Duncan Brinsmead
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Duncan Brinsmead (born January 26, 1960 in
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
,
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
) is a Canadian software programmer and developer of simulations of natural environments in 3D computer graphics ( CGI). He created the
Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
''Paint Effects'' for digitally painting instances like plants or hair in a virtual 3D environment. In 2008, together with
Jos Stam Jos Stam (born 28 December 1965 in The Hague, Netherlands) is a researcher in the field of computer graphics, focusing on the simulation of natural physical phenomena for 3D- computer animation. He achieved technical breakthroughs with the simulat ...
, Julia Pakalns and Martin Werner he received an
Academy Award for Technical Achievement The Technical Achievement Award is one of three Scientific and Technical Awards given from time to time by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (The other two awards are the Scientific and Engineering Award and the Academy Award of Me ...
for the design and implementation of the Maya ''Fluid Effects'' system. Fluid Effects are based on the simulation of
fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids ( liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. It has applications in a wide range of disciplines, including mechanical, aerospace, civil, chemical and bio ...
in software and used for simulating natural phenomena such as fog, steam or smoke.


Education and career

Duncan Brinsmead is the son of Alan and Aveleigh Brinsmead, and grandson of Percy and Fern Brinsmead. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta. From 1977 to 1980 he attended the faculty of music at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
as a
French Horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
performance major. In 1983, he graduated with a Bachelors in French Horn Music Performance from the
Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...
in Philadelphia and in 1984 received his Masters in music performance (French Horn) from
Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
in New York City. In the early 1980s Duncan Brinsmead used a first generation graphics computer by
Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...
to create an animation showing
fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illu ...
s: "Fractal Fantasy". The film short was shown at the
SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
Art and Video show. As a self-taught software programmer, he joined the computer graphics company
Alias Systems Corporation Alias Systems Corporation (formerly Alias Research, Alias Wavefront), headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was a software company that produced high-end 3D graphics software. Alias was eventually bought by Autodesk. History Alias Systems ...
(later "Alias Inc.", "Alias Wavefront", today
Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
) and contributed to the development to computer graphics software such as Power Animator, Terra Forma and Maya. As a principal scientist at Autodesk's R&D department in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
he invented ''Maya Paint Effects'', ''Maya Hair'', and ''Maya Toon''.US Patent 5777619 "Method for simulating hair using particle emissions" (7 July 1998), 5764233 "Method for generating hair using textured fuzzy segments in a computer graphics system" (9 June 1998), 6348924 "Method and apparatus for interactively painting volumetric particle flow paths and controlling a flow of the flow paths" (19 February 2002), 6266071 "Method of producing fluid-like animations using a rapid and stable solver for the Navier-Stokes equations" (24 July 2001) His more recent works are Maya ''nHair'', ''nCloth'' (for the simulation of clothing) and the ''Nucleus dynamics solver'' framework. Brinsmead's tools are being used all over the film industry and especially in
special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
s houses such as Weta,
Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...
,
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
,
Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
and
DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
. His effects simulated natural topics in countless movies like Spiderman, and
Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...
,
Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 book of the same name by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' franchise. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenso ...
,
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
. Duncan Brinsmead lives in Toronto and is married to Anne-Marie. Their son, Alan Brinsmead, is a musician living in Spain.


External links


Interview with Duncan Brinsmead


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brinsmead, Duncan 1960 births Living people University of Toronto alumni Computer graphics researchers Canadian computer scientists Scientists from Edmonton Silicon Graphics people Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners Curtis Institute of Music alumni