Dan Sollis : Croyde Bay, Devon 2009


Profile : Dan Sollis, Founder

After graduating in 1996 in Graphic Design at Bristol, I enjoyed working in many different sectors of the broadcast and new-media industry. I was lead designer for a Soho-based media agency until June 2002, at which point I decided to take the big leap and go freelance. From 2002-2006 I worked as a visual effects artist and CGI Designer on numerous Music Videos, TV Idents, Shorts and Features. In 2006 I found myself a perrmanent base in Soho - firstly with Pulse Films, then later with Grid24. I now operate in effect as a small boutique visual effects company. For much of the time I work solely by myself, but for larger jobs I bring in other people and have a good relationship with a number of talented freelancers in different fields. I prefer working this way as it gives me a much greater sense of independence - and allows me to have a hardware and software setup that I know and trust to get jobs done quickly and with the minimum amount of pain!

Outside work, my interests include computer hardware/software design, creative writing, music, illustration, photography and film. Which dovetails nicely with my day job, as it happens!

Application Usage

Primary design & VFX applications

After Effects, Lightwave, Final Cut Pro, FCPX, Premiere Pro, Mocha, ZBrush, Illustrator, Photoshop, Modo, Motion, PFMatchit

Specialised AE Plugin Experience: Trapcode particle systems (Particular, Form, 3D Stroke), Magic Bullet Looks, Colorista, Color Finesse, And more!

Additional applications

Compressor, Flash, Dreamweaver, DVD Studio Pro, iWork (Pages, Numbers & Keynote), Indesign, Quark Xpress, Powerpoint, Excel, Word. (please note: I am liable to erupt in a wild uncontrolled fury if anyone asks me to do ANYTHING in powerpoint)

Skills

Visual Effects

Tracking, Compositing, Keying, Roto, Scripting (for After Effects and Flash), 3D CGI design (inc. Modelling, texturing, lighting, animation and rendering), Motion Graphic design (inc. Title design)

Other areas of knowledge

Cocoa Development, Web design (Flash & HTML), Design for Print, Brand Identity design, Typeface design, illustration and storyboarding, traditional animation techniques