FRAN R. ZANDONELLA
606 Paseo Place (818) 606-8202
Fullerton, California 92835 franz ( at ) siggraph ( dot) org

SUMMARY
   Production-savvy software engineer seeks opportunity to solve animation production problems using mix of support,
   QA, training, and documentation and light programming skills.

PROFESSIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE
  Consultant : Fran Zandonella Consulting, Fullerton, CA 7/2007 - present
  Business development, proposed SIGGRAPH talk, travelled, house sat, restored bathroom, initiated fundraising for the Girls into Science and Technology scholarship at Sonora High School, webmaster for Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH.
 
  VP Software Engineering : Perceptive Pixel, New York City, NY 4/2007 - 6/2007
  Assisted the start up of a small company. Managed engineers, created engineering budget, scheduled projects, developed Software Developer Training course, and developed hiring plan.
 
  Research & Dev. Tech. Dir. : Laika Inc. (aka Vinton Studios), Portland OR 2003 - 4/2007
  Wrote user interface software in PERL/Tk, C/C++ with Qt, mel scripts, and shell scripts for use by production on 3D animated short and for use by commercials division. Trained new hires in proprietary software. Set up and specified database. Set up rendering queues.
  Credits:  Moongirl (2005)

 
  Software Engineer : Walt Disney Feature Animation, Burbank, CA 2000 - 2003
  Implemented process improvements, new features, and fixed bugs in C/C++ for CAPS, Disney’s award-winning, proprietary traditional production pipeline, used by over 300 people on a daily basis for multiple productions in California, Florida and Paris. Co-designed and programmed a Digital Bluesketch application in CAPS for production artists on Treasure Planet, improving productivity by 50% by automating time-consuming non-creative work. Assisted in Treasure Planet Color Conversion, reducing conversion time frame down to 1.5 days from 4 weeks.  
  Credits:  Home On The Range (2004), Brother Bear (2003), Treasure Planet (2002), Lilo & Stitch (2002), Atlantis (2001)

 
  Technical Support Engineer 1996 - 2000
  Provided support for 30 applications used by 300+ users on Unix stations. Created, performed, and maintained test plans for CAPS, coordinating between 3 studios. Specialized in Scanning, Filming, and Image Output. Increased product reliability by writing scripts to standardize the CAPS configuration and to improve installation time by 50%. Wrote extensive web pages for TSEs and 2D Software group to support production, including CGI and PERL scripts for searching web pages. Promoted to Software Engineer.  
  Credits:  Emperor's New Groove (2000), Oil & Vinegar (2000 - short), Tarzan (1999), Mulan (1998)

 
  Hardware/Software Engineer : General Electric, San Jose, CA 1994 - 1996
  Resolved technical problems for engineers at GE and partner companies. Consulted to partners in Spain, Mexico, Japan and USA. Supported 300 engineers on/off-site. Wrote and maintained scripts under Windows and Unix. Programmed in Visual Basic and SQL. Installed and configured networking software on PC's internationally. Created documentation.

 
EDUCATION
  B. S. Computer Engineering - UC Santa Cruz
 

SKILLS
  Graphics: Maya, Shake, Disney proprietary (CAPS), Houdini, Open GL
  Languages: Shell (PERL, some Python, tcsh), C, C++, HTML
  Systems/Machines: Linux/Unix/Irix, OSX, MS-Windows Vista/XP/98, SunOS; Apple; SGI; Sun
  Programs: dbx, Insure, tcl, MS-Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), vi

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
  Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter 2004 - present
     Secretary (2005 - 2007) maintain minutes, oversee membership roster & election process, produce meetings
 
  Los Angeles ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter 1996 - present
     Secretary (2002 - 2003) maintained minutes, oversaw election process
   Treasurer (1999 - 2002) maintained finances and $75,000 budget for membership of 1400
 
  UCSC Alumni Association - Los Angeles Chapter 1997 - 2003
     Treasurer (2002 - 2003) maintained finances of local Alumni chapter, produced meetings
   Webmaster (1998 - 2003) created and maintained the local chapter's web page
 
     
  Willing to travel internationally.  

Copyright © 2003-2008 Fran Zandonella

Last Update: Tuesday, March 3, 2008