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Michael
Mandel http://www.mmandel.com/portfolio |
(412) 606-4000 |
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OBJECTIVE |
Obtain a fulltime position engineering cutting edge
interactive entertainment software that presents meaningful creative and
productive challenges |
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EDUCATION |
Carnegie Mellon University – Pittsburgh,
PA M.S. in Computer
Science, Interactive CG/Animation focus
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WORK |
Harmonix Music Systems / MTV |
2/2009 – Present
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Cambridge,
MA
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EXPERIENCE |
Software Engineer
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Creatively apply and develop technology to
improve character performance, cinematography, and venue effects for the Rock Band games and other
related titles ·
Work closely with art and audio teams to evolve
game authoring tools ·
R&D work for future authoring and character
technology, including new in-house motion capture studio |
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Electronic Arts |
7/2007 – 11/2008
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Los Angeles
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Animation Engineer
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Developed advanced character animation system for
creating semi-autonomous “digital actors” that express emotion ·
Using the Unreal 3 engine, our team
collaborated with Steven Spielberg on an action/adventure title to ship for
Xbox 360, PS3, and PC platforms ·
Combined several procedural and data-driven
performance layers: breathing, posture, blinks, noise, eye darts,
gaze/attention, body/facial animation, and IK ·
Designed and implemented animation state machines
and blend trees ·
Worked closely with designers and animators on
behaviors including jealousy, restlessness, flirting, hand-in-hand movement,
combat and continuous speed locomotion ·
Developed system to assemble performances using
high level adjectives providing semantic meaning to objects, events and
emotional context ·
Worked closely on interface between AI, physics, pathfinding, and animation game systems |
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Apple Computer |
5/2003 – 5/2007
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Pittsburgh,
PA
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Software
Engineer |
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Lead development of technology for real-time 3D
charts feature shipping in iWork product line ·
Tasks included resolution/hardware independent
tile-based rendering with OpenGL, real-time soft shadows, automatic shader code generation, multi-threaded hardware independent
anti-aliasing, layered animation system, and video hardware resource
management ·
Developed effective art pipeline tools with team
of designers for specifying scene lighting and object material properties |
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Demiurge Studios |
4/2005 – 4/2006
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Boston,
MA
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Consultant
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Provided technical direction for next-gen
action/adventure console game title using the Unreal 3 engine technology ·
Specified technology guidelines for an animation
system utilizing advanced motion editing and physics-based techniques ·
Wrote technical design documents during
pre-production including animation transition diagrams and detailed overviews
of common motion editing, blending, and simulation techniques |
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Microsoft Game Studios |
5/2002 – 8/2002
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Redmond,
WA
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Program Manager Intern
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Explored production side of game development by
managing opening cinematic and beta program for Rise of Nations PC
title ·
Included realizing core vision of the game
through a cinematic, contract negotiations, budget management, and design
specification |
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LucasArts Entertainment Company |
6/2001 – 8/2001
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San Rafael, CA |
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Programming Intern
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XBOX console development experience on
published title Obi-wan ·
Developed in-engine 3D directional sound
authoring tools, light editor, level modification and source control
management ·
Engineered force feedback support and authoring
tools for game engine and associated scripting language |
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SKILLS |
Languages: C/C++,
Objective-C, C#, UnrealScript, Java, GLSL/HLSL shaders, MEL Script, Intel x86 Assembly, Python, SQL, ASP,
JSP + Servlets, Perl, Javascript APIs: iPhone SDK,
WPF, OpenGL, OS: Windows XP, Apple Mac OSX , Unix/Linux Software: MS Visual Studio, XCode, Expression Blend, SVN/CVS/Perforce, gcc/gdb, Motion Builder, 3DSMax, Maya, Interface Builder,
Adobe Photoshop, Flash
Published Game Titles:
Personal Projects: iPhone
game: MeowWalker, portable rhythm/puzzle
experiments, physically-based character animation, skeletal animation system,
motion capture editing, event-driven 2D compositing engine, cloth simulation,
terrain renderer, ray tracer, console debugger |
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PUBLICATIONS |
G. Sukthankar, M.
Mandel, and K. Sycara. Creating Physically
Embodied Agents Using Realistic Human Motion. In Simulation
Gaming Journal. March, 2008. SAGE Publications.
http://sag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/39/1/64. M. Mandel and V.
Zordan. Beyond Ragdolls: Generating
Versatile Human Behaviors by Combining Motion Capture and Controlled Physical
Simulation. In Proceedings of Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), 2005. G. Sukthankar, M.Mandel, K.
Sycara, and J. Hodgins. Modeling Physical Variability for Synthetic MOUT
Agents. In Proceedings of Behavior Representation in Modeling and
Simulation Conference (BRIMS), 2004. |
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HONORS |
Honors: 2004 GameTech student
scholarship winner, Recommended Reading Award for BRIMS 2004 conference
paper, 5th Year Scholars Program at Carnegie Mellon, Yo-Yo Ma
master class participant |