Tilghman Wendel - NEW_A Brief History

Person of the internet,

My name's Tilghman, I'm an FX artist and the only person from Reno, NV who doesn't think the Earth is flat. My favorite holiday is April Fools, and my job is to cook, bake, and drip pixels for companies like HBO, Twitch, CBS, and Ford.

The website you're staring at is an homage to sushi temples, which I'm pretty sure don't exist. The reason I created a fake establishment was to veer away from making senseless spec animations, and instead, sculpt the restaurant of my dreams.

As a lifelong student of illustration, film-making, and lettering - I began studying my parent's signatures as a kid. I was naturally drawn to elements of design while never pursuing it head-on. Fast-forward a few Playstations, and my work has ranged from animated show posters, 3D sports packages, motion graphics, and visual effects.

Somewhere along the way, I started using 3D programs to achieve motion that was elsewhere undo-able. During the early days of the Covid pandemic, I dove head first into the fabled Houdini, where my paltry understanding of physics quickly turned into a source of enthusiasm.

When I'm not burning holes in my eyes, I enjoy snowboarding, riding my bike, and making sushi. I also get down on old school things like drawing on paper and screenwriting.

FX Concentration

Fluid Effects

small scale liquids, high-viscosity fluids, slow-motion, bubbles, and gooey gold drips.

Particles, Grains & RBD's

stackable sand, snow, and gold bits with animated colliders.

organic instances that generate 3D rotation, often without simulations.

Volumetrics

smoke, clouds, and procedural volume modeling.

with Karma XPU (CPU + GPU renderer) Houdini is rendering fast, accurate VDB's!

Cloth, Wire & Rope

dynamics gold chains, soft simulations with multiple colliders and anchors.

Advanced Motion Graphics

getting across the finish line when other DCC's struggle.

extensive instance control for modeling, uv's, and motion. high-poly count scenes.

Graphic & FX Integration

merging dimensions (2D & 3D) using dynamics and in-render compositing.

Proficiencies

SideFX Houdini

preferred DCC for modeling, 3D motion, and effects.

familiar with Solaris (USD) pipeline - rendering Redshift & learning Karma XPU.

Maxon Cinema 4D

my relationship with Cinema has lasted longer than 30% of American marriages.

rendering Redshift & Octane.

Adobe Suite

the usual suspects (After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, & Premiere).

I still love After Effects - don't listen to those cantankerous Houdini guys.

The Foundry Nuke

basic understanding of 3d multi-pass compositing with color correction & grade.

comfortable with Nuke pipelines but I am not a Nuke wizard - practice makes better.

Procreate + Rough Animator

my choice for previz, animatics, sketching, and cel animation.