Craig Caldwell

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Most Recent Affiliation(s):


  • University of Utah, Professor.

Other / Past Affiliation(s):


  • Griffith University
  • University of Arizona, Media Arts Department

Bio:

  • SIGGRAPH 2016

    Craig Caldwell, USTAR (Utah Science Technology and Research) Professor, Digital Media Cluster, University of Utah and DeTao Master Academy, Institute of Animation and Creative Content, located at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, Shanghai, China. craig.caldwell@utah.edu

    Industry experience: 3D Technology Specialist, Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, CA and Creative Training at Electronic Arts, Tiburon Studio. Academic background includes Head of the largest Film School in Australia at Griffith University. The Griffith Film school known for its interdisciplinary program in Film, Animation, and Games. Previously was Head of the Media Arts Department at University of Arizona and Associate Director of the Triestman New Media Center. Currently Director of Arts Track, Master Games Studio, UofU; focus on story development. Has presented at conferences such as SIGGRAPH, View Conference, and Mundos Digitales.  

    SIGGRAPH 2015

    USTAR Professor Craig Caldwell has been a pioneer in digital media since the beginnings of computer animation in the 1980s to its current advancements in interactivity. He is a co-founder and Arts Director for the #1 ranked interactive games program (Princeton Review, March 2015) Entertainment Arts and Engineering (EAE) at the University of Utah.

    Professor Caldwell’s extensive Academic background includes Head of the Griffith Film School at Griffith University, Brisbane (2006-2009). At Griffith he joined two diverse faculties into a new school and managed it’s rapidly expanding enrollments to become the largest film school in Australia. He established its interactive game program and facilitated an industry partnership with Sega games to create a state of the art Motion Capture Studio. Initiatives during his administrative stewardship included focus on core skills for the 21st century, online courses, expansion of undergraduate internship opportunities, new interdisciplinary research for students, and creation of new global partnerships.

    At University of Arizona, he was Chair of the Media Arts Department (2001-2004), Associate Director of the New Media Center, and guided the establishment of the Hanson Film Institute with an $8million endowment. At Northern Arizona University he established its animation program and created the Visualization lab in partnership with the Department of Computer Science. It was in this lab we created one of the first Mars visualizations for NSF and NASA. Professor Caldwell has taught thousands of undergraduates, over 100 Masters students, and 6 PhD Students.

    Professor Caldwell’s Industry experience includes Walt Disney Feature Animation, Burbank, California (’97-’99 & ‘04’-’05) where he established new production training methodologies for Mulan, Tarzan, Dinosaur, Chicken Little (’05), Meet the Robinsons (’06), Bolt (’08) and Rapunzel Unbraided (’09). Not long afterwards he joined Electronic Arts Games, Tiburon Studio (’05-’06) where he incorporated training directly into production using proprietary software and assets for Superman ’06 and Madden ’06. The industry insights gained have been directly integrated into EAE Interactive Games Graduate program today where he serves as Arts Director and an Executive Producer on game development including one of the top student games of 2014 (IGF award) CyberHeist. Professor Caldwell’s work has been selected for over 150 traditional national and international competitive and invited art exhibitions as well as over 60 digital venues including Der Prix Ars Electronica (’92 & ’93), Eurographics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ausgraph, etc. His work explores not only the intersection between design and illusion but also has expanded to incorporate an in in depth perspective of narrative/story and interactivity. His research has resulted in an active conference presentation schedule including: SIGGRAPH ’13; FMX ’12, ’13; Mundos Digitales ’12-’14 (Spain); SIGGRAPH Asia ’12-’14; Pixel ’12 (Vienna); CCG Expo ’12, ’13 (Shanghai); Sundance Festival ’12, ’13; and View Conference ‘12 (Turin). craig.caldwell@utah.edu   

    SIGGRAPH 2013

    Craig Caldwell, USTAR (Utah Science Technology and Research) Professor, Digital Media Cluster, University of Utah and DeTao Master Academy, Institute of Animation and Creative Content, located at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, Shanghai, China. craig.caldwell@utah.edu 

    Industry experience: 3D Technology Specialist, Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, CA and Creative Training at Electronic Arts, Tiburon Studio. Academic background includes Head of the largest Film School in Australia at Griffith University. The Griffith Film School is known for its interdisciplinary program in Film, Animation, and Games. Previously was Head of the Media Arts Department, University of Arizona and Associate Director of the Triestman New Media Center. Currently Director of Arts Track, Master Games Studio (ranked #2 by Princeton Review in 2013 and our undergraduate is ranked #1), University of Utah. Recent conference presentations such as FMX ’12 & ’13, SIGGRAPH ASIA ’12, Pixel 7 ’12, and Mundos Digitales ’12 & ’13.  

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