Long time friend and collaborator James Paterson (Presstube) came to me with a client project that was a match made in heaven. Cellular automata, particles, shaders, cellular biology, CRISPR, so many interests were smashed into the brief I could hardly contain myself. Bit.bio is a bleeding edge synthetic biology company helmed by Dr. Mark Kotter that provides human cells for research, drug discovery and cell therapy. We were tasked to create a stunning, fast loading, and on-brand masthead animation for their site's front page. James came up with the brilliant idea of using cellular automata to represent bit.bio's code, which swarms around like starlings to form each of the cells the company provides.

James set to work researching, and collaborated closely with bit.bio's scientists to boil down each cell's essence to an artistic yet scientifically accurate representation. He sculpted the forms in VR using Oculus Medium, and delivered detailed high res models. I wrote a custom python asset pipeline in Houdini to process the Medium sculpts and output tiny Draco encoded point clouds for speedy loading into my webGL animation system.

The masthead animation uses a custom particle system built in ThreeJS. Since webGPU is not quite ready to roll, we had to use an old school realtime graphics technique for simulations: FBO particles. We store each particle's position in a texture, where each “pixel” represents the particle's position. This lets us update the simulation on the GPU, allowing for an order of magnitude more particles than would be performant otherwise. The positions, velocities and model vertex positions are all stored in DataTextures, with shader code to direct the simulation as it moves through the movements of the piece. Structures of code resolving into cellular form, the realization of programmable biology.
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Using the original high res models we are currently exploring other outputs for Bit.bio including print materials, murals, video loops and more.

As a seasoned east-coast boardwalk arcade veteran, some of my fondest memories are playing the SEGA classics Space Harrier, Afterburner and of course Outrun. These pseudo 3D masterpieces have a sense of blistering speed unmatched even in modern games. So when Critical Mass approached me to realize a stand up arcade game for Infiniti, I jumped at the chance.

After extensive research into the Yu Suzuki style, I wrote a custom arcade driving game engine that closely mimicked the techniques employed on the original. Knowing he could rock it like no other, I brought on Keith Ruggiero of Sounds Red to compose an original retro synth wave soundtrack. Critical Mass provided the sprites, and I set about weaving the assets together into a four level experience to captivate auto show attendees. After the Game Over screen, a QR code is presented that collects attendees' info and enters them for various prizes.

I worked closely with Critical Mass to spec out steering wheels and pedal systems, testing various configurations. Hoss Gifford and his excellent team at Kubik built the enclosures, with meticulous attention to detail (even a quarter slot) that helped to make the game a hit among attendees.

Microsoft entered the VR space with its Windows Mixed Reality Platform, and called on our team at Marry the Moon to deliver an exclusive launch experience for the new devices. Director Nicole McDonald had been developing a concept about how stargazing with her father had been stifled by light pollution over the years, and we knew it was a great fit. Microsoft agreed and we were off to the races.

The concept sets us as a giant in an overcast landscape filled with artificial light. We are able to pull up street lamps as if they were wildflowers and release their light into the sky, returning to their home as stars. As the lights are extinguished the sky is slowly taken back, gifting us with a magnificent interactive display of the constellations. This was before VFX graph, so we used custom particle systems based on compute shaders to generate the swarms of light. The experience premiered both as a 5 minute In-Store demo at Microsoft stores worldwide and in long form at the WMR home store for free.

HUE is an interactive tale about a man who has lost his ability to see color. It tells a universal story about how it feels to be sad and how to communicate with sad people. Hue's journey began as an interactive prototype running on tablets, where he reacts to your touch. Nicole McDonald and I then shifted the development to VR and premiered a short version at Sundance Film Festival. The next year it was accepted to the Festival De Cannes, and later was a finalist for the Future of Storytelling Prize: People's Choice Award.

With Framestore helping supply the 3D art assets and me on Unity duty, we were able to bring a slice of the concept to immersive VR. The amazing Benedikt Negro from Cirque Du Soleil expertly translated Hue's emotions into physical actions through motion capture, and I combined the various clips with a custom realtime IK animation system to bring the story to life. We found that connecting the viewer to the character through touch creates an intimate relationship seldom felt in VR experiences.

Since the initial development, Nicole and her team have written Hue's full story and we are actively looking for production partners to bring his journey to life in AR, VR and mobile. Various characters representing different emotions have been thoroughly developed and are ready to help Hue discover the color in life.
Visit Marry the Moon for more info ↗