Boris Ustaev has joined Spontaneous Combustion as senior CG artist/animator. The New York-based digital studio specializes in creating visual effects and design for the advertising, broadcast and film industries.
Ustaev most recently worked at the New York office of Montreal-based Discreet, a division of Autodesk, which he joined in February 1998 as a computer graphics specialist. While there, he demonstrated such Discreet products as 3-D Studio Max, Mental Ray, Combustion and Character Studio; provided artistic and technical assistance to production studios; and assisted in development and design for the upcoming release of 3-D Studio Max.
He also worked on modeling and animation of the launch bay sequence for the Stephen Hopkins-directed feature film Lost in Space through Discreet. During his time at Discreet, and after leaving the company, he worked as a freelance 3-D animator at the New York office of bicoastal Curious Pictures, as well as Spontaneous Combustion and Pitch, also in New York.
Through Pitch, Ustaev worked on the 3-D modeling of three characters (an elephant, a giraffe and a lion) in a Charmin commercial. He also did several jobs for Spontaneous Combustion. Just prior to joining the company, he freelanced on Young & Rubicam, New York’s AT&T spots "Pushpin," "Striped" and "Dryer," which broke during the Summer Olympic Games. From May ’97 to February ’98, Ustaev was a partner/lead animator at the now defunct Pixel Generation, working on character design and animation for in-house game development. At Pixel Generation, he created the virtual Kristi Yamaguchi model for a PC CD-ROM.
Ustaev graduated from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in ’97, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in computer animation. While still in college, he freelanced at Tape House Computer Ink & Paint, New York, working on the television series Aliens in the Family, and at Curious Pictures where he animated Nickelodeon’s Nick at Nite character, as well as doing animation for clients such as Crest, Wendy’s, Dr Pepper and Cap’n Crunch. Ustaev’s interest in animation stemmed from his love for illustration; he majored in the latter at the high school of Art and Design, New York. Although intending to continue that major in college, he switched to 3-D illustration during his sophomore year.
Ustaev will work closely with Spontaneous Combustion creative director/head of the CGI department Sam DeWitt. Commenting on the company’s latest hire, DeWitt praised Ustaev’s wealth of knowledge and experience, as well as his incredible innate ability to breathe life into CG characters. "He is truly rounded as an animator, with highly developed traditional art skills that are crucial to understanding the subtleties of animation, DeWitt continued. "He can communicate an idea with a quick sketch, elaborate with detailed illustrations, before ever touching a computer. It is this capability which gives his work the human touch—which can be extremely difficult to wrangle out of a computer if that is the artist’s only tool."
"Boris’ background is fairly unique," added executive producer/general manager Marc Schwartz. "He has extensive production experience. And as Discreet’s in-house computer graphics specialist, he was exposed to many different companies’ approaches to the work we do. With Boris on board we have a team which can successfully tackle the most complex CG work."
Ustaev joins a Spontaneous Combustion team that includes managing director Roe Bressan, (SHOOT, 9/29, p. 8), executive creative director Tony Robins, Schwartz, DeWitt, senior visual effects compositor/supervisor David A. Elkins, 3-D animators Brian Austin and Diana Diriwaechter, desktop artist Bryan Keeling, and producers Simone Pillinger and Trevor King.
Spontaneous Combustion is handled nationally by in-house rep Sally Kapsalis.
