birdie num num.
London, United Kingdom
- Current
-
- Senior texture painter at The Moving Picture Company
- Pangalactic Overlord at Ballistic Media
- Past
-
- Texture painter at Framestore CFC
- Senior Texture Painter at Double Negative
- Texture Painter and Lighting TD at Cafe FX
- CG Generalist at lots of different VFX studios
- Part time Lecturer at Universal Computer Arts Academy
- Texture Painter, CG Generalist at Atomic Visual Effects
- Artist and Instructor at Freelancing for various companies and studios
- Education
-
- Damelin
- College of Cape Town
- Recommended
-
4 people have recommended Leigh - Connections
-
232
connections
- Industry
- Motion Pictures and Film
- Websites
Leigh van der Byl’s Summary
These days I mostly specialise in texture painting (well, I say painting, but let's be honest, these days it's mostly photo manipulation and tweaking, with a few touches of a Photoshop brush to really bring out the pizazz), but I come from a generalist background from my days in television work.
Filmography:
Robin Hood (currently working on)
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (currently working on)
Prince of Persia
G.I Joe: Rise of Cobra
Dance Flick
Australia
The Tale of Despereaux
The Golden Compass
Underdog
Stardust
Snakes on a Plane
El Laberinto Del Fauno (AKA The Pans Labyrinth)
King Kong
Zathura
Fantastic Four
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3D
Sin City
The Aviator
Leigh van der Byl’s Specialties:
Texture painting, UV mapping (it's a dying art, I know), basic look development, some lighting, a bit of modeling, and an almost uncanny knack for swiftly and cunningly solving strange software problems (which may, occasionally, involve the guileful use of extispicy in extreme circumstances).
Leigh van der Byl’s Experience
-
Senior texture painter
The Moving Picture Company
(Privately Held; Motion Pictures and Film industry)
October 2008 — Present (10 months)
Texture painting on visual effects productions.
-
Pangalactic Overlord
Ballistic Media
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Publishing industry)
2003 — Present (6 years)
I run Ballistic Media's web forums at www.cgtalk.com. Duties involve the usual webmaster stuff, helping to organise art challenges, as well as maintaining some semblance of civility across the forums by ruling them with a fur-coated iron fist.
-
Texture painter
Framestore CFC
(Privately Held; Motion Pictures and Film industry)
February 2007 — October 2008 (1 year 9 months)
Texture painting on numerous visual effects and feature animation productions, including The Golden Compass, The Tale of Despereaux, Australia, and others.
-
Senior Texture Painter
Double Negative
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Motion Pictures and Film industry)
October 2006 — January 2007 (4 months)
Texture painting on Stardust.
-
Texture Painter and Lighting TD
Cafe FX
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Motion Pictures and Film industry)
January 2005 — July 2006 (1 year 7 months)
Specialised in texture creation and shader setup, as well as lighting TD tasks on numerous feature film productions. Occasionally assisted with modeling tasks as well. Even managed to patch together some useful little MEL scripts.
-
CG Generalist
lots of different VFX studios
(Motion Pictures and Film industry)
December 2002 — November 2004 (2 years)
Worked on various documentary, commercial and film productions for studios in South Africa, and abroad - including The Refinery, Lodestar, Hive, Digital Junction, The Syndicate and Cafe FX.
-
Part time Lecturer
Universal Computer Arts Academy
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Higher Education industry)
July 2003 — October 2004 (1 year 4 months)
Lectured once a week, teaching Photoshop, texturing and supervising stop-motion animation projects.
www.uca.co.za -
Texture Painter, CG Generalist
Atomic Visual Effects
(Motion Pictures and Film industry)
July 2001 — December 2002 (1 year 6 months)
Main texture painter at the studio, and also helped out with generalist duties, including modeling, lighting and animation on various television commercial, documentary, film and broadcast branding productions.
-
Artist and Instructor
Freelancing for various companies and studios
(Motion Pictures and Film industry)
November 1999 — June 2001 (1 year 8 months)
Freelancing for various companies doing CAD drawings, multimedia presentations, and 3D graphics. Also taught Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere at Mactrain in Cape Town.
Leigh van der Byl’s Education
-
Damelin
Diploma , Graphic Design, DTP and Animation , 1999 — 1999
Honours Award for Top Student, 1999
Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement, 1999 -
College of Cape Town
National Senior Certificate , Visual Arts , 1996 — 1997
Additional Information
Leigh van der Byl’s Websites:
Leigh van der Byl’s Interests:
Music... lots and lots and lots of music, films, collecting dvds, travelling to new places, console gaming, body art/modification, gadgets, wine, guitars and drums (lots of drums!!) and other musical instruments, ancient history, geography, mythology, languages, books, politics and current events, philosophy, conspiracy theories, and more music...
Leigh van der Byl’s Honors:
You're still reading this page?!
Leigh van der Byl’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
