Softimage Certified Instructors

These Softimage Certified Instructors (SCIs) are freelance trainers and long-time XSI users with years of production experience. They are available to provide specialized training tailored to the requirements of your production or facility.

Stephen Baker

Instructor

Location: Arvada, CO, USA
Contact info: sbaker@tsworkshop.com
URL: www.tsworkshop.com
XSI Experience: 4 years
Title: Instructor
School/Company/Institution: 9 years teaching at the University level: CAD, animation, modeling, texturing

Stephen holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture, is a licensed architect, and has owned and managed his own animation company for the past 10 years. His specialty is working with CAD data,  environment design and character animation. He has been using XSI since version 4
and has expert knowledge in 3DS Max and Maya and their integration into an XSI pipeline.  Stephen also has production experience working with optical motion capture data and its application in an animation production environment.

Carl Callewaert

Game Instructor / Director of Animation / Owner Fundi3D

Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
Contact info: carl@fundi3d.com
URL: www.fundi3d.com, www.digitalartschool.com
XSI Experience: 8 years
Title: Game Instructor at Center for Arts and Technology Fredericton - Director of Animation/Motion Capture at Measurand Inc - Owner Fundi3D
School/Company/Institution: Centre for Arts and Technology / Fundi3d / Measurand Inc

Carl is an XSI all-‘rounder with over 8 years experience using Softimage|XSI specialized in rigging, motion capture and Source Modding. Carl has provided training, workshops and worked as demo artist in more than 22 countries such as Dubai, USA, Taiwan, Iran and Peru. Carl is a game instructor at the CAT colleges since 2001. In addition to teaching, Carl works full-time at Measurand as their in-house motion capture specialist. He received a Medal of “Recognition of Excellence by Royal Canadian Artillery School” for his contribution on Modding Projects. Carl published several DVD's on Modding trough Noesis. He is a seasoned public speaker who has presented at a number of conferences such as Siggraph and GDC. Carl is also proficient with Autodesk MotionBuilder.

Francisco Carreón Argudín

3D/Game Animation Department Head

Location: Kelowna British Columbia, Canada
Contact info: fargudin@digitalartschool.com
URL: http://www.digitalartschool.com/
XSI Experience: 6+ years
Title: 3D Animation and Game Animation Department Head
School/Company/Institution: Centre for Arts and Technology

Mr. Carreón is an industry professional with a unique background in animation and architecture. He developed his expertise in visual effects for film and television as a VFX Supervisor for UPA, in Guadalajara, México (2001-2002), and in BC Summer Showcase (2004) Project Architect for Gair Williamson Architect in Vancouver, Canada (2004-2005) teaching architectural design at U.N.A.M (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) in Mexico City (1998-2001) as well, he instructed "3D character modeling" at Vancouver Film School (2001-2002) and visualization for architects at Royal Oak College (2004-2005).
Mr. Carreón essays on issues spanning film, technology and art have been published in Buzos Magazine and NIVO 3D. He has won several awards in architectural competitions, most notably for the "First Digital Thesis in Architecture." 
Mr. Carreón is currently acting as a Department Head in the 3D Animation, 3D Game Animation and Interior Design programs at the Centre for Arts and Technology Okanagan.

Lowely Cheung

Freelance / Tutor

Location: USA
Contact info: cheung_loli@hotmail.com
URL: www.lcheung.com
XSI Experience: 5 years
Title: freelance/tutor
School/Company/Institution: Fashion Institute of Technology

Lowely Cheung is a SOFTIMAGE / XSI Certified Instructor since 2003. Aside from working as a freelance artist, she is currently an XSI tutor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.  Her animations have shown in numerous festivals, including the AthensFestival of Film and New Media and the Media Arts Festival in Japan.

Upinder Dhaliwal

Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact info: udhaliwal@gmail.com
XSI Experience: 5 years

Upinder Dhaliwal is a SOFTIMAGE|XSI Certified Instructor, who has been working with Softimage XSI since version 1. He has over 6 years of production experience on award winning TV shows, direct to home and games productions.
He specializes in animation and has considerable experience in rigging, modeling and texturing for games. He is currently working in Melbourne, Australia.

Alexei Godek

Location: London, England
Contact info: Alexei@xtfx.co.uk
URL: http://www.xtfx.co.uk/
XSI Experience: 9 years
Title: Evil Scientist
School/Company/Institution: XTFX Ltd

An evil scientist and XSI all-‘rounder based in London, Alexei has been working with XSI since version 1.0 and is one of the founders of XSI London. He is currently working for an IFF reseller, and is responsible for all the major 3D applications on the market.

Tom Greuelsberg

Location: Germany
Contact info: Tom.Greuelsberg@gmail.com
XSI Experience: since version one
Title: XSI All-'rounder

Tom is a SOFTIMAGE|XSI certified instructor, who has been working with Softimage products since 1993. He was a product manager, trainer and supporter from 1995 to 2004, and has been a certified XSI trainer since the first version. Tom was eight years XSI teacher at the German Film School, does classes at different SAE Institutes and is now the XSI teacher at the Babelsberg Film School. Over the years he has published several articles , run workshops, managed a user group, worked on several commercials, technical animations and the feature film Sumuru. His experience as a demo artist, teacher and technical support makes him a seasoned Softimage all-'rounder.
Tom lives close to Munich and is available for hire as a trainer and production support.

Tony Johnson

Location: New York, USA
Contact info: tony@searightstudios.com
XSI Experience:8 (Continuously Certified since 1996 in Soft 3D and XSI)
Title/School/Company/Institution:
. Assistant Professor: Fashion Institute of Technology
. Certified Trainer: Future Media Concepts
. President: Searight Studios, Inc.

