being well versed in stop-motion photography and animation of both inanimate and live subjects, my technical as well as artistic and musical background, combined with strong writing, project and business management, and communication skills allowed me to effectively design and conceptualize projects as well as perform other tasks such as audio sound fx and music composition, non-linear editing and compositing, and much more.
Before my time at BrickyardVFX, I spent nearly three years each at large studios including Sony Pictures Imageworks and Animation, Digital Domain, and Walt Disney Feature Animation, where my time spent on large scale feature production in both traditional 2D and 3D animation as well as live action visual effects rounded out my knowledge base for this type of work. I spent many years prior to that in various other forms of 2D and 3D graphics, print production, pre-press graphic design, and various other forms of art and graphics, creating my first computer animation on an Apple IIc in 1984.
GLOBAL HEAD OF CG / EMMY NOMINATED ARTIST / VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR / CREATIVE DIRECTOR / COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR