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Bios |
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Partner Partner Production Manager Producer Associate Bilingual Producer Associate Producer CG Supervisor |
Dan Krech Jeff Bell Chris "Maddog" DiGiovanni Kerri Swanson Luke Lynette-Krech Brian Grimenstein Calin Casian |
Modeling/Surfacing Supervisor Animation Supervisor Lead Animator Lighting Supervisor Engineering Supervisor Information Technology Supervisor |
Daniel Hornick Justin Kupka Sean Coghlin Scott Sanderson James Saito Tim Takata |
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Dan KrechPartnerAs the former head of DKP, Dan brings his production knowledge and experience into service as the head of production and business development. Dan was the President, executive producer and director at DKP for 21 years. Over the last 2 years Dan was an industry consultant and spent a large portion of his time overseas as the producer of three projects. His track record and experience is the standard in quality that Entrenched warrants for all their clientele. Dan will personally oversee all the projects that Entrenched undertakes and together with the management team provide all of our clients with a project that exceeds all expectations.Credits Include:
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Jeff BellPartnerJeff brings his 20 years of experience designing pipelines and creating tools for artists. Jeff most recently served as Visual FX Supervisor for the Focus Feature's theatrical film Nine, released in Fall of 2009. He acted as Lighting Supervisor, Lead Lighter, and worked with Attitude Studios and the Technology team at Starz to engineer an asset transfer pipeline to enable animation and lighting data transfers into either company's pipeline. Jeff started his career as an animator, but changed his direction and used his engineering background and artistic talents to be instrumental in the development of Maya software for Alias Wavefront. Subsequent to that accomplishment, Jeff was primarily responsible for the technical growth and direction of DKP, Canada's foremost computer animation studio. After which, Jeff became the VP of technology for Starz Animation and IDT entertainment, before founding HAS. |
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Chris "Maddog" DiGiovanniProduction ManagerChris earned his production stripes at MTV in the fast pace of New York City's live action scene before moving west to join the then upstart CG house Pixar. After almost a decade that included 6 feature and 8 short films, yielding 22 Academy Award Nominations 7 Oscars and 7 Golden Globes with Pixar. Chris returned home to New York where he was Production Manager at Bluesky(Fox) Animation Studios working with Steve Carell and Jim Carrey on Horton Hears a Who. Most recently Chris worked alongside Jeff Bell at Starz Animation in Toronto. Currently Chris is head of production at Hawaii Animation Studios in Honolulu. Chris brings with him 25 years of production experience as an artist and production journeyman to the position of Studio Production Manager.
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Kerri SwansonProducerKerri started her career in animation years ago at Don Bluth studios on "An American Tale". After working in Ireland on films such as "Land Before Time" and "All Dogs Go to Heaven" she started Swanson Productions with her husband. For over 2 decades with Kerri as producer, they created Computer Animation for companies such as Hanna-Barbera, Turner Films, Paramount, Fox, and Disney with films including "Once Upon a Forest", "The Pagemaster", and "Cats Don't Dance". Having produced on films with traditional 2D animation, 3D CGI, and Special Effects films, Kerri brings 30 years of production experience to her position of Producer at Hawaii Animation Studios. |
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Luke Lynette-KrechAssociate Bilingual ProducerLuke is a multi-faceted production component vital to both HAS and HAS north. His fluency in French is crucial to projects based in France, Canada and the U.S. This includes establishing affiliations with foreign film agencies, and providing front line international representation for HAS.Luke oversees all aspects of multiple productions, and he is the liaison for all sites. Luke's background in Commerce and International Relations as a Budgeting and Proposal Consultant is paramount in shepherding productions from concept to distribution.Luke's skill set is unique in that he fully understands the production balance between art and commerce. This skill allows him to make innovative and forward thinking production decisions, that honor the goals of executing any directors vision while staying on time and on budget. |
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Brian GrimensteinAssociate ProducerBrian's production path is paved with box office gold. Blue Sky Studios is where he started his career. The 2 features he helmed, Horton Hears a Who, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs have a combined world wide box office gross of more then a billion dollars. Most recently Brian teamed up again with Oscar winning Director Carlos Saldanha and Producer Bruce Anderson on Blue Sky's newest release Rio. Brian's 10 years of senior management and feature film production experience help guide the talented crew at Hawaii Animation Studios. |
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Calin CasianCG SupervisorCalin started his journey in computer graphics working for a game company, Phenomedia AG in Bochum, Germany, on a game called Moorhuhn which soon became one of the biggest online games in Europe. His next move was Side Effects Software in Toronto. Leveraging his computer science degree, he contributed to Houdini, an Academy awarded software, and the leading software in special effects which features a new way of deforming surfaces based on implicit surfaces and metaball fields. This led to highly realistic muscle deformation for character effects and was used on large scale productions, one of them being the latest Terminator installment: Terminator Salvation. He then worked on Tim Burton's "9" at Starz Animation in Toronto before returning to Europe to collaborate with the team at The Bakery as Head of Character Development. The software got an academy plaque in 2011 for technical achievement. Before landing in Hawaii, Calin made one last stop at Starz Animation where he worked alongside Director Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2) on Gnomeo and Juliet. |
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Daniel HornickModeling/Surfacing SupervisorDaniel is fresh off his last film working with Director James Cameron on Avatar. After years of training as a Fine Artist, Daniel began his computer graphic career at the 3D software development company Alias|Wavefront working on such in-house animated short films as 'Bingo' and the Academy award winning 'Ryan'. Daniel has years of experience with real-time graphics having been the art team manager at Nvidia Corporation, and Art Director for Xbox 360 video games at Pseudo Interactive. Daniel's feature film film work includes,'Star Trek 9: Insurrection' (Paramount Pictures),'Everyone's Hero' (20th Century Fox), and Tim Burton's '9' (Focus Features). Daniel brings over 17 years of experience in feature, short film, television episodic format, and real-time computer graphics. |
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Justin KupkaAnimation SupervisorJustin has been working as an animator for the past 11 years on a variety of projects. His experience extends into Television, Film, VFX, Commercials and Video Games. His credits include shows such as Sitting Ducks, Veggietales, 3-2-1 Penguins, Chop Socky Chooks, Game Over, Dark Void, The Bourne Conspiracy, Planet Sheen, Robaxecet and the feature film Everyone's Hero. Justin's involvement, patience and technical background has been instrumental in teaching new animators and transitioning 2D veterans into 3D ones. He is currently sharing his knowledge as the Animation Department Head at the Hawaii Animation Studio. |
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Sean CoghlinLead AnimatorSean has been working in the animation industry since 2004. He graduated from the Vancouver Film School, where he was awarded VFS' scholarship prize, and had his student film submitted to festivals around the world on the school's behalf. He then started work at DKP Studios which was eventually acquired by Starz to become Starz Animation. During this time, Sean worked on projects such as 'Game Over', 'Chop Socky Chooks', 'Veggie Tales', 'The Happy Elf', and 'Everyone's Hero'. Experience from other studios includes the hit TV Show 'The Backyardigans' and various commercial work. While his main passion is animation he has also worked professionally in several lighting and modeling departments giving him a well rounded CG skillset. Sean is currently working at Hawaii Animation Studio North which is located in Toronto, Canada. He also likes hockey...... A lot. |
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Scott SandersonLighting SupervisorScott began his career working for Netstar Graphics for Discovery Channel and The Sports Network in 1998. Following that he worked for Spin Entertainment Toronto on the first Imax 3D animated short Cyberworld. Scott spent the next phase of his career working for DKP Studios, IDT Entertainment and Starz Entertainment. Where he worked as lighting supervisor on many tv series such as Game Over, Shoebox Zoo. During this time he also worked on several dvd movies such as The Happy Elf, and numerous Veggie Tale dvds. Within that period he also worked on two feature films Everyone's Hero and the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything as Lighting Supervisor. Currently Scott is Lighting Supervisor at Hawaii Animation Studios in Honolulu and brings with him 13 years of creative lighting, rendering, compositing and technical experience. |
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James SaitoEngineering SupervisorJames has been developing information systems and business productivity solutions for 17 years. He specializes in Microsoft technologies including .NET, SQL Server, and SharePoint. After graduating from the University of Hawaii, he further developed and maintained the university's phone and web registration system. He then spent the next five years in the business sector developing various applications including a custom management system for over 10 million documents. He worked as a contractor for the Air Force for four years before joining Hawaii Animation Studios. |
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Tim TakataInformation Technology SupervisorTim Takata graduated with a Bachelor's in Management Information Systems and holds several industry related certifications. Introduced into the IT world in Seattle, Washington he gained valuable experience in the financial sectors and by immersing himself in technology at Microsoft Redmond campus supporting such groups as DirectX ® and Microsoft Research.After living in Western Washington for ten years, Tim moved to Southern California where he helped businesses engaged in finance, real estate, and utilities throughout the greater Los Angeles and Bakersfield areas. In 2010, Tim returned to his native Honolulu taking on the IT Supervisor role at Hawaii Animation Studios. Overall, Tim has 15 years of industry experience and enjoys applying his knowledge in support of the studio's productions. |
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