Ed Kramer has been doing professional CGI production work for movies and TV since 1981. As a Senior Technical Director and Sequence Supervisor for George Lucas’s influential company Industrial Light + Magic from 1994 to 2006, Ed contributed and supervised CGI sequences for STAR WARS Episodes I, II and III, including supervising the Droid Factory and End Battle sequences for Episode II: Attack of the Clones. He is best known for developing the techniques – and leading the teams – to create the Scarab Beetle shots for The Mummy and the Rock Monster shots for Galaxy Quest. He was fortunate to be part of the team that created the well-known Columbia Pictures “Lady With a Torch” logo. His CGI work has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including the 2006 OSCAR winner, Pirates of the Caribbean II. Kramer has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Duke University and a Master of Arts in Film Production from the University of Texas at Austin. His expertise is in cinematic CGI lighting, and also in CGI particle systems and physics-based dynamic simulations. He has been using Maya software professionally since, well, before it was even called Maya. After leaving the movie industry and moving to Denver in 2006, Kramer has done freelance CGI work for clients like The STARZ Network, The Discovery Channel, and even Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. For more than a decade he has been teaching CGI production techniques at the Colorado Film School and The Art Institute of Colorado, and he now brings his 40 years of industry experience to the Animation Portfolio students at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. Kramer is also currently the Chair of the SIGGRAPH Pioneers Group, which meets annually to celebrate and network with many of the original founders of the CGI industry. He is also producing a documentary about the original animators of CGI; the trailer is on Ed’s website at www.WizardsofHollywood.com
Course Credentialing
2D/3D Animation Thesis I, 2D/3D Animation Thesis II, 3D Animation Thesis I, 3D Animation Thesis II, 3D Computer Fundamentals, Game Thesis I, Game Thesis II.
