Often referred to [by himself] as "The Best Kept Secret in The Visual Arts", Christopher R. Green was born in San Francisco and raised across the bay in idyllic Marin County, California. Often seen with a 35mm still camera around his neck or a super-8 in his hands (or not seen because he was hovering over a homegrown animation stand or sketching furiously with a technological marvel known as a pencil), he couldn't wait to leave the world of his childhood misery to study and work in the real world.
After graduating high school (his school had an amazingly sophisticated collection of 16mm film equipment -- better than most colleges in California), Chris (and his then best friend and partner-in-crime) studied furiously at the now-defunct technical academy The Berkeley Film Institute, where he spent every conscious hour passionately slaving over every aspect of filmmaking, including camerawork, sound design and recording, editing, and listening in on other students' plans. Here he met with a number of geniuses, oddballs and billionaires (ok, just one of those), who were eager to exploit the young Greenie's talents in storyboarding, modelbuilding (who knew?), lighting and art directing.
CUT TO: Mill Valley California, where the mysterious, strange, brilliant and doomed animation cult classic "Twice Upon A Time" is being cobbled together by a fierce band of hopeful artists. Will Noble, a dedicated and talented animator and painter [http://www.willnoble.com], sees a test on the video-testing system that sends him into fits of rapid respiration. It is the work of young art assistant Greenie -- his first test on official animation paper of a barking dog head. On this job CG is to garner his first feature film credit: "additional animation by". Not for lack of talent, "almost fired" would've also been appropriate.
Here is quick mention of storyboarding for an ambitious music video, and art direction for a public service announcement which ended up winning Greenie an Emmy (no statue, just a piece of paper).
After a year of honing his animation skills on a now nearly-forgotten computer game (you can, in fact, see the game in action by getting an Apple ][e emulator; the game is called "Airheart"), Chris was hired at Industrial Light and Magic (then a part of Lucasfilm, Ltd.), in spite of the fact that the interviewer, co-supervisor of the effects animation department, refused to believe that what he saw on Chris' reel was not in fact real fire, but hand-animated. Transparencies of actual drawings (which were shot on an animation stand) barely convinced him.
Several years of fire, smoke, lightning, shadows, interactive light, flying body parts, explosions and a little storyboarding at I.L.M. later (over 20 feature films), Chris decided to become freelance so that he could become more independent and well-rounded, not to mention more digital, and worked on TV commercials, more feature films (the most popular of which is undoubtedly The Nightmare Before Christmas), and games, in pre- and post-production. Chris began torture-testing Photoshop before it was version 1 (it wasn't even called Photoshop yet), and After Effects when it was version 1.0.something. He is expert in these (latest versions, of course), and fluent in nearly all things digital.
In 1999, Chris packed his Honda like a manicotti and drove across the country to recover from burn-out and live in New York. He brought with him almost no self-promotion and a kidney stone, a testament to his adventurousness. Or stupidity. Don't ask.
Chris' range of abilities includes compositing, animation, matte painting, texture map painting, motion tracking (all dimensions) as well as ancillary work like automation-scripting, After Effects expressions and web creation.
In some circles he is known as "Cheese". To others he is "Greenie".
He can harmonize. He used to tap dance, and will occasionally teach beginners.
He is the original High-Maintenance-Diet Guy and hasn't eaten a thing all day.
After graduating high school (his school had an amazingly sophisticated collection of 16mm film equipment -- better than most colleges in California), Chris (and his then best friend and partner-in-crime) studied furiously at the now-defunct technical academy The Berkeley Film Institute, where he spent every conscious hour passionately slaving over every aspect of filmmaking, including camerawork, sound design and recording, editing, and listening in on other students' plans. Here he met with a number of geniuses, oddballs and billionaires (ok, just one of those), who were eager to exploit the young Greenie's talents in storyboarding, modelbuilding (who knew?), lighting and art directing.
CUT TO: Mill Valley California, where the mysterious, strange, brilliant and doomed animation cult classic "Twice Upon A Time" is being cobbled together by a fierce band of hopeful artists. Will Noble, a dedicated and talented animator and painter [http://www.willnoble.com], sees a test on the video-testing system that sends him into fits of rapid respiration. It is the work of young art assistant Greenie -- his first test on official animation paper of a barking dog head. On this job CG is to garner his first feature film credit: "additional animation by". Not for lack of talent, "almost fired" would've also been appropriate.
Here is quick mention of storyboarding for an ambitious music video, and art direction for a public service announcement which ended up winning Greenie an Emmy (no statue, just a piece of paper).
After a year of honing his animation skills on a now nearly-forgotten computer game (you can, in fact, see the game in action by getting an Apple ][e emulator; the game is called "Airheart"), Chris was hired at Industrial Light and Magic (then a part of Lucasfilm, Ltd.), in spite of the fact that the interviewer, co-supervisor of the effects animation department, refused to believe that what he saw on Chris' reel was not in fact real fire, but hand-animated. Transparencies of actual drawings (which were shot on an animation stand) barely convinced him.
Several years of fire, smoke, lightning, shadows, interactive light, flying body parts, explosions and a little storyboarding at I.L.M. later (over 20 feature films), Chris decided to become freelance so that he could become more independent and well-rounded, not to mention more digital, and worked on TV commercials, more feature films (the most popular of which is undoubtedly The Nightmare Before Christmas), and games, in pre- and post-production. Chris began torture-testing Photoshop before it was version 1 (it wasn't even called Photoshop yet), and After Effects when it was version 1.0.something. He is expert in these (latest versions, of course), and fluent in nearly all things digital.
In 1999, Chris packed his Honda like a manicotti and drove across the country to recover from burn-out and live in New York. He brought with him almost no self-promotion and a kidney stone, a testament to his adventurousness. Or stupidity. Don't ask.
Chris' range of abilities includes compositing, animation, matte painting, texture map painting, motion tracking (all dimensions) as well as ancillary work like automation-scripting, After Effects expressions and web creation.
In some circles he is known as "Cheese". To others he is "Greenie".
He can harmonize. He used to tap dance, and will occasionally teach beginners.
He is the original High-Maintenance-Diet Guy and hasn't eaten a thing all day.