My name is Alexander Kucera and I am a German VFX producer and compositor. I’m passionate about digital film-making. I keep an eye on developments throughout all sectors of this ever-expanding realm, but specialize in the pipelines and approaches that enable visual effects to be integrated believably into live-action material with dramatic effect.
I have a deep-rooted technical knowledge of computers, networks, render farms and computing processes which I keep up-to-date. Likewise, I maintain a solid hands-on overview of image generation techniques in various off-the-shelf 3D applications as well as more theoretical research papers.
Most of all, I enjoy maintaining my hands-on knowledge of compositing software and techniques, as this is where it all comes together — at least in productions subject to real-world turn-over times. My passion for VFX is grounded in the doable.
Experience
VFX Coordinator
Pixomondo Images,
Ludwigsburg/Germany
05/2008-10/2008
I took over two projects as VFX Coordinator during their deadline phase, which I brought to a satisfying end. After that I took over managing pretty much all actively running projects being it film, TV or commercials. I was also helping to manage the available human resources of all departments at the time of writing.
On average I manage about 8-10 projects, of which 3-4 are in active production. Among the features I coordinated are Ninja Assassin, 2012, Vaterspiel and a few other productions which are still under wraps.
Journalist
Professional
Production Magazine, Landsberg am Lech
09/2008
As journalist for Professional Production Magazine I covered the Cartoon Forum 2008, a convention about upcoming animation projects, where lots of new ideas are pitched and presented.
VFX Producer
cine plus vision,
Ludwigsburg/Germany
2007-2008
At cine plus vision I was the leading VFX Producer. I was handling all areas of the VFX production of the movie “Prisoners of the Sun” as well as all management concerning the company itself, as I was the highest ranking employee on site.
My daily tasks included care-taking of all production matters, like handling the project plan, supervising shot assignments, managing external providers and having a daily contact with the artists as well as the producers and the director.
The other side of my job, the company management side, included working with the different departments of the parent companies cine plus and Miromar, handling all software and hardware challenges as well as resource management and setting up the color management pipeline together with the compositing supervisor.
Technical Advisor
Fridthjof Film,
Copenhagen/Denmark
2007-2008
I left Fridthjof Film as VFX Supervisor and resident artist, but I was still on their payroll as technical advisor for all things VFX for a while. I am still in regular contact with their VFX department and try to help them solve problems of all kinds.
VFX Supervisor
Fridthjof Film,
Copenhagen/Denmark
2006-2007
I was the go to person for everything that is not editing. I set up pipelines for short movies, did keying and general compositing for commercials and guided my small VFX team on shots that need more attention.
At Fridthjof Film I worked heavily with shake, but also did 3D in Maya, scripting in in MEL, shake and AppleScript to keep the fast paced environment running.
Founder and Lead Artist
BabylonDreams,
Regensburg/Germany
2004-2008
BabylonDreams started as a local company doing small commercials and logo animations.
In 2007 we were part of the leading group of artists on
the American TV Series Andy’s Airplanes - a full CG show.
I was responsible for compositing, pulling together the
European arm, providing technical direction and setting up
scenes for animation and rendering.
Technical Editor — Maya 7 Visual Quickstart Guide
Peachpit Press,
Berkeley/California
2005
My job was to proofread all the written material and search for inconsistencies and ways to make the example bits better understandable. I had to work in close collaboration with the authors and other editors.
If you like, you can buy the book on Amazon: → Maya 7 VQS
Lead Compositor - Ambulancen (Motion Picture)
Fridthjof Film,
Copenhagen/Denmark
2005
I was responsible for keying about 150 greenscreen shots in two months. For this purpose I built my own shake keyer, which was used by all other compositors for 99% of the footage.
I also created the title sequence, which required to upscale and clean-up smaller-then PAL footage in close collaboration with the director.
Education
Diplom Digital Artist
The German Film School,
Elstal/Berlin/Germany
2001-2004
Skills
- Shake — power user
- Nuke — entry level user
- Fusion — intermediate user
- AfterEffects — intermediate user
- SynthEyes 3D tracker — intermediate user
- Maya — power user
- MEL — intermediate user
- General scripting — intermediate user
- FileMaker (in specific “Mathilda”) — intermediate user
- MS Project — entry level user
- Windows — power user
- OS X — power user
- Linux — intermediate user
Referrals
- Sacha Bertram — vfx supervisor/vfx producer
- Andreas Frickinger — compositing supervisor
- Udo Smutny — vfx supervisor/senior compositor
- David Maas — freelance artist, Ludwigsburg
You can download this CV as PDF here:
→ CV Alexander Kucera