Visual effects R&D at Tweak Films. Jim knows kung-fu and drives a motorcycle. He's also won two Academy Awards for Scientific and Technical Achievement® in five years. His first, in 1996, was for inventing Dynamation, a particle dynamics package that was widely used for physical simulations. He was honored again in 2001 for co-authoring the creature dynamics system at Industrial Light & Magic. While at ILM he worked directly with production visual effects and CG supervisors during the R&D phase of film production, determining which tools were required to complete a production and inventing them if they did not exist. Some of these projects include: · Cloth Dynamics: as part of the R&D phase of STAR WARS: EPISODE I he wrote the first generation of ILM's cloth dynamics. · Rigid Dynamics: originally used in STAR WARS: EPISODE I to blow-up, slice, and dice droids, Jim's software was later revamped to control the GALAXY QUEST rock monster, MAGNOLIA's splatting frogs, and to blow up airplanes, ships, and people in PEARL HARBOR. · Mulitple Creature Animation: for EPISODE I he co-authored an animation package for use in the rapid animation of a large number of foreground creatures. · Modeling: for MISSION TO MARS he wrote software which was used to crack a face into hundreds of thousands of pieces during the end sequence. · Isculpt: he wrote a modeler for use by the ILM modeling team. The software attempts to provide the speed and control of clay modeling. This software has been used for creature and facial shape modeling at ILM since 101 DALMATIANS.  Scientific and Engineering Award (Plaque) 1996: For the concept and design of the Dynamation software system for motion picture visual effects.  Technical Achievement Awards (Certificate) 2001: For the development of the ILM Creature Dynamics System. (w. John Anderson, Cary Phillips and Sebastian Marino) 2 Scientific/Technical Awards