Mark A.Z. Dippé
| Mark Dippé | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mark Earnest Dippé November 9, 1956.[1] Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Visual effects artist, animator and director |
| Years active | 1977-present |
Mark A.Z. Dippé (November 9, 1956, Tokyo) is a Japanese-born American film director and visual effects supervisor. He has directed numerous films from 1997 to the present day, starting with Spawn.[2]
Biography
Mark Earnest Dippé was born in Japan to a Chinese mother and an American father, both of whom worked for the United States Army. At the age of two, the Dippés moved back to the United States, where his father was discharged from the Army. Dippé grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, after his family moved there in 1960.[1] When Dippé was 5, he persuaded his mother to take him to see the 1958 horror film The Fly. The film's transformation sequences impressed the child, who would grow an interest in visual effects. He left home at 17 for college,[3] earning a Ph.D in computer graphics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1985.[4] In 1988, he went to Industrial Light & Magic as some friends of his were hired to do the computer-generated imagery for The Abyss.[3] Dippé wrote most of the code that created a photorealistic pseudopod built out of seawater, which was mostly animated by Steve 'Spaz' Williams. Dippé's later work included the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, which were rendered in computer graphics after a successful demo made by Williams and Dippé.[5] Dippé, Williams and Clint Goldman left ILM in 1997, forming production companies Pull Down Your Pants and Complete Pandemonium.[6] The former was a production company in Dippé's directorial debut, the comic book adaptation Spawn, and the latter created various television commercials in the following years.[7]
He is co-founder of The Animation Picture Company.
References
- 1 2 "Obituary: Yu Ai Dippe". washelli.com. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ↑ Roberts, Jerry (2009), Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors, 1, Scarecrow Press, p. 133, ISBN 0810863782.
- 1 2 "Dreaming The Next Hollywood : How Five Very Different Creative People are Thinking About What's Next for the Movies". latimes. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ↑ "People - U.C. Berkeley Computer Graphics Research". berkeley.edu. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ↑ Craig Barr (October 12, 2012). "CG Evolution/Film Revolution: A Q+A with Steve "Spaz" Williams". area.autodesk.com. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
- ↑ Dan Fost (October 13, 1998). "Following Their Destiny / Lucas proteges leave empire, start own films". SFGate. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
- ↑ Rick DeMott (August 12, 2005). "Rhythm + Hues Commercial Hires New Production Head & Director". Animation World Network. Retrieved December 13, 2015.