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Tweak Films is an award-winning visual effects company dedicated to creating realistic, compelling images for the screen. By combining our custom software with commercial tools and working with respected filmmakers around the world, we have established a reputation for visual quality and technical excellence. Tweak's team has a long history of developing cutting edge VFX technology including: the first particle system (Dynamation) which led to breakthrough effects in films such as Twister; ILM's first generation rigid body dynamics, cloth systems and creature modeling tools which made Star Wars: Episode 1 possible and ILM's facial motion capture technology. Tweak has built on this experience to develop unique next-generation tools for water, dynamics, particles and procedural effects that have made possible projects such as the water in The Day After Tomorrow and the collapse of the Barad Dur Tower in the Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King. Jim has played a unique role in the history of digital effects. In 1992, while working on physical simulations for forensic accident reconstruction, Jim began experimenting with technology that would eventually become Dynamation, the original procedural particle system. At Santa Barbara Studios, Jim took the opportunity to further develop his ideas into a polished system. Dynamation made it possible for companies such as Industrial Light and Magic to create breakthrough effects such as the tornados in Twister. Jim received his first Academy Award for Technical Achievement for the creation of Dynamation. Jim went on to work at Wavefront, Wavefront/TDI, and Alias/Wavefront accumulating deep experience in the design and engineering of advanced graphics software for use by artists. Jim joined ILM R&D as a principal engineer in 1996, where he made extensive contributions to digital technology and artist tools. While there, he developed or co-developed systems for rigid-body physics simulation, cloth dynamics, creature modeling, animation, and motion capture. Jim was awarded a second Academy Award for Technical Achievement for his work on ILM's creature dynamics system. His technology and tools are used by hundreds of artists at ILM and on virtually every VFX project there. He has contributed to many dramatic achievements in digital visual effects including the unprecedented creature modeling effort for Star Wars: Episode One, the droid physics for the same project and the massive destruction in Pearl Harbor. Jim's last major project at ILM was to collaborate on the architecture and implementation of Zeno, ILM's next-generation platform. Since co-founding Tweak Films in 2001, Jim has helped develop a new generation of technology with the goal of enabling a small team of experienced and versatile VFX artists to compete with much larger, more established facilities. At Tweak, he has continued to contribute to dramatic VFX projects such as the Academy Award winning Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Day After Tomorrow. Roni came to Tweak after 17 years at Industrial Light and Magic where she rose to Executive Producer from her first job in 1987 as Production Assistant on Willow. From ILM's heyday as the premier facility for practical and photo-chemical effects through their pioneering development of digital techniques, Roni worked at every level of production. She worked on location and on set overseeing live-action element and plate shooting, took responsibility for schedules and budgets, supervised bidding, managed large CG crews as well as other VFX producers, acted as a liason with studio executives and helped drive ILM's strategic marketing efforts. Through her work on landmark VFX projects such as The Abyss and Mission Impossible and her collaborations with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Brian DiPalma, Mike Nichols and James Cameron Roni developed a finely-tuned ear for the concerns of filmmakers and feature productions and a wealth of insight into managing the risks and opportunities of high-end VFX production. Seth Rosenthal joined Tweak Films after 7 years at Industrial Light and Magic where he supervised a team that stood out for its innovative efforts to merge elements of live production and computer graphics. In particular, Seth tackled a number of difficult projects that involved rolling out new and risky technology under the pressure of first unit photography for demanding directors such as Stephen Spielberg, Michael Bay, and Ang Lee. He supervised projects including motion capture (The Day After Tomorrow, Star Wars episodes I and II, The Mummy), real-time virtual set integration with first unit photography (Artificial Intelligence: AI), multi-camera photography for 3D reconstruction (Lemony Snicket, Minority Report, Pearl Harbor), and photogrammetric set reconstruction and high dynamic range photography (Hulk). Seth co-invented ILM's patented facial motion capture process and supervised facial capture on the then super-secret Brother Termite test for James Cameron. He also supervised facial capture for ongoing internal development including the Hugo test and the Marianne test which demonstrated that high-resolution facial motion capture could be recovered using hand held cameras on a freely moving actor. Many of the techniques and procedures that Seth helped create have become a standard part of ILM's pipeline for creating digital doubles, measuring scenes and sets for geometry and lighting, and image-based motion capture and match-animation. Since joining Tweak, Seth has turned his skills toward the challenge of building on Tweak's prior success to help prove that a concentrated team in a small shop can consistently deliver cutting edge visual effects. Scott is a 16 year veteran of the VFX industry with broad experience in the art and technology of visual effects production. He has worked his way up through engineering visualization, broadcast post-production, and feature film visual effects. His career has taken him from his training as a mechanical engineer to the pioneering Santa Barbara Studios in the early days of digital effects through supervising sequences on the Matrix Sequels at ESC, where he helped create the Burly Brawl, to his role as a Senior Lighter on Madagascar at PDI/Dreamworks. For the resource-intensive Burly Brawl, Scott worked on organizing the process for handling data and rendering tasks and collaborated on the design of a system for pre-processing the scenes so that they could be rendered efficiently--and then followed through with whatever was necessary to get the sequence delivered. Scott has accumulated experience doing and supervising almost every aspect of visual effects production and he has acquired a veteran's instincts (and bag of tricks) for guiding a team past distractions and blind alleys to get production done. Mike came to Tweak in 2001 from Matte World Digital as a compositor and software engineer. While at Matte World, Mike learned compositing under the direction of Craig Barron who is famous for his demanding standards for visual and cinematic quality as well as color. Mike relied on his extensive collection of 2D and 3D techniques to composite the tidal wave shot in The Day After Tomorrow that earned Tweak the VES award for 'Best Single Visual Effect' of the year. Mike is also a talented software developer and is responsible for key components of Tweak's CG pipeline such as the design and first implementation of RV, our in-house sequence viewer and dailies system.