J.B. Kinard
Brooklyn, NY • 347-513-9656 • thekinardist@gmail.com
Inventive Creative Director with 8 years of experience in 3D animation, 3D asset development, VFX, texturing, lighting managing creative teams and art direction. Driven by a passion for streamlining processes via the integration of emerging technologies, as well as sourcing and managing talent. Known for being a collaborative and proactive leader capable of liaising with clients, executive leadership creative teams both in-house and outsourced. A proven leader who consistently helps keep all parties aligned and equipped to exceed expectations.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Creative Director/Consultant | Kinardist Media LLC | New York, NY | 07/2017 - Present
- Partner with Designers, Art Directors, Marketing teams and third-party agencies to create 3D assets, animations and long + short-form videos for campaigns, events, sales meetings, and fundraisers.
- Take the reins of all aspects of 3D animation, motion graphics, storyboarding, and video editing, creating pixel-perfect assets that live across social, digital, retail/in-store, and OOH.
- Educate clients on best practices in 3D asset creation and usage through recurring status calls as well as the procurement, creation, and dissemination of training guides.
- Source and manage graphic designers, motion designers and artists to help clients produce best-in-class assets and campaigns.
3D Animation Director | Shiseido Cosmetics (Agency) | New York, NY | 09/2021 – 05/2023
- Oversaw all aspects of 3D animation while working closely with post-production directors to exceed project demands.
- Led a growing animation team in the creation of excellent 3D content for internal product launches, simultaneously acting as a mentor and hands-on contributor.
- Supported the creation of 3D assets by leveraging my expertise in hard-surface 3D modeling, VFX, procedurally modeling abstract forms, lighting the scenes, and creating custom materials for models.
- Sourced, onboarded, and trained creative talent across art direction and design, consistently leading by example.
- Liaised with outside vendors and internal staff to translate company needs and vendor capabilities.
3D Pipeline Engineer | Nike | New York, NY | 06/2020 - 06/2021
- Applied expertise in python programming, software development and 3D asset creation to create best-of-breed software and integration solutions to enable Nike’s Product Creation teams.
- Utilized an AGILE workflow to collaborate and communicate with fellow Engineers, Project Managers and Designers to create plugins for use in Substance Designers + Maya.
- Conferred with the Product Manager and 3D Designers to ensure that what was built both satisfied company needs as well as made things more efficient for the designers.
Senior Motion Designer | M.A.C Cosmetics | New York, NY | 05/2016 - 06/2020
- Addressed the need for supplemental product shots by creating 3D animations, positioning them as a higher fidelity and more malleable alternative to the previous method of animating still product images and proving the need for an in-house 3D/CGI/VFX team.
- Conceptualized and produced motion graphics, animations, video edits, resizes and cut-downs making use of PDP images, footage and self-made 2D + 3D assets.
- Created all video/animation assets and components for key campaigns including M.A.C’s Viva Glam 25th Year Anniversary + their Canada Originals Campaign.
- Educated internal teams on the capabilities of Spark AR, Unity 4D + other AR/VR applications to produce interactive experiences in conjunction with campaign launches.
- Helped to supplement campaign videos by 3D modeling products, creating materials from deco files and matching the lighting in the 3D scenes with that of the video footage to ensure that CGI assets and live footage blended well.
SKILLS
3D Modeling, Procedural Modeling, 2D Animation, 3D Animation, AI (Machine Learning, LLM, Image Generation, Prompt Engineering) Typography, Video Editing, Offline Rendering, Realtime Rendering, Particle Simulations, Fluid Simulations, Cloth Simulations, Lighting, Material Creation, Storyboarding, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Team Management, Education, Skill Development, Creative Strategy, Event Planning, Video Production, VFX, AR/VR, Motion Sketching, Pipeline Optimization, UX/UI
TOOLS
Side FX Houdini, Maya, Blender Cinema 4D, Maxon Redshift, V-Ray, Substance Designer, Unreal Engine, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Python, JavaScript, C#, C++ (Unreal Engine, Open Frameworks), MEL, Vex, Jenkins, GitHub, Jira, Figma, AWS, Jupyter Notebook