Tony has been a certified trainer with Softimage since 1996 when he also began teaching at Future Media Concepts, an Authorized Training Center in New York City. In 2000 he joined the Fashion Institute of Technology as Assistant Professor of Computer Graphics where he currently teaches five classes using XSI. In 2005 he co-authored the book SOFTIMAGE | XSI 5 for a Future Animation Studio Boss with George Avgerakis. He is currently the president of Searight Studios, Inc. a small animation facility on the East End of Long Island.

Ola Madsen

Location: Sweden
Contact info: ola.madsen@digitalcontext.se
URL: http://caffeineabuse.blogspot.com/
XSI Experience: 7 years
Title: 3D Artist
School/Company/Institution: Digital Context

Working in SOFTIMAGE|XSI since version 1.5, Ola is an experienced 3D artist with a varied production background. He's worked in film, TV, print and architectural and medical visuali-sation: clients include SVT (Sweden Television), L’Oreal and Pfizer. Ola has designed and taught many XSI-focused courses on animation and digital content creation. His training skills have been honed further through his popular tutorials for 3D World magazine, for which he's been the regular XSI contributor since 2003, and through the demos he's given at 3D festivals and user groups. Ola is able to provide training in either English or Swedish, and is happy to travel to locations worldwide.

Casey Noland

Location: San Francisco, USA
Contact info: caseyn@somedaymorning.com
XSI Experience: 4 years
Title: Co-Founder / CEO
School/Company/Institution: Noesis Interactive

Casey Noland is the Creative Director for an award-winning Silicon Valley production company. He started Modding as a level editor and scripter for Duke Nukem 3D. As a filmmaker and compositor, he realized the power of teaming high end 3d graphics and animation with next generation game engines to revolutionize modern moviemaking and create unique interactive gameplay within two rapidly converging fields.
A co-founder of Noesis Interactive, Case is committed to exploring new convergences in emerging technologies and raising skill levels in the worldwide gaming, film and television communities.

Adam Sale

Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Contact info: adamfsale@gmail.com
URL: www.joncrow.com
XSI Experience: 11 years
Title: TD / Instructor
School/Company/Institution: Capilano University, BCIT,
Vancouver Institute of Media Arts

Known in the animation industry as being one of the top XSI Trainers, Vancouver-based Adam Sale has been a dedicated Softimage power user for 11 years. As a Softimage Certified Instructor, Adam has trained over 1000 artists, at Vancouver's 4 major animation schools. 
Adam has produced successful commercial titles for 3dtutorial.com, including the popular "XSI-Advanced Character Rigging" series, and of late has provided the instructional content on XSI's Training DVD's for schools and studio artists. Since 1998, Adam and business partner Ron Crown have run Joncrow Entertainment, where together they develop 3D projects for broadcast, film, web and print media. Clients have included Bardel Entertainment, Studio B, EA, Metropolis, and BCAA to name a few. They also consult and provide specialized training for corporate clients.

Eric Senecal

Location: Montreal, Canada
Contact info: info@ericsenecal.com
URL: www.ericsenecal.com
XSI Experience: 8 years
Title: All-‘rounder, CG artist
School/Company/Institution: Freelancer

Eric Senecal is an all-‘rounder cg artist. He teaches 3D & vFX at InterDEC College. He has been working with Softimage since he started with Softimage 3D. He has since then developed an integrated approach to his work, maximizing the potential of various 2D / 3D software. He is a strong modeler but is mostly passionate about photorealism, mate painting and vFX. He is also freelancing for diverse projects from 2D graphics to 3D animated projects.

Craig Slagel

Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact info: craig@cgvolve.com
URL: http://www.cgvolve.com
XSI Experience: 8 years
Title: Graphics Training consultant
School/Company/Institution: Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Digital Media Academy

Craig Slagel has over 13 years experience in the computer graphics industry, including 7 years at Electronic Arts in Redwood Shores, CA as the senior worldwide graphics trainer. He worked on developing and training techniques for next gen games development. Outside of training Craig worked as technical artist on several EA's top games including Tiger Woods PGA Golf, Bond 007 and Harry Potter.

Previous to EA Craig was a freelance Computer Artists, Senior Instructor at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, CA and The School of Communication Arts in Raleigh NC. Craig's experience covers print, design, web, video, broadcast and games.

Jeff Stalians

Location: Victorville, California, United States
Contact info: Staliansj@vvc.edu
Title: Instructor/Freelance CGI Artist/Programmer
School/Company/Institution: Victor Valley College, Co-Owner Aacornproductions

Started making spheres with assembly language about 25 years ago, (thank god that's changed). Started experimenting with 3D apps and developing tools to help get the jobs
done as a freelance programmer and doing logo's and animations for commercial work for a multitude of company's and businesses, Hired by a freelance animation contractor where I worked on no less than 50 commercial projects from film to short advertisements. Decided to start teaching when my daughter was born and wanted to stay closer to home, developed an ROP program to introduce students to CG at the High School level and have been teaching ever since. And it goes on and on and on.

Richard Suarez

Location: Cajamarca - Lima, PERU
Contact info: richard@pers.com
XSI Experience: 5 years
Title: 3D art director
School/Company/Institution: Pers Academy

Richard has several years of experience with 3D, he has worked in advertisement, games, film and broadcast. He first studied architecture in Peru, and continue studying arts and 3D in New York, where he later became a teacher of other 3D software as 3DMAX and MAYA, but once he discovered Softimage XSI it became the only software he could use for both production and education. Currently he is helping to spread the word about XSI all around South America. He is now living back in Perú where he is a Creative Art Director for Pers Corporation, He is also in charge of the Education Branch of the company.  Presently He is directing a 3D project based on Inka Empire.