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, & sling pixels for companies like HBO, Twitch, CBS, & Ford.

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

As a lifelong student of illustration, film-making, & 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 100 years, and my work has ranged from animated show posters, 3D sports packages, motion graphics, & 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. It's the only tool I've found that facilitates ambition, giving me an extra layer of confidence going into hefty projects.

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

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.

packed geometry rigs that generate reliable rotation, with, or without simulations.

Volumetrics

smoke, clouds, VDB masks & reveals, and gold smoke.

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.

advanced instance control for modeling, uv's, & motion. high-poly count scenes.

Proficiencies

SideFX Houdini

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

familiar with Solaris (USD) pipeline - rendering Redshift & 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 lean on, & love After Effects very much.

Substance Painter

I'm a bit new to this one but I've been using it a ton, along with the Substance Library.

I've had a lot of fun using Substance displacement maps on actual geometry.

The Foundry Nuke

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

comfortable within Nuke pipelines. I am not a Nuke wizard.

Procreate + Rough Animator

my choice for previz, animatics, sketching, and my mediocre cel animations.